Two Just Stop Oil protesters caused chaos at the wedding of Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster, when they sent a cloud of orange smoke into the crowd.
Prince William witnessed the silver-haired zealots as they were led away by police following the Duke and Olivia Henson’s ceremony at Chester Chathedral.
The interruption came as the happy couple posed for photographs outside the building, in what has been tipped as the high society wedding of the year.
Police quickly intervened and apprehended the two women involved as the Prince of Wales observed from the distance.
In a statement issued following the wedding, Just Stop Oil quoted protester Polly, 73, a care worker from Norfolk, who said: “Weddings are a time of coming together in celebration to make a commitment to the future.
“However, for countless millions around the world there is no future unless we come together to stop oil and gas.”
A second protester Sheila, 69, from Bristol, who worked as an NHS nurse for 50 years, was quoted as saying: “What do we value most? The wealth of billionaires like the Duke of Westminster or the lives of the billions who are being destroyed by the fossil fuel industry?
“Extreme wealth and the climate crisis are both symptoms of a broken system that is not serving most ordinary people.”
Barbara Williams, 81, from Cheshire, who was standing next to the protesters in the crowd, said: “I feel a bit shaken after it. We were standing next to them all day.”
Her friend Andrea Machin, 56, added: “They were already here when we arrived at 7am, they had shopping trolleys with them.
“Everyone was watching the bride and groom and then we just saw orange and they had what looked like a fire extinguisher with them.
“The police realised quite quickly what was happening and pulled them out. One of them said it was for her grandchildren. It happened just as William was coming out of the door.”
Rhona Dalziel, 57, said: “One of them had been reading a Richard Osman book. It’s bizarre.”