Who Is Charlie van Straubenzee? 9 Things to Know About Prince Harry's Friend and Archie's Godfather

1. He's been friends with Harry for YEARS.2. He's a member of the "Glosse Posse."3. His brother is friends with Harry's brother.4. He's not the first van Straubenzee to be named a royal godparent.5. He works in finance.6. He spoke at Harry's wedding to Meghan Markle.7. He got married last year too.8. He was Harry's wingman for years.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (opens in new tab) have made a concerted effort to maintain their son, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor's, privacy. For Harry and Meghan (opens in new tab), that plan included keeping the details of Archie's christening—including the identities of his godparents—a secret.

Of course, not much about the royal family can really stay secret for long and just hours after Archie's christening, The Sunday Times (opens in new tab) was already reporting on the identity of one of his godparents: Harry's long-time friend, Charlie van Straubenzee.

"I can exclusively reveal that Charlie van Straubenzee, one of Prince Harry’s oldest, closest friends, is a godfather to Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. More on Archie’s big day @thesundaytimes including Harry and Meghan’s touching tribute to Diana," the Times' royal correspondent, Roya Nikkhah (opens in new tab), tweeted.

So who is Charlie Van Straubenzee? Here's what you need to know about the guy who will always big part of Archie's life.

According to People, Harry and Charlie's friendship dates back to their days at Ludgrove Prep School. Ludgrove students start at age eight, meaning Charlie and Harry have been friends for two decades and change.

Prince Harry is a card-carrying (if they have cards—they might. Who's to say) member of the "Glosse Posse," a group of friends of Harry and his older brother, Prince William, from Gloucestershire. According to Sky News (opens in new tab), Charlie is also a member of the adorably-named crew, who are often spotted playing polo and generally being suave.

There's a lot of overlap in Harry and Will's social circles and that includes within the van Straubenzee family. Charlie's older brother, Thomas (who goes by "Vans") is a good friend of Will's, according to Sky News (opens in new tab). Harry and Will were both ushers at Thomas’s wedding to Lady Melissa Percy, the Daily Mail reports.

Thomas van Straubenzee (aka "Vans") is also a royal godparents. Will and Kate named Thomas as one of Princess Charlotte's godparents in 2015.

Since "best friend of a royal" isn't actually a full-time job with benefits, Charlie also has a day job, as the Head of UK Financial Intermediaries for Brown Advisor, an investment management firm.

Charlie gave a speech at Harry's wedding (opens in new tab), which isn't a surprising thing for someone's best friend to do. By all accounts, Charlie's toast brought the house down, too. According to various reports, Charlie's speech was a big hit and included anecdotes about Harry's days as a dormitory monitor—and how ironic it was that he was the monitor when he was the most mischievous kid of all.

"All I wanted was a cuddle from my mummy," Charlie reportedly said during his speech. "Instead, Harry nicked my teddy bear and chucked it out onto the roof."

Charlie and Harry tied the knot within months of each other. Charlie wed Daisy Jenks in August of 2018 and Harry and Meghan were guests at the wedding.

Daisy is successful videographer. She and her sister, Kitty, run a video company called Jenks & Co together.

Before Harry and Charlie settled down with their respective wives, they were notorious bachelors together. Both of them started to get serious about love in 2016.

"Charlie was known as a perpetual bachelor, so this means Harry really does have to find a girlfriend," a mutual friend told the Daily Mail when Charlie's relationship with Daisy got serious in 2016 (which is around the same time Harry and Meghan were beginning their love story).

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