When Peter Phillips and Harriet Sperling first got together, the British press didn’t really do a full background check on her like they’ve done with other royal girlfriends. Perhaps that was because Peter isn’t royal, or maybe they were simply biding their time so that they could do the most damage to Harriet right before the wedding. All I know is that most of the coverage of Harriet’s romantic history made it sound like she was a widow, not a divorcee. They never mentioned her first husband, and to be fair, Harriet never mentioned him either. Turns out her ex was biding his time as well – “sources” close to her ex-husband just gave an interview to the Daily Mail, one week before Harriet and Peter’s June 6th wedding (D-Day, amirite?). Of course, the Daily Mail put Prince Harry and Meghan’s names in the headline though!! “Revealed: Amid all the talk of Harry and Meghan and Andrew and Fergie being snubbed for Peter Phillips’s royal wedding of the year, there’s one person MUCH closer to the couple who’s also not invited… and he’s not happy.”

It will be the society wedding of the year, with King Charles and Queen Camilla headlining a regal guest list for their nephew Peter Phillips’s wedding to NHS nurse Harriet Sperling. The ceremony next Saturday at All Saints’ Church in Cirencester is being described as an ‘intimate family affair’ in contrast to other major royal weddings with the couple forgoing traditional elements like a carriage procession.

There will also be an absence of some high-profile royals, most notably Prince Harry, the Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle, and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and his family, following his fall from grace. But it still promises to be a stately gathering, with the Prince and Princess of Wales forming a central part of the elaborate celebrations along with their children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.

But as preparations get underway for next week’s ‘low key’ royal wedding, dark clouds are hanging over it linked to Ms Sperling’s previous marriage to fitness instructor Antonio St John Sperling, 44, who is known as Dino.

A source told the Daily Mail: ‘He’s not very happy about how he’s been portrayed by Harriett and feels that he’s been completely written out of the narrative by her. She’s spoken in the past about struggling as a single mother, but Dino has tried to hold out the olive branch many times over the past few years to her and her family. But they’ve rejected any of his offers for help.’

The source added: ‘Harriet has landed in the big time. She’s marrying into the royal family and will never have to worry about money or paying a bill ever again. It’s not been like that for Dino, he’s struggled for a long time both financially and emotionally. He’s being made out to the bad guy by her and that’s simply not true. She now thinks she’s having the final say but it’s not right to say that only Dino was responsible for the breakdown of their marriage. It’d be fairer to say that both of them were to blame.’

The couple have a daughter, Georgina, 13, who has said to have grown close to Peter’s daughters from his first marriage, Savannah, 15, and Isla, 14, whom he shares with his ex-wife, Autumn Kelly. But a source revealed that Dino has not had any ‘meaningful’ contact with Georgina for around four years. The source added: ‘It’s been mental torture for him. Dino has reached out to try and establish a better relationship with Georgina many times but there’s been no interest. Her (Harriet’s) part in what led to the breakdown of their marriage is being forgotten. He’s tried to make peace many times for the sake of his daughter.’

But despite his personal anguish, the source revealed that Dino is also happy for his ex-wife. The source said: ‘She’s going to be a part of one of the world’s most powerful families and he wishes her and Peter all the best. But a lot went on between them, their marriage ended very acrimoniously, and he hasn’t really got closure on all that and his troubled relationship with his father.’

[From The Daily Mail]

We don’t truly know the backstory on Harriet’s first marriage, but if she really hasn’t let her ex even see their daughter for years, that doesn’t read like a “bitter divorce” to me. It reads like something really horrible happened and Harriet got herself and her daughter out of a bad situation. I could be wrong! But I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt for now, until further evidence comes to light. It also feels like the “source” is going above and beyond to suck up to the royals and how “powerful” they are. Please. Peter lives in a cottage on his mother’s estate, doesn’t he? And he’s weirdly jobless, always running weird scams and getting paid to be royal-adjacent.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.