Harry and Meghan aren’t inviting as many reporters as expected to the royal wedding – probably because they don’t need to

At every event Harry and Meghan attend, members of the public take thousands of selfies and post pictures online – so they probably feel there’s no need to accommodate the professionals

Janet Street-Porter
Friday 04 May 2018 13:25 EDT
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Harry and his bride are as popular with the young as the 'Love Island' stars
Harry and his bride are as popular with the young as the 'Love Island' stars

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What will you be doing on 19 May? Decorating the television with bunting or staging a republican protest?

Wedding mania has taken hold of the media, but expect coverage to get a lot less saccharine – Harry and Meghan have incurred the wrath of the tabloids by offering just one seat to a reporter inside the chapel for their wedding, and only four are permitted to cover the event outside.

As for the 1,200 handpicked members of the public invited to gaze on the lucky pair in an open carriage, they’ve been told to bring a picnic as there will be no food and drink on offer.

One columnist remarked sniffily that these invitees were simply “extras for the TV coverage”, but I’m sure they don’t see it like that.

I have other plans, but when Charles married Camilla, I was filming a documentary about the monarchy in Windsor and got a five-second glimpse of the newlyweds making their way back to the castle for lunch.

The crowds were sparse then, but they won’t be this time: Harry and his bride are as popular with the young as the Love Island stars.

At every event Harry and Meghan attend, members of the public take thousands of selfies and post pictures online – so they probably feel there’s no need to accommodate the professionals.

To add to Meghan’s pre-wedding nerves, her half-brother has published an illiterate letter this week telling Harry to call everything off, calling it “the biggest mistake in royal wedding history” and describing his sister as “a below C-grade actress”.

My first royal memory is of being dragged in a buggy on public transport from home in West London to Hyde Park, waiting for hours by the side of a road so that my mother could wave her flag as the Queen went past in a golden coach after her coronation in June 1953.

I was five years old, and even then I couldn’t see what the fuss was all about.

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