Prince Andrew: Royal expert recalls This Morning interview

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Some 27.7 million people tuned in in the UK alone to watch Prince Harry and Meghan Markle tie the knot four years ago. A further 29 million watched in the United States, up six million on the number of Americans who watched Prince William and Kate’s wedding. The global audience was estimated to be in the hundreds of millions.

Yet it was not the only royal wedding that year.

Just five months later, Harry’s cousin Princess Eugenie and her now-husband Jack Brooksbank said ‘I do’ in a service at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.

The wedding was also broadcasted on ITV, with an average audience of three million watching the coverage.

Eugenie’s father, Prince Andrew, made an awkward comment in the build up to the big day during an interview on ITV’s This Morning.

While discussing how his daughter’s wedding would be very different to that of his nephew, he appeared to make a sly dig at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Andrew said: “It will not be the same as the previous one that was held in May.

“This is not a public wedding, this is meant to be a family wedding.

“There’ll be a few more people than most people have.

“There are a few more than Harry had, but that’s just the nature of Eugenie and Jack — they’ve got so many friends that they need a church of that size to fit them all in.”

In this way, the Duke appeared to imply that Eugenie and Jack have more friends than Harry and Meghan.

Eugenie and Jack’s guestlist included approximately 850 people.

Among the non-royal guests were Naomi Campbell, Ellie Goulding, Robbie Williams, Jack Whitehall and Harry’s ex-girlfriends Chelsy Davy and Cressida Bonas.

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The Sussexes, meanwhile, opted for a slightly smaller ceremony and reception with a guestlist limited to around 600 people.

A further 200 close friends of the couple attended the evening reception at Frogmore house.

The Sussexes had a host of A-listers in attendance — The Clooneys, the Beckhams, Sir Elton John, Serena Williams and Oprah Winfrey were just a few of those celebrating Harry and Meghan’s big day.

Viewers quickly jumped down Andrew’s throat after the remarks.

One Twitter user accused the Duke of York of “throwing shade all over the place”.

Another added: “Throwing some shade there Duke”, while a third said: “Hum! So Harry have (sic) not got so many friends.”

Andrew has reportedly been aggrieved at the attention afforded to William and Harry while his daughters are not full-time working royals.

A royal source told The Sun in 2016: “Andrew has always wanted his daughters to be full-time royals.

“He sees it as a slight on him and them if they are not. But Charles calls the shots and he wants the Royal Family giving value for money.”

Whether Andrew’s fears over his daughters’ future come true remains to be seen.

Charles is widely known to favour a slimmed-down monarchy, with royals outside of the line of succession somewhat sidelined, and it was recently reported in the Daily Mail that both he and William had significant input into the decision to all-but cut Andrew out of the Royal Family.

A source told the newspaper that the father and son had been “instrumental” in the decision to rid Andrew of his military titles and royal patronages.

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