Andrew Demanded a Grand Wedding For Daughter Eugenie to Match Harry and Meghan's: Report

Andrew, long known for his sense of entitlement, was allegedly resolved that his daughter's wedding would stand as an occasion befitting a princess of the blood.

When Princess Eugenie prepared to wed Jack Brooksbank at Windsor Castle in October 2018, her father had already drawn a line. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, long known for his sense of entitlement, was allegedly resolved that his daughter's wedding would stand as an occasion befitting a princess of the blood. Not a quieter version of the Prince Harry and Meghan Markle spectacle from that summer. Not a step down. An equal.

That insistence, according to sources who spoke to PEOPLE, was the culmination of a worldview Mountbatten-Windsor had carried for decades. He had fought from the start to ensure his daughters, Eugenie and his elder sister Princess Beatrice, entered the world with every designation the Palace could bestow. Both were styled 'Her Royal Highness' and accorded princess titles at birth. "She's a granddaughter of the Queen — a princess of the blood," says Andrew Lownie, author of Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York. "He believed she should get everything."

That belief just grew stronger in the months leading up to Eugenie's nuptials. Harry and Markle had married at the same St. George's Chapel in May 2018, drawing an estimated 1.9 billion television viewers in one of the most-watched broadcasts in modern history. And then, when Eugenie’s wedding approached in October, the father made no qualms about hiding his awareness of that benchmark, nor of his determination not to be measured against it unfavorably.

Later, in an interview with ITV's This Morning, Mountbatten-Windsor addressing the comparison said, "It will not be the same as the previous one that was held in May. This is not a public wedding, this is meant to be a family wedding," adding, "There are a few more than Harry had, but that's just the nature of Eugenie and Jack — they've got so many friends that they need a church of that size to fit them all in."

The guest count bore him out — around 850 attendees, compared with Harry and Markle's 600. And in only numbers, Mountbatten-Windsor had his parity. What he could not replicate was the audience — Harry's wedding had drawn a global viewership that had everything to do with the world's enduring fascination with the late Princess Diana's sons, and no decree from Mountbatten-Windsor could close that gap.