With billions in the bank, boyish good looks, a property portfolio that eclipses the Crown’s and close ties to royalty, it is little wonder that Hugh Grosvenor — The seventh Duke of Westminster — was long considered to be Britain’s most eligible bachelor.
However, after asking his girlfriend, Olivia Henson, to marry him while staying at his family home in Cheshire last year, Grosvenor, 33, has hang up that title — and they tie the knot today. It looks like he’s leaving the capital too, despite owning swathes of properties across London’s most expensive postcodes.
The duke, who inherited his title and the Grosvenor Estate in 2016 after his father died, runs the global property company Grosvenor Group Limited. All of this keeps him busy and, as you’d expect, incredibly wealthy (according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2024, he is estimated to be worth £10.127 billion). Henson, 30, works as an account manager for Belazu, a B-Corp certified food company based in London.
The pair are getting married in Chester, where they plan to live as a married couple. Grosvenor’s status as King Charles’ godson and godfather to Prince George means that it’ll be a royal affair, with multiple members of the family in attendance, including Prince William and Princess Eugenie. The Princess of Wales, who has been out of the spotlight as she undergoes treatment for cancer, is also not believed to be in attendance.
Prince William is reportedly an usher, but Prince Harry is expected to miss the event, over worries his attendance may cause family awkwardness. The King and Queen Camilla are also missing the 'society wedding of the year', over claims they have not forgotten about what happened at the 2004 wedding of Hugh's sister Lady Tamara, when they were told they would have to sit separately. The then Prince Charles later decided not to attend.
Despite Grosvenor’s high-ranking status and wealth, the duke keeps a fairly low profile (there is little evidence of him courting publicity). He might own substantial chunks of Belgravia and Mayfair, but he’s relatively low-key. Even the accompanying engagement announcement photograph spoke to favouring a more relaxed aesthetic — him, opting for an open-neck linen shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Her, with loose hair, minimal make-up and a simple jersey T-shirt.
But with their nuptials being the closest thing we’ll have to a royal wedding for quite some time, the interest in the Duke’s love life just keeps growing. Here’s everything we know about Hugh Grosvenor, his family, his London property empire and the wedding that’s brought Chester to a standstill.
‘Virtue, not ancestry’
This is the Grosvenor family motto. It is fairly ironic, given they can be traced back some 1,000 years. But the Grosvenors became wealthy in the mid-1600s when they were first associated with London property, the management of which is where their vast fortune stems from.
Born in January 1991, Hugh Grosvenor grew up in Cheshire at Eaton Hall — an impossibly stately home that sits in just shy of 11,000 acres of parkland and formal gardens. The house has been rebuilt numerous times since its first iteration in the 17th century and now resembles an imposing French chateau.
Grosvenor celebrated his 21st birthday here in 2012 with a party for 800 guests — including Prince Harry. This had a neon theme and Michael McIntyre as part of the entertainment.
Family matters and a minimalist lifestyle
The duke’s late father, Gerald, the 6th Duke, was born and raised in rural Ireland. He inherited his title from an uncle and was told about it as schoolboy when accosted by a reporter. It’s fair to say he was less prepared than most for succession of this scale. Despite his extraordinary wealth, he never wavered from having unfussy preferences, particularly when it came to food. His choices belonged more to an Irish farmyard kitchen than any famous London restaurant. “I like simple meals... an omelette, a salad, a baked potato,” he once said. “I’ve never understood all that nouvelle cuisine.” This attitude surely influenced his own children, including his only son, Hugh.
Gerald’s wife and Hugh’s mother, Natalia, has Russian lineage and includes Tsar Nicholas I and the writer Alexander Pushkin among her ancestors.
Hugh has three sisters, Lady Tamara, 42 — Prince William’s closest friend — Lady Edwina, 41, a prison reform campaigner who is married to TV presenter and historian Dan Snow, and Lady Viola, 29.
Royal connections
The Grosvenors and the Royal Family have been close for generations, as is evident when you consider the reciprocal and symbiotic appointing of godparents within each family over the decades.
The duke’s mother, Natalia, is Prince William’s godmother. His father was also specially chosen to act as a mentor to William by the late Queen, who was Gerald’s 14th cousin once removed.
Hugh is one of King Charles’ 33 godchildren, with the monarch, then the Prince of Wales, attending his 1991 christening. Then, in 2013, the duke was chosen as one of Prince George’s godfathers.
He has been photographed with both Princes William and Harry over the years. The brothers have both been guests at the duke’s 37,000-acre Finca La Garganta estate, near Seville in Spain.
Location, location, location
The duke didn’t go to Eton or any other high-profile boys’ public school, which is traditional for aristocratic children. This is perhaps because his own father hated life at Harrow.
Instead, he went to Ellesmere College, a co-educational day school in Shrophire, where fees are £6,000 per term and where he met his former long-term girlfriend Harriet Tomlinson. The duke then studied Countryside Management at Newcastle University, which gave him some of the tools he needed to head up the Grosvenor Estate.
Who is Olivia Henson?
Olivia Henson and Hugh Grosvenor had been dating for just two years when they got engaged at the Duke’s family home at Eaton Hall in Cheshire. At the time, the pair released a statement saying that “members of both their families [were] absolutely delighted with the news.”
The duke’s bride-to-be has no titles but it can be assumed from her education that she is from a privileged background. As a young child, she went to the independent Dragon School in Oxford followed by Marlborough College in Gloucestershire, where the Princess of Wales was also educated. She then read Hispanic Studies and Italian at Trinity College Dublin.
The pair are thought to have met through mutual friends. Henson is now employed by a food ingredients company in London.
Billionaire footprint
When his father died in August 2016, Grosvenor gained the 7th Dukedom and financial inheritance of about £9 billion. However, he is not the owner of this sum — he cannot spend it as he wishes, he is merely a beneficiary. This means he was afforded inheritance tax exemption which, needless to say, was widely reported on and attracted significant criticism.
The property company Grosvenor Group makes up the lion’s share of the duke’s wealth. He is the owner and chair of the business, which has a portfolio of properties worldwide.
The 2023 Sunday Times Rich list placed him at number 11, up from number 13 the year prior, with an estimated fortune of £9.87 billion.
Charitable endeavours
The duke includes ongoing charitable work in his timetable, backing organisations that have both a personal and universal significance to him and his family.
He is chair of trustees of the Westminster Foundation, through which vulnerable youth and their families are supported and given opportunities which otherwise elude them. He also supports the Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre, a charity set up by his father which supports wounded British military veterans.
During the pandemic, Grosvenor donated £12.5 million to support the NHS as it struggled to cope with the pressures of the deadly Covid-19 virus. He donated a further £1 million to the University of Oxford to fund research projects on Covid-related mental health issues.
“On behalf of my family and everyone at the Grosvenor Estate, I want to say a huge thank you to all our amazing NHS staff and everyone providing critical frontline services,” he said at the time. “We are all humbled and incredibly grateful that you are working tirelessly to keep us safe and keep the country functioning. NHS staff and key workers don’t work in isolation. They have children and families whose health and wellbeing will also be highly impacted by this crisis. As they keep us safe, I want to help provide as much support to them and their families as we can.”
Oh...and he’s an Olympian
The duke has represented the UK at Olympic skeet shooting competitions. Skeet shooting is a version of clay shooting and relies on participants hitting a moving target.
His wedding is taking place in Chester Cathedral
Grosvenor recently spoke to local news outlet the Chester Standard ahead of his June 7 wedding proceedings, which he admitted would be a “big, big thing for the city.”
“I'm unbelievably excited and I also wanted to make it very clear how unbelievably helpful people have been,” the duke told the newspaper, “how supportive they've been so far, which I'm unbelievably grateful for because I do realise that it's going to be a big, big thing for the city. It's going to be certainly a huge thing for us, and we're grateful for all the help really."
Grosvenor went on to detail his plans to move to Chester, saying: "It's obviously a place where we will live. We'll be building our lives together and we're slowly transitioning to move up from London and be much more permanent here and really putting roots down. So yes, it was a really easy decision in the end."
It’s unknown where the Duke and Duchess will choose to reside in Chester, but it’s assumed they’ll be spending time at Eaton Hall, given that the stately home is a largely private residence and not open to the public.
