Snubbed Cherie 'will watch wedding on TV' - although Guy will go (but who actually invited Mr Ritchie?)
By Daily Mail ReporterLast updated at 11:51 AM on 25th April 2011
Mystery: Why is Guy Ritchie on the list?
In Westminster Abbey the Royal Family and the Middletons will rub shoulders with heads of state and aristocrats – and some rather more ordinary folk besides. The landlord of Kate Middleton’s local pub and her family postman have made the 1,900-strong guest list.
Celebrities such as the Beckhams and families of military colleagues who died in battle are also invited.
A source said: ‘They wanted it to be as much of a fun, family wedding as possible.’
But there are some mystifying entrants. Guy Ritchie, Madonna’s ex-husband, is described as a ‘friend’. But the Prince’s spokesman couldn’t explain how they knew him...
Here are some highlights:
Celebrities
Sir Elton John: close friend of Princess Diana.
Guy Ritchie: Madonna’s ex-husband.
Rowan Atkinson: Blackadder actor is close friend of Prince Charles.
Joss stone: William was rumoured to have a crush on the soul singer, 24.
Tara Palmer-Tomkinson: Close family friendship secured an invite, despite well-publicised drug use.
Stars of sport
David Beckham: His work on England’s 2018 Football World Cup bid scored the ultimate ‘posh’ invite for him and his wife.
Sir Trevor Brooking: Former England player is now director of football at the Football Association, of which William is president.
Sir Clive Woodward: Former coach for the England rugby team is director of elite performance for Olympic team.
Mike Tindall: England rugby player who is engaged to Zara Phillips makes his debut at an official royal event.
On the list: Holly Branson is a childhood friend of William and very friendly with Kate
Ian Thorpe: Australia’s five-time Olympic gold medalist, nicknamed ‘The Thorpedo’.
Their chums
The Van Cutsem boys: Nicholas, Edward, William and Hugh, identikit, square-jawed, outdoorsy types and childhood friends of the Prince.
Ben Fogle: The TV presenter will be accompanied by his heavily pregnant wife, Marina.
Tom Bradby: ITN political editor and his jewellery designer wife Claudia who worked with Kate when she was at Jigsaw.
Henry Ropner: Financier and former Etonian who used to date Jecca Craig, William’s ex.
Lady Laura Marsham: Daughter of Julian Marsham, 8th Earl of Romley, she is a skiing pal of the couple.
Old flame: William's one-time sweetheart Olivia Hunt is invited
Sam Waley-Cohen: A champion amateur jockey who reunited couple after their split in 2007.
Luke and Mark Tomlinson: Phenomenal polo players and childhood pals of William.
Thomas van Straubenzee: Childhood pal who joined William on his inaugural foreign trip to New Zealand in 2005. He is helping Prince Harry with his best man’s speech.
Holly Branson: Daughter of Richard and childhood friend of William. Is very friendly with Kate.
The party animals
Guy Pelly: Party organiser, nightclub owner and never far from William’s side. He will have to face his ex, Susannah Warren, daughter of Queen’s racehorse trainer.
Tom ‘Skippy’ Inskip: Flame-haired Prince Harry lookalike (and his best friend). Last seen on Facebook driving convertible car naked.
Old Marlburians
Emelia d’Erlanger: Close friend of Kate at Marlborough who provided a shoulder to cry on during her brief split from William.
Catriona Lough: Minnie Driver lookalike who dragged her on girlie nights out after the split.
The exes factor
Rupert Finch: Kate’s discreet ex-boyfriend, now dating William’s close friend, Natasha Rufus Isaacs, daughter of Marquess of Reading.
Willem Marx: Kate’s Marlborough College crush who has gone on to become an award winning photojournalist dodging bullets in Iraq.
Jecca Craig: Willowy Kenyan who won William’s heart when he visited her father’s estate on his gap year.
Bella Musgrave: Daughter of Royal polo manager and Kate lookalike who dated William before he went to St Andrew’s.
Rose Farquhar: Daughter of Captain Ian Farquhar, Master of the Beaufort Hunt. She was William’s first serious girlfriend.
Olivia Hunt: First year ‘dalliance’ at St Andrews.
St Andrews posse
Alice Warrender: Lived in neighbouring farmhouse to Kate on the Strathtyrum estate owned by her cousin, Henry Cheape.
Fergus Boyd: ‘Gooseberry’ former flatmate of the couple and Eton contemporary
Sally Bercow: The wife of the Speaker is going as a 'plus one'
Earl Spencer: No formal role for Princess Diana’s brother after his searing speech at her funeral.
Karen Gordon: Soon to become the Earl’s third wife
Lady Sarah McCorquodale : Diana’s eldest sister, who once dated Prince Charles
The Black sheep
Lady Marina Ogilvy: Former royal wild child and daughter of the Queen’s cousin Princess Alexandra. She caused a scandal when she became pregnant out of wedlock.
Gary Goldsmith: Kate’s cocaine-snorting uncle.
Loyal staff
Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton: William’s ex-SAS private secretary. His son, Billy, is a page boy.
Miguel Head: His unflappable and extremely loyal press secretary.
Tiggy Pettifer: Formerly Tiggy Legge Bourke, William’s much-loved former nanny.
Thea Garwood: Glamorous diarist with a no-nonsense style.
Faith leaders
Vincent Nichols: The BBC’s team are unlikely to mention that the head of England’s Catholic Church called the Corporation ‘biased and hostile’.
Malcolm Deboo: President of the Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe. William’s friends like trust funds too.
Charitable links
David Allen: Chairman of Mountain Rescue, of which William is patron.
Seyi Obakin: Chief executive of Centrepoint, William’s first charitable patronage. Slept rough with the prince in London.
Julia Samuel: Chairman of the Child Bereavement Charity and one of Diana ’s closest friends.
Invited: Centrepoint CEO Seyi Obakin has an invite after he and Prince William spent a night sleeping rough in freezing temperatures in December 2009
Lance Corporal Martyn Compton: He was injured in an ambush in Afghanistan in 2006 which left him with 75 per cent burns.
Holly Dyer: Sister of William’s close friend, 2nd Lieutenant Joanna Dyer, killed by a bomb in Iraq.
Wing Commander Steve Bentley: William’s Search and Rescue Force squadron leader at RAF Valley.
Foreign royals
Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden: Her husband Daniel Westling, her former personal trainer, is also coming.
King of Swaziland Mswati III: He has 14 wives, but appears on the list without his ‘plus one’.
King of Tonga: Educated at Oxford and Sandhurst, he travels round Tonga in a black London taxi.
Political class
David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Milliband are all invited.
Sally Bercow: Self-confessed ‘binge-drinking ladette’ made the guest list as the plus-one for her husband, Speaker John Bercow.
Boris Johnson: Will he still be invited after the couple see his wedding present – a tandem ‘Boris Bike’?
Sir John Major: The former prime minister was appointed a guardian to William and Harry after Diana’s death.
Berkshire posse
John Madejski: Chairman of Reading Football Club, and a friend of the Middletons.
Hash and Chan Shingadia: Owners of the local convenience store where Kate buys her favourite sweets.
Ryan Naylor: Bucklebury postman.
John Haley: Landlord of the Old Boot Inn, where William and Kate sometimes have a drink.
I'LL WATCH IT ON TV, SAYS SNUBBED CHERIE
Looking forward to watching it on TV: Cherie Blair has not been invited to the wedding
The official line from St James’s Palace is that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, also not invited, are not Knights of the Garter, unlike Baroness Thatcher and Sir John Major.
But there is no denying that the relationship between the Royal Family and the Blairs in particular was at times very strained.
Mrs Blair revealed in her memoirs that their youngest son Leo had been conceived at Balmoral as she had been too embarrassed to pack contraception.
She allegedly refused to curtsy to the Royal Family, and Mr Blair ruffled royal feathers after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997 when he was critical of the family’s ‘insensitive’ and ‘old-fashioned’ approach.
At the time of the Millennium celebrations, the Queen looked distinctly uncomfortable as Mr Blair grabbed her hand to sing Auld Lang Syne. His memoirs published last year, when he made unprecedented disclosures about his private dealings with the Queen, will hardly have helped pour oil on troubled waters.
A spokesman for the Blairs refused to comment on whether they were miffed at the snub.
When Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul’s Cathedral in 1981, all surviving former prime ministers attended – Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home, Harold Wilson, Edward Heath and James Callaghan.
Neither Heath nor Callaghan was a Knight of the Garter, a 24-strong order whose membership is the highest rank of chivalry.
Labour MP Michael Dugher said: ‘It appears odd that surviving prime ministers other than Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have rightly been invited to a semi-state occasion, while they haven’t.’
A St James’s Palace spokesman said: ‘Sir John Major is the only former prime minister going. Baroness Thatcher was invited, as were all Knights of the Garter, but is unable to attend. It is not a state occasion so there is no reason why Mr Blair and Mr Brown would be invited.’
Following the death of Diana in 1997, Sir John Major was appointed a guardian to Princes William and Harry and the Palace said he was invited for this ‘very specific reason’.
Gordon Brown’s office refused to comment on the issue.