For Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, their wedding day was one they’ll never forget. Royal photographer Arthur Edwards can probably say the same, albeit for entirely different reasons.
“The day was a miserable day,” Edwards, 83, said in an interview with The Sun. “I can tell you now it was the worst royal wedding I ever did. Because Harry was determined to keep the newspapers away from it as much as possible.”
Edwards has been photographing the royal family since 1977, so when he calls an occasion “the worst,” he has plenty to compare it to.
The 2018 wedding took place at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, though Edwards and other photographers had to stay far away from the action, relying on long lenses to capture the moment.
“I had 800 millimeter lens photographing the guests arriving. The photographers they engaged for the job was five feet away. It was just hopeless,” Edwards explained.
The photographer even lamented that the iconic carriage shot of the pair leaving the wedding didn’t come about as he hoped.
“And then the carriage shot where they went past me in the carriage they looked the other way,” he said. “So for me, it was a disaster.”
Asked if he felt the press’ treatment was deliberate, Edwards replied, “I felt so. It wasn’t just me. It was the whole of the British press, in many ways were badly treated.”
Six years later, Harry, 39, and Meghan, 42, have since stepped down from their senior royal duties and just recently celebrated their anniversary. They were spotted at dinner with friends Brian and Tracy Robbins on May 18 at Lucky’s steakhouse in Montecito, California.
While the two aren’t caught up in the day-to-day rigors of royal life, they did just return from Nigeria, where they toured the country to promote their Archewell Foundation’s work in mental health and the Invictus Games. During the three-day trip, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex spoke to schoolchildren, met with the nation’s Chief of Defense Staff and greeted local veterans.
Before their trip to Nigeria, Harry was in London for an Invictus Games tenth anniversary event, where he reportedly turned down an invitation from King Charles III to stay at the royal residence. Harry did not meet with his father during the trip.
“In response to the many inquiries and continued speculation on whether or not The Duke will meet with his father while in the UK this week, it, unfortunately, will not be possible due to His Majesty’s full program,” Harry’s spokesperson told Us Weekly in a statement on Tuesday, May 7.
