Why could none of Prince Harry’s old mates put him up during his visit to the UK where he stayed in a ‘luxury hotel’?

Prince Harry is believed to have spent the night in a luxury London hotel last night after flying to the UK from his home in California to visit his cancer-stricken father.

The Duke of Sussex, 39, flew more than 5,000 miles yesterday from his home in California to London for what ended up being a 45-minute meeting the King.

Harry did not spend the night in any royal residence, as he is effectively homeless on UK soil since his eviction from Frogmore Cottage last year. 

And while he may no longer have a home in the UK, the royal has kept close to various pals – most of whom are London based – which begs the question, why did no one put him up?

Take Mark Dyer, for example, the former equerry who has been described as Harry’s ‘second father’.

Mr Dyer, who is Archie’s godfather, is based in west London just a stone’s throwaway from Clarence House.

One of Harry’s oldest pals, Charlie van Straubenzee, is also based in London. Harry served as his best man and has been friend’s with him since primary school.

Tom Inskip, another old Eton friend who has stayed close to Harry, is also based in London.

Harry, who boarded the 11-hour flight hours after his father revealed he was ill, flew from America to London alone, leaving Meghan, Archie and Lilibet back at their California home.

The Duke of Sussex’s transatlantic dash had raised hopes his return to Britain will be used to heal wounds with King Charles and a chance to reach out to his brother Prince William amid their on-going feud.

Harry has barely spoken with his father since the death of Queen Elizabeth and it is reported there was no contact when he celebrated his 39th birthday.

Here, FEMAIL looks at Harry’s pals who he didn’t stay with on his flying visit..

Mark Dyer: West London

Prince Harry has remained close to Mark Dyer, former equerry to King Charles in the 1990s, since the death of his mother Princess Diana. 

Mark Dyer, 55, is a long-time mentor and is often referred to as the Duke’s ‘second dad’.

The former Welsh Guards officer, known to friends as Marko, served as an equerry to King Charles during the 1990s, and has remained close with Harry and William ever since. 

In fact, he’s been touted as the man who could help build a bridge between the warring brothers. 

‘Mark can always be relied on to talk sense into Harry and will be a stoic under-the-radar support for Harry in what has the propensity to be a stress-inducing time for him. He also has the benefit of knowing what it’s like to live through a cancer diagnosis,’ a source close to Mark told the Times.

Mark is Archie’s godfather and based in west London,  so its surprising he wouldn’t be able to put Harry up for the evening. 

It is said that, after the death of Princess Diana, Mark stepped up and was a strong presence in the lives of both Prince Harry and Prince William.

When Harry admitted to smoking cannabis as a teenager and then Prince Charles insisted he spend a day at a residential centre for drug users in Peckham, South London, meeting recovering cocaine and heroin addicts, it was Dyer who escorted him along with his royal protection officers.

However, after his spell as an employee to the then Prince Charles ended, he remained a mentor to Harry.

He was reportedly fond of the Prince’s former girlfriend Chelsy Davy and sneaked her out to the ranch where Harry was staying in Argentina during his gap year before starting his Army training at Sandhurst.

Royal biographer Penny Junor once described Mark as one of the ‘few people who talks some sense into [Harry]’.

Dyer enjoyed a brief romance with ex-royal nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke but wed Texan heiress Amanda Kline in 2010.

Prince Harry was an usher at the ceremony at St Edmund’s Church at Crickhowell, in Powys, Wales.

The pair are so close, Harry and Meghan even decided to name Mark as Archie’s Godfather – with Harry holding the same responsibility for Mark’s own son Jasper.

These days, Mark runs a chain of bars and restaurants in west London, and he is also a trustee of Harry’s Sentebale charity.

It is thought Harry and Meghan had secret dates at Mark’s establishments when they first met.

Charlie van Straubenzee: London

Prince William met Thomas and Charlie van Straubenzee when he attended Ludgrove School in Berkshire, where George, Charlotte and Louis are now attending.

Thomas’ younger brother, Charlie is very close with Prince Harry and is another godfather to his son Archie.

The families have been friends for decades, with their uncle, William an Straubenzee, a close friend of their mother Princess Diana. 

Harry made annual summer visits to the Straubenzee family home in Cornwall while he was growing up. But with Thomas now based in London – he could have easily put him up.

The friends have been pictured together in the past attending events such as the Rugby World Cup in 2015, where they watched England play Australia. 

Charlie and Harry were known as perpetual bachelors, and when Charlie’s relationship with Daisy got serious in 2016, a mutual friend told the Daily Mail: ‘This means Harry really does have to find a girlfriend.’ Luckily this was around the time he began his relationship with Meghan. 

Both brothers were ushers at the Sussexes’ wedding in 2018 and Charlie even gave a speech at the reception. 

In his wedding speech, Charlie allegedly made reference to the prince’s ‘ginger locks’ and teased Harry about his days as a dormitory monitor at their school.

‘All I wanted was a cuddle from my mummy,’ he said. ‘Instead Harry nicked my teddy bear and chucked it out onto the roof. Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you, how can you put someone in charge of a dorm when that someone is worse behaved than the whole dorm combined?’

The Duke of Sussex acted as Charlie’s best man at his wedding to Daisy, a society wedding and party videographer who runs a company with her sister Kitty, on August 4 later that year in Frensham, Surrey.

Princess Eugenie and her now-husband Jack Brooksbank also attended the nuptials.

Meanwhile Prince Harry is believed to be godfather to Charlie’s daughter Clover, whom he welcomed in 2020. 

The Princes also knew Charlie and Thomas’s late brother Henry, who died in a car crash aged 18 in 2002.

The funeral was attended by members of the Royal Family, and a memorial fund was set up in his name in 2007, with Princes William and Harry as patrons. The charity helps schools in Uganda.

Every year a Christmas carol concert is held at St Luke’s Church in Chelsea, organised by the Henry van Straubenzee Memorial Fund to boost funds for its projects.

In 2020, Harry honoured his late friend Henry van Straubenzee with a Christmas donation to the charity fund set up in his name.

Tom Inskip: London

Tom, also known as ‘Skippy’, is one of Prince Harry’s oldest friends, having met the Duke of Sussex when they were classmates at Eton College.

‘Skippy’ and sister Victoria — ‘Tor’ to her friends — have known Princes William and Harry since childhood. 

Tom, who works as the president for Afiniti, is based in London too, but didn’t put Harry up for the night.

Tom Inskip’s father is Owen Inskip, a field-master of Prince Charles’s favourite hunt, The Beaufort, who has made a fortune over the years from a number of businesses, including ‘managing’ thousands of council homes for local authorities and upmarket estates. 

The Inskips were regulars at Club H, the ‘nightclub’ Harry set up in the basement of Highgrove. 

Mr Inskip was with Harry on his ill-fated trip to Croatia in August 2011, when they got drunk on vodka, whisky, beer and tequila, and were photographed jumping into a pool fully-clothed at a nightclub on the party island of Hvar.

He was also with him on a skiing trip to Verbier in November 2012 when they amused themselves by childishly hurling snowballs at unsuspecting passers-by from a balcony.

He was with him at a party in 2010 when Harry was seen inhaling ‘hippy crack’ — also known as nitrous oxide or laughing gas — a recreational drug which, although perfectly legal, has been associated with a number of fatalities.

And he was with Harry during his infamous trip to Las Vegas in 2012, when the prince was photographed naked during a game of ‘strip billiards’.

But he’s been leading a more settled life since marrying flame-haired literary agent the Hon Lara Hughes-Young in Jamaica in 2017.

The groom and his bride, the daughter of Lord St Helens, hired out the super exclusive Round Hill Hotel and Villas, a private 110-acre plantation style resort first built as a colony of cottages for the rich, famous and glamorous of the 1950s.

It was one of the first events to which Harry took Meghan, and he was one of the ushers.  

However the two apparently fell out after Tom warning Harry against marrying Meghan.  

According to the 2020 book Finding Freedom, Tom expressed doubts about how quickly the relationship was moving and decided to warn his friend Harry.

He is believed to have advised Harry and Meghan to live together before ‘doing anything more serious.’

A source close to Duke and Duchess of Sussex told the book’s authors that although his advice ‘came from a good place,’ Prince Harry ‘didn’t totally see it that way’.

As a result, Mr Inskip and his wife Lara were reportedly ‘punished’ by being excluded from Prince Harry and Meghan’s wedding party at Frogmore House. 

However they have since made up. 

Arthur Landon: London

Another friend of Harry’s who dates back to his school days, Arthur Landon is a royal himself.

He is the son of Austro-Hungarian Princess Katalina Esterhazy de Galantha and Tim Landon, but mainly works as a filmmaker.  

When his father passed away in 2007, Arthur inherited his fortunes and soon became one of the wealthiest young men in the UK.

A friend to both Prince Harry and Prince William, Arthur was a guest at both their weddings and still lives in London. 

He was also present on a now-infamous trip to Las Vegas in 2012, from which photos of a half-naked Prince Harry emerged.

However, Arthur managed to go unnoticed on the trip and was not pictured in any photos. 

Adam Bidwell: London

Adam Bidwell – who hit the headlines in 2013 after a romance with singer Katherine Jenkins – is also part of the inner circle. 

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.

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: London

A major player in the world of PR, Lord Vivian – full title Lord Charles Crespigny Hussey Vivian, aka 7th Baron Vivian  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.

Jack Mann: Oxfordshire

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.

While he’s not based in London, it’s a short drive to Oxforshire where he lives. 

GUY PELLY: London and Warwickshire

Jokingly known as the ‘court jester’ Guy is the son of Lady Carolyn Herbert, who was a close friend of Princess Diana.

Such is the closeness of the family, Prince William skipped the late Queen’s Christmas lunch in 2015 to support Guy at his father’s memorial service following his sudden death.

In many of the pictures of the Prince of Wales in nightclubs over the years, Guy is by his side.

The party pal now splits his time between London and Warwickshire, so certainly could have put up the Prince.  

The Newcastle graduate, 41, also organised the William’s stag do in 2011 – fittingly as he has previously owned many night clubs including Mahiki in Kensington as well as Public, Whisky Mist and Tonteria, all in west London.

His own wedding, to Holiday Inn heiress Elizabeth Wilson, was attended by both William and Harry, and said to be a ‘wild’ three-day affair in Memphis, Tennessee.

Kate didn’t attend, and the nuptials were also seen as the reason behind Harry’s split with Cressida Bonas, with the pair not seeing eye-to-eye over arrangements including plane fare and Harry’s ‘boys nights’.

In 2014, Guy was banned from driving for a third time after being guilty of drink-driving in his £90,000 sports car.

His other antics include shimmying 40 feet up a marquee during a Prince’s Trust concert, stripped to his boxer shorts.

In 2006, he was questioned by police for trying to break into Westonbirt girls school where, he reportedly said, he was ‘looking for totty’.

He was erroneously blamed by Palace officials for introducing the teenage Harry to drugs, and ostensibly cast out of the royal circle, he didn’t complain and stayed silent.

When it later emerged that he’d had nothing to do with Harry’s adolescent experimenting with cannabis, Pelly was welcomed back into the royal fold almost as a third brother.

Originally, Guy was William’s friend. In age, they are just six months apart and met in 2001 when both were junior members of the Beaufort Hunt.

Then, when William was on his gap year travels, for a time Guy became close to Harry — who at 16 was plunging into the most reckless period of his life.

Stowe-educated Pelly, whose sculptor mother Vanda is a member of the Tate & Lyle sugar dynasty, was at that time a student at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester, with a reputation for liking a good time.

JAMES MEADE: Berkshire

Meanwhile James Meade, who Harry claimed was the other ‘real’ best man at Prince William’s wedding, went to Eton with the older royal.

He is the son of Olympic gold medallist equestrian Richard Meade, who dated Princess Anne — before she transferred her attentions to his teammate, Captain Mark Phillips.

He is now based on the Englefield estate, where Pippa Middleton got married, in west Berkshire – less than an hour’s drive from London. 

Harry’s infamous Nazi uniform gaffe happened at a ‘Colonials and Natives’ themed bash which was held in a marquee at the Meade house in honour of James’s birthday.

Guy was by Harry’s side in many of the pictures – and bizarrely – dressed as the Queen.

James is also close with the Princess of Wales, whom he even accompanied to the Badminton Horse Trials after her brief split from William in May 2007.

Known to his friends as ‘Meadey’ or ‘Badger’ he once took part in a charity boxing match at Boodles Boxing Ball in 2008 – watched by William and Kate, under the nickname ‘the Badger’.

At the Prince’s request, James accompanied Kate to the Badminton Horse Trials in 2007 during her split from William, a sign of the great trust he places in his friend. He also gave a speech at their wedding.

He and his wife Lady Laura Marsham, daughter of the 8th Earl of Romney, are both godparents to Princess Charlotte.

The couple have been married since 2013, when William was an usher at their wedding.

Meade reportedly used to take the Prince drinking at the Cuckoo Club in Piccadilly in their youth, where he reportedly always encouraged the royal heir to hit the dance floor.

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