Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor showed true colours with lavish 'demand' before Eugenie wedding
The status-obsessed royal reportedly spoke to his mother 'demanding' that his daughter's wedding was given the same prominence as Prince Harry's wedding to Meghan Markle
Many people who have met Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor have noted how the former Duke of York was acutely focused on his social status. Royal staff, in particular, speak of the one-time second-in-line to the throne demanding outrageous things from his staff.
Insiders have spoken of "maids being summoned from four floors down to open the curtains beside his bed," and Wendy Berry, a royal housekeeper whose son also worked at Buckingham Palace, says that Andrew saw staff as 'there to serve and not to question his actions'.
This obsession with status was on full display when Andrew's daughter Princess Eugenie was set to marry marketing executive Jack Brooksbank. With their wedding coming just months after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's nuptials at St George's Chapel, Windsor, Andrew made it clear that Eugenie deserved at least the same level of pomp and ceremony.
Andrew went to his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, to ask that Eugenie's wedding was broadcast live on TV, with a similar carriage procession to Harry and Meghan's. Queen Elizabeth happily agreed to these demands from her favourite son.
Writing in his new book Elizabeth II and being serialised in the Daily Mail, royal biographer Robert Hardman said: "Status-conscious as ever, Prince Andrew and his ex-wife, Sarah, had been determined that Eugenie should have a comparable wedding to Harry, with live television coverage, a carriage procession, celebrity guests and so on, albeit in front of a smaller audience.
"The Queen happily agreed to Andrew's demands. After all, Eugenie and Jack had been patient. After a seven-year romance, they had been thinking of marrying sooner but had been content to let Harry and Meghan go first, in line with the royal pecking order (the hierarchy did not always work against Harry and Meghan, despite some of their subsequent complaints)."
The extravagant wedding celebration, which involved a two-day party — not just a formal reception but a 'festival and funfair themed' party the following day — is estimated to have cost around £2 million. The 800 guests included a number of celebrities, such as Cara Delevingne, Naomi Campbell, James Blunt, Ellie Goulding, Demi Moore and Kate Moss.
While the cost of the wedding itself is understood to have been paid for by Eugenie's parents, the cost of policing the event – a further £2 million – was funded by the taxpayer.
This vast expense drew criticism from anti-monarchist groups. Dani Beckett, vice-chair of Republic, pointed out that as Princess Eugenie is not a working royal, her wedding should have been treated as a private event, with all expenses paid for by the couple themselves: "No-one has forced her to have a carriage and a high-profile ceremony," she said. "There are other ways she could have chosen to have had a less lavish wedding."
The wedding went off without a hitch, but some more superstitious observers spotted a "bad omen" that they said foretold friction between Eugenie and the new husband. Guests battled against Storm Callum as they entered the chapel to take their seats, with many having their hats blown off in the strong winds.
Although it was a slightly inconvenient way to kick off proceedings — with a page boy falling over on his way up the steps — the winds were seen by some as a bad omen for the couple's marriage.
According to superstition, wind on a wedding day can symbolise fights to come. And Eugenie and Jack had a whole storm at their wedding.
