Prince Harry will attend the Coronation of his father, King Charles III, next month, Buckingham Palace announced Wednesday morning, and he will be attending without his wife, Meghan Markle, as tensions between Harry and the British Royal Family continue to escalate.
Prince Harry will attend King Charles III’s coronation, while his wife, Meghan Markle, will remain in California.
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Key Facts
Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, will remain in California with their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, while Harry attends the coronation on May 6, following Queen Elizabeth II’s death last September after more than 70 years on the throne.
Harry, the son of King Charles and the late Princess Diana, has been drifting apart from the family, announcing in 2020 he and his wife would step back as senior members of the Royal Family and relocate to the U.S.—though he had attended the funeral procession for his grandmother.
The announcement comes three months after the highly anticipated release of his tell-all book, Spare, which sold 1.43 million copies on its first day, breaking the Guinness record for fastest-selling nonfiction of all time.
Harry defended the release of Spare in a 60 Minutes interview, saying he wanted to publicize his tensions with his family because previous private attempts to resolve them fell flat.
What To Watch For
King Charles, who took the throne after his mother’s death in September, will officially be crowned King at his Coronation at Westminster Abbey, where roughly 2,000 guests have been invited. The event is filled with pomp and circumstance: Charles and his wife Camilla, the Queen Consort, will ride a horse-drawn golden state coach first used by King William IV in 1831, before Charles will be crowned with a 22-carat gold crown adorned with rubies, topaz, sapphire and aquamarine.
President Joe Biden also plans to skip the event, but First Lady Jill Biden will attend—a tradition among sitting U.S. presidents.
Key Background
Harry and Markle, an American actress, got married in 2018, bringing the former Suits star into the Royal Family. In January 2020, they announced in an Instagram post they would step back from their roles as “senior members” of the family and move to California, while in February 2021 Buckingham Palace confirmed Harry’s honorary military appointments would be stripped, but that the couple would retain their titles as Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
In a bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey weeks later, Markle said the Royal Family initially declined to make her son Archie a prince and expressed concerns about the color of his skin while she was still pregnant (Markle is biracial). Queen Elizabeth later said the challenges Harry and Meghan faced “saddened” the family. In his book, Spare, Harry also detailed the fraught relationship he had with both his father and his brother, Prince William, including one instance in which he claims William knocked him down after calling Markle “difficult” and “abrasive.” Speculation had emerged following the release of the book that Harry might not attend the coronation. When asked in an ITV interview if he would attend, Harry said: “The ball is in their court.”
