The real best man, who wasn’t Prince William, was revealed by Prince Harry in his book Spare, which was published on January 10.
He proposed that he asked Charlie van Straubenzee, a classmate, to stand by his side when he married Meghan Markle in 2018. Later, The MailOnline claimed that Jack Mann, who appeared with the Prince at his royal wedding in the Netflix series Harry & Meghan, may have also assumed the role covertly.
Photo: Netflix
Following the news that Jack, whom Harry met while they were both officer cadets at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, is engaged to osteopath Isabella Clark, many are now speculating as to whether the Duke of Sussex might be planning a rare trip back to the UK this year.
Harry might take on the special role of Jack’s best man or simply attend to celebrate his friend’s marriage, especially given that he reportedly traveled to Charlie’s wedding to filmmaker Daisy Jenks in 2018.
“Was he sulking because he wasn’t my best man? Was he annoyed because I had asked my old friend Charlie instead?” Harry asked in his autobiography. “(The Royal Family announced Willy was the best man as they had done with me when he and Kate got married. Did that have anything to do with it?)”
Photo: Getty Images
In order to fool the paparazzi in 2011, the Duke also supported the “bare-faced lie” that he was William’s best man. The “two innocents” he actually chose were William’s friends James Meade and Thomas Van Straubenzee, according to Harry. “The public had been told that I was to be best man, but that was a bare-faced lie. The public expected me to be best man, and the Palace saw no choice but to say that I was,” said Harry.
The future King didn’t want to push them into the spotlight because of the intense media attention surrounding the royal wedding. They couldn’t handle such an onslaught, and shouldn’t be expected to, Harry continued. “Had they been outed as Willy’s best men, the rabid press would’ve chased them, tracked them, hacked them, investigated them, ruin their families’ lives.”
