After months of discussion on whether Prince Harry and his wife Meghan would be attending King Charles III’s coronation, Buckingham Palace has announced that the Duke of Sussex will attend the Coronation service at Westminster Abbey on May 6.
The Duchess of Sussex, however, will remain in California with Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
Buckingham Palace did not disclose any details on why the Duchess of Sussex would not attend the King’s Coronation.
According to Omid Scobie, author of Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family, May 6 is also Prince Archie’s fourth birthday. Scobie stated on Twitter that Prince Harry will make a visit to the UK in attending the coronation and would be accepted to return back to California in attending his son’s birthday.
“I understand that Archie’s fourth birthday (also on May 6) played a factor in the couple’s decision,” Scobie stated. “Except it to be a fairly quick trip to the UK for Prince Harry, who will only be attending the coronation ceremony at Westminster Abbey.”
This would mark the first time in 2023 Duke of Sussex Harry would fly to the United Kingdom to meet with the Royal Family as they last gathered together on September 19, 2022 for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral.
Although Prince Harry flew to the United Kingdom last month to attend the High Court against the case with Daily Mail publishers, he did not visit the Royal Family.
For the past few years, the Royal Family and the Sussexs had a relationship that did not go well.
On 8th January 2020, the SussexRoyal on their Instagram account stated that they will ‘step back’ as a ‘senior member of the royal family’ and work on becoming financially independent.’ The SussexRoyal added that they would remain in giving their ‘full support’ to Her Majesty The Queen. The step back of the SussexRoyal led to tension rise in the relationship as it was implied that the Queen wasn’t even aware of the “step back” until it was shared on Instagram.
After the ‘step back,’ SussexRoyal went on to join an interview with Oprah Winfrey, where in the interview the couple expressed the issues they had with the Royal Family.
Meghan expressed how the broken relationship with the royal family started before Archie was born.
“They didn’t want him to be a prince or princess, not knowing what the gender would be, which would be different from protocol and that he wasn’t going to receive security,” Meghan said” It was really hard.”
Prince Harry also mentioned in the interview how the relationship he had with the Royal Family was not good as he established that his father was taking his calls down.
In addition to the interview, a Netflix documentary was produced with the couple explaining their life as well as an autobiography that Prince Harry wrote, Spare.
Whether Prince Harry will have a warm welcome at the coronation remains uncertain.