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| Prince William And Kate Middleton |
Add the fact that theirs will be the most scrutinised guest list for any wedding for 30 years, and their problems escalate.
Which makes the list issued by St James's Palace of some of those fortunate enough to be invited to Westminster Abbey all the more baffling. Even courtiers were surprised by the inclusion of Guy Ritchie, the gangster-film director and former husband of Madonna, a friendship that William has kept very quiet.
Then there is the extraordinary absence of the last two prime ministers, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair.
There are good reasons why both men should have been included. Mr Blair was in Downing Street at the time of Princess Diana's death and, although his contribution might not have been as pivotal as he has claimed, he helped the royals when they were seen to be out of step with the public mood.
As for Mr Brown, he was always a model of courtesy in his dealings with the Queen and after the death of William's mother he took on the thankless and difficult task of chairing the committee to find a suitable memorial for her.
Although the palace has named only a fraction of the 1900 who will take their seats in the Abbey, it is hard to escape the fact that, while Prince Charles's friends have been included, many of Princess Diana's have not. Where, for example, are Lady Annabel Goldsmith and Rosa Monckton?
There weren't many weekends in the summers of 1996 and 1997 when Diana did not take William to Sunday lunch at Lady Annabel's home on the edge of Richmond Park.
Lady Annabel is said to be "furious" at her omission.
Rosa Monckton, with whom Diana holidayed in the last weeks of her life, has a special reason to be disappointed.
She was a key figure in both the national memorial committee which set up the Diana nursing scheme among other things and also chaired the panel which decided on the memorial fountain in Hyde Park.
So what is going on?
Friends of both women believe they have been purged from the wedding guest list by the Duchess of Cornwall because of their hostility to Camilla at the time of the break-up of Charles and Diana's marriage.
It would be wrong to suppose that Diana's influence has been completely airbrushed from the guest list.
"But what seems to have happened is that old friends of Diana from before her marriage went wrong have been asked to the wedding, while those who were part of her post-Charles life have not," a courtier said.
Others said that a guest list which includes the Middleton family's local innkeeper as well as the barman who mixes the drinks at their favourite Caribbean cocktail lounge, at the expense of old royal friends, must, at some point, have been tinkered with at the highest level.
Camilla's involvement in the ceremony is being seen as a signal that William wants people to accept her role in his family.
