12 October 2023 , 06:00
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When Prince Harry married Meghan Markle, it was certainly a star-studded affair. Those invited to celebrate with the couple on their big day included Oprah Winfrey, George and Amal Clooney and David and Victoria Beckham. They were among the 600 guests present in St. George's Chapel to witness Harry and Meghan's vows.
For some, the church service marked the end of the celebrations, but others were then invited to join the happy couple at St. George's Hall for a luncheon reception hosted by the Queen. After the lunch came a lavish evening reception, hosted by then-Prince Charles, and the guestlist was cut once again, leaving just 200 of Meghan and Harry's closest friends to party the night away.
Tom 'Skippy' Inskip and Prince Harry have been friends since Eton (Getty Images)
Tom reportedly did not score an invite to Harry and Meghan's evening bash (Getty Images)And there was one person notably absent from the party - one of Harry's oldest school friends, Tom Inskip, known as Skippy. In their book Finding Freedom, Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand revealed how unhappy Skippy was that he hadn't made the list, and that he had made a cutting comment at brunch the following day.
"Notably absent were Skippy, Harry's old friend, who had questioned the prince's relationship with Meghan, and his wife, Lara," they wrote. "They were invited to the wedding ceremony and lunchtime reception but didn't make the cut for the evening bash. At brunch the day after the wedding, Skippy told friends 'Meghan has changed Harry too much'. His Eton friend said the prince was awed by the likes of the Clooneys and Oprah. 'We've lost him', Skippy concluded."
According to the book, "Many of Harry's old friends said that the evening guest list was the prince and his bride's way of saying 'these are the people we want in our lives moving forward'." Earlier in the book, the authors explained the struggles Harry and Skippy's friendship faced after he raised concerns about how quickly the Meghan romance was moving. They claimed Skippy advised Harry to try living with Meghan for a bit before "before doing anything more serious".
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A source close to Harry and Meghan told the book's authors that his advice "came from a good place" but Harry "didn't totally see it that way". The insider added: "It really hurt him [Harry] that someone he was so close to would not trust his judgement."
Harry and Tom's friendship dates back to their days at Eton. Skippy was dubbed Harry's 'wingman' by the press in their youth, with whom the royal would often be spotted at nightclubs and on holidays. Indeed the reported it was Tom who organised a party in Las Vegas in 2012, at which the Prince is said to have played billiards naked with showgirls in a hotel suite.