LIZ JONES: ​Why Britain's poshest wedding is the perfect time for William to make amends with Harry

Is this the most anticipated summer blockbuster of the year?

Hugh Grosvenor, 33, one of Britain’s wealthiest men and the 7th Duke of Westminster, is to marry Olivia Henson, 31, a graduate of Marlborough College, at the very poshest of posh weddings on Friday June 7.

The streets of Chester will be lined with well-wishers when the happy couple emerge from Cathedral.

The new Lady Grosvenor can look forward to life as mistress of Eaton Hall, the family estate nearby, plus 300 profitable acres of Mayfair and Belgravia. What’s not to like?

The Duke of Westminster and his fiancée Olivia Henson are set to tie the knot in Chester Cathedral on June 7

Prince Harry, one of Hugh Grosvenor oldest friends, won't be there grinning, hugging and blowing kisses. He is pictured at his wedding to Meghan in 2018

The only sad note is that Prince Harry, one of Hugh’s oldest friends, won’t be there grinning, hugging and blowing kisses.

Harry and Meghan were sent a ‘save the date’ but have since declined. Not a decision they’d make lightly. Hugh, after all, is Prince Archie’s godfather.

Whatever the Duke of Westminster made of it in private, it seems he’s not insisted that his mate, the prince, attend.

As a friend of Harry told The Times: ‘It’s incredibly sad it has come to this. Hugh is one of the very few close friends of William and Harry who has maintained strong bonds… with both.

‘He wishes they could put their heads together and patch things up but realises it’s unlikely to happen before the wedding.

‘He wanted to avoid anything overshadowing the day, especially for Olivia, and doesn’t want any awkwardness.’

William, meanwhile, will be acting as an usher.

It’s like a game of Twister, a tangled web of turbulent toffs that has sadly been pulled apart.

I imagine William, though outwardly beaming, will actually feel a great deal of sadness that such a happy day cannot be shared. Catherine will not be by his side, as she continues her recovery from surgery.

King Charles and Camilla will be no shows, too, even though Charles is Hugh Grosvenor’s godfather.

The King and Queen will be in France, representing Britain with other world leaders at a ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

As it happens, Camilla might not be so very sorry to miss the fun in Chester.

She was said to have been ‘snubbed’ at the 2004 wedding of Hugh’s older sister, Lady Tamara.

Camilla Parker Bowles, as she then was, had reportedly been told she could neither sit next to her lover, Prince Charles, in Chester Cathedral, nor arrive at the same time.

This was supposedly a matter of protocol as the late Queen and Prince Philip were among the guests.

Charles swiftly excused himself from the occasion with only days to go.

Weddings are when family and friends should put aside any differences, any squabbles, and turn up with a smile on their faces (wedding gifts are, understandably, banned on this occasion).

It is not about YOU, it is about the happy couple.

I, for one, would love to see little Archie and sister Lili all dressed up and would happily spend hours dissecting Meghan’s outfit.

I can only imagine she’s gagging to attend: who wouldn’t want to see inside Eaton Hall?

Perhaps the Duke of Westminster is worried the star power of Harry and Meghan will cause a distraction, a media circus 

Prince William, pictured with Grosvenor back in 2004, was at one point in the running to be his best man

Perhaps the Duke of Westminster is worried the star power of Harry and Meghan will cause a distraction, a media circus. He has always protected his privacy.

But I doubt a young man with several hundred years of inherited wealth and privilege in his back pocket possesses such a fragile ego.

It’s such a shame, a lost opportunity. Front page photographs of William and Harry suited and booted, slapping each other on the back would have brought about a national sigh of relief after so many difficult years.

Forget the Euros, Wimbledon, the Olympic Games in Paris: that would have been the spirit-lifting image of the summer.

If even they can bury the hatchet, then so can we heal the rifts in our own lives. But no.

This wedding, despite the ‘class’ of the participants, is almost like an episode of EastEnders. All that tension, the focus on who won’t be attending, must surely detract from what should be a wonderful day.

Wedding portraits framed on Steinway grand pianos will forever have gaps where prematurely bald heads should have gleamed.

Yes, the working royals have cleared their official diaries because of the forthcoming general election (so as not to overshadow the business of politics). But a society wedding comes under an umbrella marked ‘private’ and would not have been affected.

So, come on, we need the distraction! Even now it’s not too late for a change of heart.

Weddings and funerals are when you grow up and show up. Would William really throw a hissy fit if Harry came along? I doubt it, he’s much stronger than that.

Any serious illness lends perspective. You hug everyone closer. William knows he has bigger worries in his personal life right now.

His job, after all, has always entailed being a diplomat, able to smile and not look bored, even as a small boy.

He has been hurt, but the brother who could help him through might still be in reach, if only he could forgive him.

William knows that doing the right thing – the difficult thing – goes with the territory.

Now is the time to seize the happy day.