Last year, one of Britain’s social events of the decade took place in Chester, England. Hugh Grosvenor, aka the Duke of Westminster, married Olivia Henson. They laid out their best plywood and the bride wore a satin dress. Prince William was there. William’s wife did not attend, and neither did William’s brother (although Harry was invited). The wedding storyline was months of gossip, fueled mostly by William and his team. At the end of the day, I don’t think Hugh and Olivia actually wanted to be part of any kind of royal/gossip storyline. The whole thing was rather gauche if you ask me! Anyway, Hugh and Olivia immediately got down to business, the business of having babies and hoping to get a male heir. Well… they welcomed their first child, and it’s a girl!
Congratulations are in order as Hugh Grosvenor,The Duke of Westminster, and his wife, Olivia Henson, have announced the birth of their first child, a baby girl.
Hugh Grosvenor – who is the 7th Duke of Westminster, having inherited his late father’s fortune of around £9.5bn in 2016, and married the Duchess in a glittering ceremony last June – welcomed Cosima Florence Grosvenor on Sunday.
In an official statement released on Sunday, 27 July, the new parents said: ‘The Duke and Duchess of Westminster are thrilled to announce the birth of their baby daughter. They have named her Cosima Florence Grosvenor, who was born in London today, 27 July.’
‘Both the Duchess and Cosima are doing well. The Duke and Duchess now look forward to spending this special time together as a family,’ the statement finished.
The newly-weds are expected to be over the moon with the new arrival, having expressed their ‘delight’ to be starting a family together when announcing news of their pregnancy. At the time, the full statement read: ‘The Duke and Duchess of Westminster are very pleased to share that the Duchess is expecting a baby in the summer. The couple are delighted with the news and are very much looking forward to starting a family together.’
Hugh has three sisters – two older, one younger. So his parents had two daughters first, but they kept trying for the male heir, and there you go. I feel sorry for Olivia that she’s going to have to keep having babies until they get the heir, but that’s literally the whole point of Britain’s primogeniture system. Still, they don’t sound mad about it – little Cosima will be loved and adored by her parents, and I’m sure Hugh’s sisters are thrilled about having a niece to spoil.
Also: there are already conversations about who will be chosen as Cosima’s godparents, and whether Prince William would be selected as godfather. Just my opinion, but I think they’ll wait to ask William to be godfather when they get a son. Right? That’s what happened with Hugh – King Charles is Hugh’s godfather, and Charles isn’t godfather to any of Hugh’s sisters. Now, Princess Diana was godmother to one of Hugh’s sisters. So maybe Kate will be asked to be Cosima’s godmother? Probably not – I don’t think Kate has been asked to be any kid’s godmother?
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- The Wedding of Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke Of Westminster and Olivia Henson at Chester Cathedral Featuring: Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster Where: Chester, United Kingdom When: 07 Jun 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Wedding of Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke Of Westminster and Olivia Henson at Chester Cathedral Featuring: Olivia Henson Where: Chester, United Kingdom When: 07 Jun 2024 Credit: Cover Images
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- The Wedding of Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke Of Westminster and Olivia Henson at Chester Cathedral Featuring: Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke Of Westminster, Olivia Henson Where: Chester, United Kingdom When: 07 Jun 2024 Credit: Cover Images
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- The Wedding of Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke Of Westminster and Olivia Henson at Chester Cathedral Featuring: Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke Of Westminster, Olivia Henson Where: Chester, United Kingdom When: 07 Jun 2024 Credit: Cover Images
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- The Wedding of Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke Of Westminster and Olivia Henson at Chester Cathedral Featuring: Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke Of Westminster, Olivia Henson Where: Chester, United Kingdom When: 07 Jun 2024 Credit: Cover Images
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- The Wedding of Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke Of Westminster and Olivia Henson at Chester Cathedral Featuring: Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke Of Westminster, Olivia Henson Where: Chester, United Kingdom When: 07 Jun 2024 Credit: Cover Images
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- The wedding of Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke Of Westminster and Olivia Henson at Chester Cathedral Featuring: Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke Of Westminster, Olivia Henson Where: Chester, United Kingdom When: 07 Jun 2024 Credit: Cover Images
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- The Duke of Westminster marries Olivia Henson at Chester Cathedral Featuring: Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke Of Westminster, Olivia Henson Where: Chester, United Kingdom When: 07 Jun 2024 Credit: John Rainford/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE UK**
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- The Duke of Westminster marries Olivia Henson at Chester Cathedral Featuring: Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke Of Westminster, Olivia Henson Where: Chester, United Kingdom When: 07 Jun 2024 Credit: John Rainford/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE UK**
“Cosima Florence Grosvenor”
Sounds like they honeymooned in Florence.
Yes, agree poor Olivia. This is where the Westminster broodmare has to make sure she’s fit enough to last Hugh’s attempts to beget his male heir.
Imagine if it follows his own family pattern – 3 girls then the boy!!😮😮😮😮
Poor Olivia. At least she won’t get the Frances Spencer treatment.
Honestly, they can do IVF and gender select if she’s not into rolling the dice every time. Something nice, she looks happy in some of the photos.
It is an interesting point that we don’t hear about Kate being a godmother very often. I think she might be for Natalie Archers kid (s)?
And Page six comments were about Harry and Meghan; did they send jam etc with disparaging comments. What should have been a sweet celebration of a birth is again used as a vehicle to bad mouth the Sussexes.
Never seen photos of Meghan with the Grosvenors.
Anyway, what a weird take. WTF would Meghan send jam? Her wine would go down better. But if Meghan isn’t close to them, why should she?
The commenter was referencing Harry and Hugh being close friends. Therefore, the gift for the baby’s birth was jam from Meghan AND Harry, not that Meghan was in anyway connected to the Grosvenor family. Sarcasm from Page Six.
All that money… and still that dress from the David’s Bridal clearance rack. I’ll never understand it.
And her hair is a terrible style, she did that gorgeous big gun tiara dirty. It looks plopped onto her head…I agree that he may be one of Britain’s richest men but their wedding looked so tacky!
Cosima Florence is a lovely name though! Mazel!
It is so bad. Especially the satin sheen, yikes.
I liked it. It’s more modern Meghan than bland Kate. I remember reading that the trim on the dress was custom-made to match the lace on the veil, so a lot of hand labor went into it, even though that’s not obvious. It’s giving “My soon-to-be-husband is the richest man in Britain, so I don’t have to prove anything, but I did get five old ladies to spend days hand-making my lace.” Subtle luxury.
The shape is on the modern side, the satin sheen is what turns it yucky to me. It looks like clearance fabric from Joann’s, and the lace doesn’t read well enough to tell that it’s custom. It’s an interesting idea, just don’t think the execution is quite there for it to feel like a billionaire’s dress. It doesn’t have enough personality for how custom it must be, and based on the beige plywood walkways I’m forced to conclude they either have no imagination, no taste, or both.
It looks like it could be have been made for a conservative Christian bride.
Wow, that was quick! Didn’t they just get married last May? 😅 That means they only enjoyed being a married couple for three months before the pregnancy! Why do aristocrats get pregnant so fast? Is it because they have money, so they don’t think about the consequences of having a child and the challenges of raising one?
Usually male primogeniture lawfully begotten. Yes, it’s archaic but there you go.
It might be age thing. They are probably marrying in their 30’s like a lot of people now and if they want multiple children, they start it right away.
presumably they’ve been having ‘relations’ for awhile now so it likely wasn’t that rushed in the big picture — also that must secure the bag thing.
It’s sort of shocking that the UK still has male primogeniture for peerages. In the year 2025, poor baby Cosima is not allowed to become Duchess?!
Nope. Hugh’s the youngest so you have to feel for the broodmares the Westminster men have to win over. Same with the Spencers and Diana’s insecurities. No more children after the male baby was born.
If they could choose the Y-chromosome for the first baby, it would make life so much easier. That or get rid of primogeniture altogether and give the title to the one who’s the most competent.
The former Duke’s father, and his wife, Natalia, a descendent of the Russian poet Pushkin and some of the Romanov family, had four children:
Lady Tamara Katherine Grosvenor (born 20 December 1979),
Lady Edwina Louise Grosvenor (born 4 November 1981).
Hugh Grosvenor, 7th Duke of Westminster (born 29 January 1991). He is the godfather of Prince George of Wales and Prince Archie of Sussex
Lady Viola Georgina Grosvenor (born 12 October 1992)
His parents took a decade off then had their son and followed him with a final daughter in 1992.
It all depends on which peerage group the title is from (first the independent kingdoms, so peerage of England and peerage of Scotland, peerage of Ireland is titles created by the English monarch post-conquest of Ireland up to 1800, next group is the peerage of Great Britain which runs from the Acts of Union 1707 through to 1801, then with the Acts of Union 1801 we get the peerage of the United Kingdom which continues on to this day), as different kingdoms MAY have different rules and different standard phrasing with different legal interpretations, which have generally been carried forwards when things were restructured even if they were no longer used for new creations.
TIL! I didn’t know titles fell into specific age groups, thank you @FlamingHotCheetos2021 (awesome username btw)
This might sound bitchy, but the godmother comment had me thinking. Does Kate have friends? We hear about William’s friends and Kate’s siblings, but I feel like we never hear about her having a social circle.
Rose invited her to hang out with her friends when she threw a party. They even took a pic of Kate talking to a few old men 😭😭 That is the most we heard about her hanging out with other women even though we don’t have any pic of it.
The pressure will be on her to produce a male heir.
I’m shocked they didn’t do IVF with embryo selection. Maybe next time. If Hugh dies tomorrow, the fortune goes to a distant cousin in Australia. He’s so far back in the tree, his line predates the title.
Eh, the TITLE goes to a distant cousin in Australia. It is exceptionally unlikely that the money has been in any way entailed to the title in this day and age. And given the relative lack of age of the title itself it is very unlikely that any of the familys’ properties have been legally attached to said title, either.
And a title has to go to a direct descendant of the person the title was originally granted to. That might actually be a problem.
The 1st Duke of Westminster had 12 children. Currently, Hugh is the only male descendant. The duke title would die out with him. But the money/fortune is part of a longer line. The 1st duke was the son of the 2nd Marquess of Westminster. I think the Australian cousin comes off that line.
I think, the gender selection is not legal in UK. They would need to go abroad for that kind of operation. As @FlamingHotCheetos2021 said, the title isn’t necessarily connected to the wealth anymore. The aristos separate them for tax purposes and to keep it in the family through trusts. So, the trusts can be set up as his daughter as the beneficiary. If he has a son, traditionally it goes to him of course.
May they have lots and lots of girls.