Prince Harry will only attend ONE coronation event on ‘fairly quick’ trip to UK – and will miss son’s birthday
PRINCE Harry will only attend ONE coronation event on a “fairly quick” trip to the UK – and will miss his son Archie’s birthday for it.
Buckingham Palace confirmed that Harry will attend the Coronation Service at Westminster Abbey on May 6th, while his wife Meghan will stay in California.
A spokesman for the palace said: “Buckingham Palace is pleased to confirm that The Duke of Sussex will attend the Coronation Service at Westminster Abbey on May 6th.
“The Duchess of Sussex will remain in California with Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.”
Now close pal Omid Scobie reports that Harry will only attend the coronation ceremony, and that he will miss Archie’s birthday for it.
He said: “I understand that Archie’s fourth birthday (also on May 6) played a factor in the couple’s decision.
“Expect it to be a fairly quick trip to the UK for Prince Harry, who will only be attending the coronation ceremony at Westminster Abbey.”
Archewell, Harry and Meghan’s charitable foundation, issued a near identical statement to Buckingham Palace confirming the duke will join guests at the coronation.
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A spokesperson said: “The Duke of Sussex will attend the coronation service at Westminster Abbey on May 6th. The Duchess of Sussex will remain in California with Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.”
The dad-of-two will not be able to stand alongside his family on the Palace balcony as he is no longer a working royal.
The King and Queen Camilla will arrive at the coronation in a smooth, modern horse-drawn coach – then return to the Palace in a 1762 bone-shaker.
They will go from the Diamond Jubilee coach, with comfy seats and shock absorbers, to the Gold State Coach, whose ride was described by Queen Victoria as “distressing”.
They will be followed by a “final group of 15” who will represent the “heartbeat and future of [the] family”, according to reports.
Insiders revealed that the group will only include working royals, meaning there is no place for Harry or Prince Andrew.
William and Kate, the Prince and Princess of Wales, will be on the balcony alongside their three children – Prince George, nine, Princess Charlotte, seven and Prince Louis, four.
There was said to have been a delay in sending out the invitations due to a power struggle at the heart of the Government.
A source told the Telegraph that key decisions about the big day had been held up as the Cabinet Office and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) “wrestled” over control.
A question mark hung over Harry and Meghan since the Duke lobbed “truth bombs” at the Royal Family in his explosive memoir.
The couple were said to have been given eviction orders from Frogmore Cottage just 24 hours after Harry’s tell-all biography Spare hit shelves.
He then launched a fresh attack on his father in his first interview since his Frogxit eviction.
The duke, 38, slammed his “incredibly painful” childhood and complained of being starved of hugs and attention.
He told physician Dr Gabor Maté during a £19-a-ticket global livestream to promote his book that he had to move his family to the US to break the “cycle of pain”.
He was also likely to trigger renewed anger from the Royal Family with a jibe about his upbringing.
His Hungarian-Canadian interviewer said the royal had grown up in an environment where there was a “lack of child being held”.
Dr Maté added of the late Queen: “At some point you wanted to hug your grandmother but it wasn’t done.”
The royal, who was 12 when Charles divorced his mum Diana, said in the fireside chat: “I did have an incredible childhood, elements of it, and elements of it were incredibly painful.”
Events for the coronation will start on May 6 and continue over May 7 and May 8, which has been declared a bank holiday.
The action-packed weekend will see Charles and newly titled Queen Camilla arrive at Westminster Abbey in The King’s Procession on Saturday morning.
The route measures 1.3 miles — around a quarter of the length of the late Queen’s five-mile celebratory journey.
This will be followed by the coronation service conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The service will “reflect the monarch’s role today and look towards the future, while being rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry”.
After the service, the newly-crowned King and Queen will return to the Palace in a larger ceremonial parade known as the Coronation Procession.
