There are conflicting reports about whether Prince William will be Prince Harry's best man in his wedding to Meghan Markle in May 2018. Various headlines across the internet contradict each other: "Prince Harry Asks Prince William To Be His Best Man!" "Prince William Probably Won't Be Prince Harry's Best Man." It's enough to make any royal-wedding watcher's head spin.
So we decided to get to the bottom of this.
For starters, a "source" told Us Weekly that Prince Harry has asked Prince William to be his best man.
"Harry has several close guy friends, but there's no way he would ask anyone but William to take on the top job," said the source.
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But there's just one tiny problem. There's traditionally no such thing as a best man at a royal wedding.
"The best man or best men are officially called supporters," Marlene Koenig, an expert on British and European royalty, told Town & Country. "William will probably be Harry's supporter." So, even though the roles are similar, if you're going to get into semantics, William might not be Harry's "best man."
It gets even more complicated, though: According to The Guardian, William broke protocol when he asked Harry to be his best man, rather than his "supporter," in 2011. Their father Charles, the Prince of Wales, chose his brothers, Andrew and Edward, as supporters in his wedding to Diana in 1981.
So it seems likely that William will carry the best man title, breaking with tradition on yet another element of the royal wedding. "They'll call him a best man," WeddingWire trend expert Anne Chertoff tells Refinery29. "From the planners I spoke with, the term best man is what's used, not supporter." But no matter what title he carries, we know he'll stand by his brother's side.
William will also help plan Harry's "stag weekend," or bachelor party. Harry, ever the party animal, hosted Will's back in 2011. According to Brides, "While details are scarce, Will's office confirmed that the Prince's party took place in late March (about a month before the wedding). Hosted by his brother, Prince Harry, at a country estate, the party included Will's close friends James Meade, Thomas van Straubenzee, and Guy Pelly."
Another tidbit we're sure of? Just like in 2011, kids will play a big part in the wedding. "It is very likely that Prince George and Princess Charlotte of Cambridge will be a page boy and a bridesmaid," Koenig told Town & Country. "Anyone else is a guess."