Trump and Obama won’t be at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding

Programming note: No royal wedding invitation? Not to worry. You can stream every moment on your mobile phone, laptop, or wherever you get CNN, starting at 5 a.m. ET on Saturday, May 19.

British royal weddings are usually grand affairs of state, where presidents and prime ministers rub shoulders with obscure European monarchs. Not so, the nuptials of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Kensington Palace announced on Tuesday that the royal couple would not be inviting political leaders to the event, at least not on the basis of their official position. Which means neither US President Donald Trump nor his predecessor Barack Obama will be there. Not even British Prime Minister Theresa May was deemed worthy of a place on the guest list.

Instead, only personal friends of the couple will be inside Windsor Castle for the royal event of the year on May 19.

“It has been decided that an official list of political leaders – both UK and international – is not required for Prince Harry and Ms. Markle’s wedding,” a Kensington Palace spokesman said. “Her Majesty’s Government was consulted on this decision, which was taken by the royal household.”

A White House official confirmed neither Trump nor first lady Melania were invited; nor was Prime Minister May, Downing Street said.

A royal source said that while Harry and Meghan hoped to see Barack and Michelle Obama soon, the former US President and his wife would not be at the wedding. The source would not say definitively whether the Obamas – who are close to the royal couple – had been invited.

Unlike the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in 2011, this royal wedding is not an official state occasion and is regarded as a private ceremony, so there is no onus on the couple to invite political leaders.

CNN understands that some world leaders may be invited on the basis of their personal relationships with Harry and Meghan.

The ceremony, which will take place in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, is being held in a much smaller venue than Westminster Abbey, where Harry’s older brother, Prince William, married Kate Middleton. Around 1,900 people attended the ceremony in 2011, while the chapel hosting the wedding in May has a capacity of just 800.

Related: Your questions about the Royal wedding, answered

A number of heads of state were present at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in 2011.

Markle has called Trump ‘divisive’ and ‘misogynistic’

Rumors about the guest list – specifically the inclusion or not of the Obamas and President Trump – have been swirling for months.

***STRICT 1800GMT EMBARGO*** All content, text, audio and visual is embargoed until 1800 GMT The broadcast version of the Royal couple interview will be distributed via BT Tower Local Ends at 1715G (45 minutes before Transmission Embargo of 1800G). The main two shot will be on HD/JMIX/S3 and the cutaways will be on HD/JMIX/S5. We expect this to be carried and passed on by all agencies. Separately we will create a WeTransfer file to be distributed later. The transcript, also EMBARGOED UNTIL 1800G, will be sent out via PA as soon as practicable. As per the Palace's Notes to editors: The interview will be provided free of charge to broadcasters in the UK, Commonwealth Realms, and Ms. Markle's home country of the United States

Related article Will Meghan Markle become the royal family's silent feminist?

While Prince Harry, who is obliged as a royal to be politically neutral, has never spoken publicly about Trump, Markle strongly criticized the now president in 2016.

In an interview on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore in May that year, two months before Harry and Meghan first met, she described Trump (who was then a Republican candidate for the presidency) as “divisive” and “misogynistic.”

There had been speculation in the UK media that British officials feared the political consequences if the couple decide to invite Barack and Michelle Obama, with whom they are friends, but not Donald Trump.

Harry has become close to the Obamas through their support for the Invictus Games, an event for injured servicemen and women that was started by the UK royal in 2014.

Barack Obama and Prince Harry were spotted together at the Invictus Games in Toronto last year.

He recently interviewed the former president on BBC radio and the pair were previously involved in a light-hearted social media war after the Obamas made a viral video challenging Harry to “bring it” at the Invictus Games in 2016.

Guest lists have been problematic for many royal couples in the past. The royal family was accused of favoring the UK Conservative Party over Labour when former Conservative Prime Ministers John Major and Margaret Thatcher received invitations to Prince William’s wedding, while Labour leaders Tony Blair and Gordon Brown did not.

On that occasion, Buckingham Palace responded that Major was invited in his role as former guardian of William and Harry when their mother Diana died in 1997, not for his status as a former prime minister.

Public invited inside castle grounds

Kensington Palace has also released some of the names of the 2,640 people who will be invited into the grounds of Windsor Castle on May 19 to watch the newlyweds depart from the castle on a carriage procession through the town of Windsor.

The invitees come from across the UK and include charity workers, injured servicemen and young community leaders, according to a statement published Tuesday.

Seven recipients of The Diana Award, which recognizes youth who are working to change the world in the memory of William and Harry’s mother Princess Diana, are also among those invited, according to a press release.

Invitees include an east London teenager working to prevent knife crime, a Birmingham teen tackling racism and mental health issues in her community, and anti-bullying activists.

They will join 500 members of the Royal Household and 100 pupils from two local schools who are also being welcomed into the castle grounds.