It was revealed this week that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex didn’t make the journey across the pond to attend the nuptials of the Prince’s close friend Jack Mann in Suffolk.
Mann, 40, who is thought to have been Prince Harry‘s ‘secret best man’ at his own May 2018 wedding to the Duchess of Sussex, wed osteopath Isabella Clark at St Peter’s church in Stutton, Suffolk this weekend.
In the Duke and Duchess’ Netflix series, released last December, Mann had appeared arm-in-arm with Harry and his ‘band of brothers’ in a black-and-white image taken at Windsor Castle on Harry and Meghan’s wedding day.
However, the Prince, most recently in the UK for his High Court appearance last month – and a 24-hour visit to attend his father’s Coronation in May – wasn’t in the pews for his friend’s special day.
Prince Harry’s close friend Jack Mann, 40, exchanged vows with osteopath Isabella Clark at St Peter’s church in Stutton, Suffolk this weekend…but Prince Harry wasn’t in attendance
The Duke of Sussex stood shoulder to shoulder with his best man, Jack Mann, and his other closest confederates in the ‘band of brothers’ photograph at Windsor Castle on the night of the royal wedding (Pictured from left: Adam Bidwell, Lord Vivian, Henry Warhurst, Prince Harry, Charlie Gilkes, Jack Mann and Mark Dyer)
Here, Femail looks at who the other ‘band of brothers’ are in that monochrome photograph taken when the Duke and Duchess’ wedding party in May 2018 was in full swing – including school friends and his former childhood mentor – and just how close they are to the Prince…
ADAM BIDWELL: FINANCIER AND SENTEBALE AMBASSADOR
Long since part of the inner circle, stockbroker Adam Bidwell – who hit the headlines in 2013 after a romance with singer Katherine Jenkins – featured on the far left of the suited and booted band of brothers snap.
Long before Harry met Meghan, Bidwell was frequently around for the Prince’s solo adventures, and was even thought to be present on that notorious trip to Las Vegas, along with Harry’s other close pal Tom ‘Skippy’ Inskip.
Stockbroker Adam Bidwell has been along for the Prince Harry ride from his teenage years, and was thought to be in Las Vegas when the teenage Duke’s partying made global headlines. The financier remains a close friend of Prince Harry’s and is an ambassador for his Sentebale charity (Pictured right at the Cartier Queens Cup in 2013)
Moneyman Bidwell once dated mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins but the affair didn’t last long
In May 2018, Bidwell was an usher at the couple’s wedding, and by 2019 was very much still part of the couple’s life; he attended a polo match with the Duchess of Sussex in July 2019, with the Princess of Wales also in attendance.
In the same year, the financier travelled with Harry on a charity trip to Lesotho, where the Prince opened a dining hall at the Phelisanong Children’s Home.
His close friend also remains an ambassador for Sentebale, Harry’s charity, which he founded in honour of his mother Princess Diana.
LORD VIVIAN: AFRICAN PR GURU, WITH AN IMPRESSIVE LINEAGE
Charles Crespigny Hussey Vivian, aka 7th Baron Vivian, is a global player in PR, and spends several months of the year in Africa. It’s thought he’s advised Prince Harry on some of his African charity trips over the years
A major player in the world of PR, Lord Vivian – full title Lord Charles Crespigny Hussey Vivian, aka 7th Baron Vivian – appeared second from left on the wedding party photo, and is thought to have helped the Prince set up several of his charity trips to Africa.
Lord Vivian and the Prince were introduced by mutual friend Mark Dyer, Harry’s long-term mentor, who’s also pictured on the far right on the band of brothers image.
Lord Vivian already spends several months a year in Africa due to his role as director of Tavistock PR, and is thought to be close enough to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to have attended Archie’s christening.
HENRY WARHURST: WED TO PRINCE HARRY’S FORMER NANNY’S NIECE
Nicknamed ‘Wago’, Henry Warhurst, a car collector who runs his own storage company called Henry’s Car Barn, stands directly to the right of Harry in the photograph.
Prince Harry draped his arm over his close friend Wago’s shoulder on his wedding night. The car fanatic runs a specialist classic car storage unit
Warhurst is married to Tamara Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, who is the niece of Tiggy Legge-Bourke – Prince Harry’s former nanny. The pair wed in April 2016 in Wales.
It’s thought that the Duchess of Sussex and Wago’s wife Tamara are also good friends, having bonded while at the wedding of Harry’s Eton pal Charlie van Straubenzee to bride Daisy Jenks in 2019.
CHARLIE GILKES: MAYFAIR CLUB ENTREPRENEUR AND EX BEAU OF PIPPA
Tangled lives: The Gilkes brothers have long been close with Prince William and Prince Harry, with Charlie’s older brother Alexander once wed to Meghan Markle’s close friend Misha Nonoo. (Pictured right at Mr Fogg’s House of Botanicals in 2018)
Nightclub entrepreneur Gilkes once dated Pippa Middleton and remained on close terms when they split – she was invited to his wedding in Puglia in 2014, which Prince Harry attended
Glitzy nightclub mogul Charlie Gilkes runs the company Inception Group, which oversees high society haunts including Bunga Bunga and the Mr Foggs chain of cocktail bars.
Nearly a brother-in-law to William, Gilkes once dated Pippa Middleton. His older brother Alexander, who attended Eton with Princes William and Harry, was married to Misha Nonoo, who now has a close friendship with Meghan Markle, but the couple split in 2016.
At his Italian wedding in 2014, Gilkes enjoyed royals galore in attendance, with Prince Harry, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie all heading to Puglia for his nuptials to Anneke von Trotha Taylor. Pippa also attended the wedding of her former beau, along with her parents.
JACK MANN: PRINCE HARRY’S ‘REAL BEST MAN’
Close friend: The Duke of Sussex first became pals with Jack Mann during their time together at Sandhurst. Right: However the Prince wasn’t at Mann’s wedding to osteopath Isabella Clark in Suffolk over the weekend
Polo buddies: the two former servicemen continued to be close after their days at Sandhurst (Pictured at Coworth Park, Ascot in 2015)
Prince Harry befriended Jack Mann at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He is the son of Simon Mann, a SAS officer turned mercenary, who was jailed for five years for allegedly trying to overthrow the government in Equatorial Guinea in 2004.
Harry’s friend served with the British Army for tours of Iraq and Afghanistan. After leaving the army he worked in Libya as a country manager for a UK security company called Aegis Defence Services. He went on to create his own private security company in 2015 called Alma Risk.
This weekend, Mann, 40, exchanged vows with osteopath Isabella Clark at St Peter’s church in Stutton, Suffolk, where guests included Harry’s friend Thomas van Straubenzee, godfather of Princess Charlotte.
MARK DYER: THE MENTOR WHO TACKLED TEEN PRINCE ON DRUG USE
Mark Dyer appeared in Prince Harry’s memoir Spare several times, including the time the young royal dabbled with drugs. Right: Dyer also travelled with the Prince on his gap year
Former Welsh Guards officer Mark Dyer, known as Marko to his friends, worked as an equerry to Charles in the 1990s
Perhaps the most influential of all of the band of brothers, Dyer, far right in the Netflix photo has been a big brother figure in Harry’s life.
He is the flame-haired equerry turned pub owner who saw his name resurface in the headlines after the release of Spare.
In the book, he appears as the finger-wagging royal bodyguard who confronted the prince about his use of illegal drugs.
But in reality, Dyer was also a mentor, a big brother figure and even a ‘second dad’ to Harry and William after the death of their mother in 1997.
The former Welsh Guards officer, known as Marko to his friends, would visit William at boarding school, helped foster Harry’s romantic relationships and protected the young prince from prying photographers.
Since then, he created – and then sold – a chain of pubs. And he has fought a battle with stomach cancer, returning home to his family last year after six weeks in hospital.
His son, Jasper, is Prince Harry’s godson, who served as a page boy at Harry and Meghan’s wedding in 2018.
He was also a mentor and a ‘second dad’ to a young Harry and William after the death of their mother in 1997. He is pictured with the Princes in 1999
Dyer is a trustee of Harry’s charity Sentebale, which supports orphans and vulnerable children in Lesotho, many of whom are affected by HIV and AIDS
Dyer, educated at Cheltenham College, was steadying influence and a big brother figure to the princes in the mid-Nineties when he spent 18 months working as an equerry to Charles.
The Prince of Wales appointed Dyer to keep an eye on his sons, a male counterpart to royal nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke.
But Dyer’s role was not always to provide a softer support for the teenaged prince. Royal biographer Penny Junor once described Mark as one of the ‘few people who talks some sense into him’.
In Spare, Harry recounted losing his virginity to an unnamed older woman in a field behind a ‘very busy pub’ at the age of 17.
Harry served as an usher at Mark Dyer’s wedding to Amanda Kline at St Edmund’s Church at Crickhowell, in Powys, Wales in 2010
He was still a student at Eton College in 2001 when Marko paid him a visit, with Harry suspecting he had heard about the one-night stand – which he described as a ‘humiliating’ experience.
But over lunch in a cafeteria in the city centre, Mark – who had a ‘sombre look’ on his face – told the Prince that he had been sent to ‘find out the truth’ about his drug-taking.
King Charles’s press office had been informed that a newspaper had evidence of Harry taking drugs.
When Harry did admit to smoking cannabis as a teenager, it was Marko who escorted him to spend a day at a residential centre for drug users in Peckham, South London, at the insistence of his father.
When his school years ended, Harry’s closeness to Dyer grew as the pair travelled together to Australia, Argentina and Lesotho during Harry’s gap year
