Duke of Westminster: Royals attend wedding of ‘Britain’s most eligible bachelor’ – who was there (and who wasn’t)?
The Duke of Westminster has lost his unofficial title, “Britain’s most eligible bachelor”, after marrying Olivia Henson.
Hugh Grosvenor, 33, who ranked 14th on the 2024 Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated fortune of £10.1bn, has made his bride a duchess after marrying her at Chester Cathedral today.
The largely private couple only made their first public appearance together last month, but their wedding has been one of the most prestigious social events of the year, with esteemed guests such as Prince William attending.
The scenes outside the cathedral ahead of the ceremony. Pic: PA
The duke arrived at the ceremony in a green Land Rover and waved to crowds who were waiting in the streets outside the cathedral.
Miss Henson travelled to her wedding with her father Rupert Henson in a vintage Bentley that was originally made for W.O. Bentley, the founder of Bentley Motors, in 1930.
The Duke of Westminster waves to crowd as he arrives at Chester Cathedral. Pic: PA
Olivia Henson arrived with her father
Thousands lined the streets of Chester to catch a glimpse of the event from early in the morning, with many bringing camping chairs and picnics.
It was already packed when the Prince of Wales, an usher at the wedding, arrived at the cathedral at about 10.30am – so much so that he entered the cathedral through a side entrance to avoid being seen.
Later on around 400 guests, including Princess Eugenie, were brought to the venue in coaches.
Prince William, an usher, seen after the ceremony. Pic: PA
Princess Eugenie leaves Chester Cathedral after the wedding. Pic: PA
King Charles, who is the duke’s godfather, wasn’t one of them, nor was the Queen.
The King has scaled back his public appearances since he started being treated for an undisclosed form of cancer, though he and the Queen were in France for the D-Day commemorations yesterday.
The Princess of Wales didn’t attend either as she continues to undergo her cancer treatment.
The Duke of Sussex was not there despite reportedly being being a close friend of Hugh Grosvenor’s, who is a godfather to Prince Harry’s son Archie.
The Duke of Westminster’s links to the Royal Family
Protesters target event
A fire extinguisher was set off outside the cathedral as the bride and groom made their way to a Bentley car.
Two women sprayed orange powder paint in the air from the extinguisher while standing among a crowd of spectators, with police officers wrestling it from them and escorting them away seconds later.
The environmental protest group Just Stop Oil has claimed responsibility for the incident.
Orange smoke sprayed above the crowd. Pic: Just Stop Oil
The wedding arrangements
The ceremony at Chester Cathedral began at midday, with the Dean of Chester, the Very Reverand Dr Tim Stratford, leading the service.
It featured the Chester Cathedral choir, conducted by Philip Rushforth, organist and master of the choristers at the church. They were accompanied by a group of musicians from across North West England.
The car the bride arrived in. Pic: PA
A spokesperson for the Duke and Miss Henson said the couple chose seasonal flowers sourced from local growers, with much of the foliage coming from the grounds of the Duke’s Eaton Estate.
They included rambling roses, philadelphus, campanula and orlaya grandiflora, while birch trees lined the inside of the church, the spokesperson added.
After the ceremony, the Duke and Duchess of Westminster travelled back to Eaton Estate, which has been home to the Grosvenor family since the 1400s, where they are hosting a private wedding reception for guests.
Their spokesperson said the couple had taken “a great deal of care in planning the wedding, putting their own personal stamp on all the arrangements and have made a conscious effort to involve local and regional suppliers in several aspects of the day”.
Who is the new Duchess of Westminster?
The 31-year-old had been with the duke for two years when the pair announced their engagement in April 2023.
The Duke of Westminster and Olivia Henson shared this image as part of their engagement announcement. Pic: PA
Much like her husband, the duchess largely stays out of the public eye. What we do know is she’s a senior accounts manager at Belazu, an ethical food company based in London, and she was introduced to the duke through mutual friends.
She is widely reported to have studied at Marlborough College – the same as the Princess of Wales and Pippa Middleton.
‘Britain’s most eligible bachelor’
The duke became an instant billionaire when he inherited his title and control of the historic Grosvenor Estate aged 25 following the death of his father from a heart attack in 2016.
Pic: PA
As part of the estimated £10bn estate, the duke, previously known by his honorary title Earl Grosvenor, also inherited Eaton Hall in Cheshire – home to the Grosvenor family since the 15th century.
It’s where his notably casual engagement photo with his then fiancé was taken last year.
The duke, a former student of countryside management at Newcastle University, is one of four children: He has two older sisters, Lady Tamara and Lady Edwina, and one younger sister Lady Viola.
He inherited his father’s fortune despite not being the eldest of them as legitimate male heirs take precedence over their older sisters when it comes to inheriting an estate.
Hugh Grosvenor’s sister Lady Tamara married her husband Edward van Cutsem at Chester Cathedral in 2004. Pic: AP
The property company he inherited, the Grosvenor Group, owns about 300 acres of land in Mayfair and Belgravia in central London, as well as major city centre developments such as Liverpool’s ONE shopping centre and properties in the US and Canada.
The billionaire, who was widely dubbed Britain’s most eligible bachelor after inheriting the fortune, is chair of both the Grosvenor Trustees and the Westminster Foundation, which represents his and the Grosvenor Group’s charitable interests.
Grosvenor Square in Mayfair is the second largest square in London. Pic: Wolfram Kastl/picture-alliance/dpa/AP
Grosvenor Group owns Liverpool ONE, a shopping centre with more than 170 stores. Pic: PA
When he does occasionally make headlines, it’s usually down to his charitable role. Such was the case in 2020 when he donated millions to the national effort against COVID.
‘You can feel the positive energy coming from them’
It can be difficult for the public to get to know a couple like the duke and duchess, who like to stay out of the limelight.
They made a rare public outing last month when they attended a parent-toddler music programme at Chester Cathedral.
It was a chance for them to see one of the many charitable programmes for young people they support through the duke’s Westminster Foundation.
Emma Thomas, a development artist at Cheshire Dance, which runs the programme, not only met the couple on their visit, but also went to primary school with Hugh Grosvenor.
Ms Thomas said they had a very “relaxed” and “approachable” quality to them on their visit, adding: “They seem very comfortable together and you could feel the really positive energy coming from them.”
Hugh Grosvenor. Pic: PA
She said the duke was “so enthusiastic about bringing opportunities for young people” and that it’s “wonderful to hear him talk so genuinely and passionately about that work”.
“The duke was absolutely wonderful” with the children there, she added. “So approachable, so engaging. I think it could be very easy to not be like that.
“But he was wonderful and he gave the kids a really great experience. I think they were very nervous to meet him, and he made it feel very relaxed.”
She added the duchess was “asking lots of questions” and “really valuing the voices of the children”.
A good end to a good day
Ms Thomas also reminisced with the duke about their time attending Eccleston C of E Primary School together.
She was a few year groups older but saw a fair amount of the duke because he and her younger brother were friends.
She recalls a birthday party they both went to when they were about six or seven – where they had a tour of Liverpool’s Anfield stadium.
“He was quite a calm kid, but he loved Liverpool so much. The enthusiasm!”
She said she fondly recalls going to McDonald’s with the duke after visiting the stadium.
Wedding of the year?
Despite keeping a low profile, the wedding wasn’t the first lavish event the duke has thrown.
His 21st birthday party for 800 guests at Eaton Hall in 2012 was reported to have cost £5m.
Comedian Michael McIntyre and hip hop duo Rizzle Kicks provided the entertainment, and Prince Harry was among the guests for the “black tie and neon” event.
On his wedding plans, the duke told Town & Country Magazine during the Chester Cathedral visit: “I think next time we’re in here will be slightly more nerve-wracking.”
He added he was “unbelievably excited”.
“I also just wanted to make it very clear how unbelievably helpful people have been, how supportive they’ve been so far which I’m unbelievably grateful for,” he told the publication.
“Because I do realise that it’s going to be a big thing for the city. It’s going to be certainly a huge thing for us, so we’re just really grateful for all the help.”
On holding the wedding in Chester, the bride added: “It’s obviously a place where we will live, where we’ll be building our lives together.”
The pair currently live in London and are “slowly transitioning” to Chester where they plan to put “roots down”, she added, saying it was a “really easy decision” to have the wedding there.
Shortly after their engagement announcement last year, a spokesperson for the couple said: “The couple have chosen the cathedral for both its beauty and long association with the Grosvenor family, including to the duke personally.
“Cheshire is the Grosvenor family’s ancestral home and as Miss Henson’s connection to the region continues to grow, they are keen to plan their wedding there.”
Royal relationships
The Grosvenors have been aristocrats for centuries, as they began building their property empire in London back in the 1600s.
To cut a several hundred-year story short, Hugh Grosvenor’s ancestor Hugh Lupus Grosvenor was made the first Duke of Westminster by Queen Victoria in 1874. The current holder of the title is the seventh Duke of Westminster.
However, the Grosvenor family’s modern relationship with the royals goes beyond peerage.
The sixth Duke of Westminster – the current duke’s father – with Queen Elizabeth II in 2004. Pic: PA
The duke’s late father Gerald Grosvenor was a close friend of King Charles before his death in 2016.
They were so close that Gerald Grosvenor made the King a godfather of his son Hugh when he was born in 1991.
Now the duke is a godfather himself to Prince William’s eldest child, Prince George, and Prince Harry’s son Prince Archie.
He is said to have maintained relationships with both brothers over the years, but Prince Harry did not attend the duke’s wedding.
Some reports have suggested he and his wife Meghan were not on the guest list, adding the duke was concerned their presence would take away from the wedding itself due to their ongoing rift with the rest of the Royal Family.
Other reports suggested Harry and Meghan were sent a ‘save the date’ but decided to decline in order to prevent any awkwardness.
Motorists warned – and ice-creams on the happy couple
Chester’s council warned the city will be busier than usual on Friday due to the wedding, and urged people to “rethink journeys into the city centre” today.
In an update on X, the council added it would be best to avoid travelling to the centre by car.
The couple are also supporting local businesses by subsidising free ice-cream, gelato and sorbet on their wedding day from three local dessert parlours.
Duke of Westminster’s fortune explained
The duke has been featuring on rich lists since he inherited his father’s billion-pound fortune.
As Sky News’ business presenter Ian King explains: “While the Grosvenor family is automatically linked in many people’s eyes to properties in west London’s upmarket Mayfair and Belgravia districts, such assets are only part of the wider Grosvenor Group, the company that manages the Duke of Westminster’s wealth.
“The business now encompasses a range of assets and activities, including property in the UK and overseas, investments in food producers and agricultural technology companies and three large rural estates in northern England and the Scottish Highlands.”
Grosvenor Group owns buildings, squares and public spaces in Belgravia and Mayfair. Pic: iStock
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King adds: “The business is owned by a series of UK resident (in other words, onshore) trusts set up by the family in the 1950s to shield itself from the risk of expensive divorces or reckless spending by wayward members of the family.
The arrangement means that, although the duke and his family are the ultimate owners of Grosvenor, he is not able, for example, to sell assets if he felt the need to raise cash. Major transactions such as asset disposals have to be agreed by the trustees.
“Contrary to what is often suggested, the family are all UK-registered for tax and pay UK taxes, while the trusts are liable for income tax and capital gains tax.
“They are also liable for inheritance tax levied by the UK government, although, as is common with UK trusts of this type, the majority of the trusts pay a recurring payment to HM Revenue & Customs of 6% of the value of their assets every 10 years, rather than a payment of 40% inheritance tax upon death of beneficiaries.
“For a private company, Grosvenor is unusually open about its activities, publishing annual reports and financial statements in the way a listed company would.
“Its latest results, for 2023, revealed a £400m drop in the value of the group’s portfolio to £8.6bn. That portfolio is split roughly 50/50 between UK and international assets. A pre-tax loss of £28.6m for the year compared with a profit of £110.4m in 2022.”
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Police investigating criminal offence after Daily Telegraph columnist ‘dumbfounded’ by social media post probe
Essex Police say they are investigating an alleged criminal offence of inciting racial hatred, after Daily Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson said she was “dumbfounded and upset” when officers knocked on her door last Sunday.
Ms Pearson revealed she was told she was being investigated over a year-old deleted post online.
She said she wasn’t informed which post had been reported, but suggested it could have been related to the 7 October attacks in Israel or pro-Palestine marches.
She claimed the officers told her she was being investigated for a NCHI (a none crime hate incident) an incident involving an act which is perceived to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards persons with a particular characteristic, but is not illegal.
NCHI reports have long been controversial, with many citing free speech concerns, and Ms Pearson’s account of the police visit has led to widespread support from Conservatives and online commentators, including Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.
But an Essex Police spokesperson has told Sky News its investigation was never for an NCHI, and that the matter was always being treated as an investigation into an alleged criminal offence of inciting racial hatred.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Speaking on her Planet Normal podcast on Wednesday, Ms Pearson said she found the visit “chilling”.
“I was dumbfounded, upset, it’s not very nice,” she said. “I was in my dressing gown on the step of the house, these two coppers were there just outside the door.
“There were people gathering for the Remembrance Day parade so there were people watching from the other side of the road.
“Whatever I did or didn’t tweet, if somebody found it offensive, that to me is still not a reason for two policemen to come to my house on a Sunday morning.
“You know, they don’t do that for burglars, do they? We know policing is under-resourced and they are unable to attend often quite serious crimes.
“This was the most extraordinary overreach and state intrusion into my private life and I don’t think I did anything wrong and I think their response was outrageous.”
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In a statement, Essex Police said: “Officers attended an address in Essex and invited a woman to come to a voluntary interview.
“They said it related to an investigation into an alleged offence of inciting racial hatred, linked to a post on social media.
“For clarity: a complaint of a possible criminal offence was made to the police and this is why we called; to arrange an interview.
“Everyone was polite and professional throughout the brief conversation.”
They said an officer told Ms Pearson: “It’s gone down as an incident or offence of potentially inciting racial hatred online. That would be the offence.”
Essex Police say they have complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) over what they call “false reporting” regarding the ongoing investigation.
In an interview with The Telegraph published yesterday, Kemi Badenoch said police visiting a journalist over a social media post was “absolutely wrong” and that “we need to look at the laws around non-crime hate incidents”.
“There has been a long-running problem with people not taking free speech seriously,” she said.
She challenged the prime minister to review the laws, saying: “Keir Starmer says he is someone who believes in these things. Now he needs to actually show that he does believe it. All we’ve seen from him is the opposite.”
Ms Badenoch added: “We need to stop this behaviour of people wasting police time on trivial incidents because they don’t like something, as if they’re in a nursery.
“It’s like children reporting each other. And I think that in certain cases, the police do it because they’re afraid that if they don’t do it, they will also be accused of not taking these issues seriously.”
Essex Police said the officers went to the address to invite Ms Pearson to attend a voluntary interview as part of their investigation, which was passed to them by another force.
“The report relates to a social media post which was subsequently removed,” the statement read.
“An investigation is now being carried out under Section 17 of the Public Order Act.”
Essex Police also said they made attempts to contact Ms Pearson before the visit.
Other prominent Conservative voices such as Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Chris Philp have also leapt to Ms Pearson’s defence online, as has X owner Elon Musk, who quoted a post about the incident and said: “This needs to stop.”
Police commentator Graham Wettone told Sky News the police are “duty bound to investigate allegations of crime”.
“They’ve had an allegation of crime made there,” he said. “They will investigate it. If at the end of this they decide that no criminal offence has been committed – and we’re not at that stage yet – then it can still be recorded as a none crime hate incident.”
The police, he said, are duty bound to keep a record of none crime hate incidents.
“Parliament said they want the police to do this, to investigate and record incidents like this. So they are doing exactly what parliament and society asked them to do, and they are getting criticism for doing what people want.”
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Sir Keir Starmer vows to defend budget decisions ‘all day long’ as farmers slam ‘disrespectful’ PM
Sir Keir Starmer has said he will defend the decisions made in the budget “all day long” amid anger from farmers over inheritance tax changes.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced last month in her key speech that from April 2026, farms worth more than £1m will face an inheritance tax rate of 20%, rather than the standard 40% applied to other land and property.
The announcement has sparked anger among farmers who argue this will mean higher food prices, lower food production and having to sell off land to pay for the tax.
Sir Keir defended the budget as he gave his first speech as prime minister at the Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno, North Wales, where farmers have been holding a tractor protest outside.
Sir Keir admitted: “We’ve taken some extremely tough decisions on tax.”
He said: “I will defend facing up to the harsh light of fiscal reality. I will defend the tough decisions that were necessary to stabilise our economy.
“And I will defend protecting the payslips of working people, fixing the foundations of our economy, and investing in the future of Britain and the future of Wales. Finally, turning the page on austerity once and for all.”
He also said the budget allocation for Wales was a “record figure” – some £21bn for next year – an extra £1.7bn through the Barnett Formula, as he hailed a “path of change” with Labour governments in Wales and Westminster.
And he confirmed a £160m investment zone in Wrexham and Flintshire will be going live in 2025.
‘PM should have addressed the protesters’
Among the hundreds of farmers demonstrating was Gareth Wyn Jones, who told Sky News it was “disrespectful” that the prime minister did not mention farmers in his speech.
He said “so many people have come here to air their frustrations. He (Starmer) had an opportunity to address the crowd. Even if he was booed he should have been man enough to come out and talk to the people”.
He said farmers planned to deliver Sir Keir a letter which begins with “don’t bite the hand that feeds you”.
Farmers’ tractor protest outside the Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno, North Wales
Mr Wyn Jones told Sky News the government was “destroying” an industry that was already struggling.
“They’re destroying an industry that’s already on its knees and struggling, absolutely struggling, mentally, emotionally and physically. We need government support not more hindrance so we can produce food to feed the nation.”
He said inheritance tax changes will result in farmers increasing the price of food: “The poorer people in society aren’t going to be able to afford good, healthy, nutritious British food, so we have to push this to government for them to understand that enough is enough, the farmers can’t take any more of what they’re throwing at us.”
Mr Wyn Jones disputed the government’s estimation that only 500 farming estates in the UK will be affected by the inheritance tax changes.
“Look, a lot of farmers in this country are in their 70s and 80s, they haven’t handed their farms down because that’s the way it’s always been, they’ve always known there was never going to be inheritance tax.”
On Friday, Sir Keir addressed farmers’ concerns, saying: “I know some farmers are anxious about the inheritance tax rules that we brought in two weeks ago.
“What I would say about that is, once you add the £1m for the farmland to the £1m that is exempt for your spouse, for most couples with a farm wanting to hand on to their children, it’s £3m before anybody pays a penny in inheritance tax.”
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Welsh farmer Gareth Wyn Jones
Ministers said the move will not affect small farms and is aimed at targeting wealthy landowners who buy up farmland to avoid paying inheritance tax.
But analysis this week said a typical family farm would have to put 159% of annual profits into paying the new inheritance tax every year for a decade and could have to sell 20% of their land.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The Country and Land Business Association (CLA), which represents owners of rural land, property and businesses in England and Wales, found a typical 200-acre farm owned by one person with an expected profit of £27,300 would face a £435,000 inheritance tax bill.
The plan says families can spread the inheritance tax payments over 10 years, but the CLA found this would require an average farm to allocate 159% of its profits each year for a decade.
To pay that, successors could be forced to sell 20% of their land, the analysis found.
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