Best way for us to tell my husbands family

I must start with an explanation to why we didn’t have them there with us or tell them in the first place. My husband is practically the unloved hated kid by his parents because when he met me they didn’t like me and I pushed him to stop bending to there every will and whim. Now they talk maybe once every couple months, we got married before his brothers “cancer wedding” he got diagnosed and got married within a month so we just never told anyone.Didn’t want it seem like we were taking away from them now they are going to be “hurt” because they were not there. They hate my husband but they live for drama so we need to tell them and when we do within a day the whole family will know and be pissed. I’m here to ask for the best way to word and explain to them that we got married without them , I don’t want him secluded more because it hurts my husband and i dont know how to go about this .