King Charles III’s coronation is looming and, after months of speculation, it’s been confirmed that Prince Harry will, indeed, attend the event, but his wife Meghan Markle won’t be by his side. On April 12, Variety reported that the King’s communications team issued a statement stating, “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.”
Additionally, a source told People that Harry is attending the event because he wants to support his father’s important milestone. However, he’s not expected to appear at other outings aside from the crowning ceremony.
News of Harry’s attendance comes a few weeks after a spokesperson for the Sussexes revealed to The Times on March 4 that Harry has “recently revealed email correspondence from His Majesty’s office regarding the coronation.” At that time, there was no word on whether or not Harry and Markle would accept the invitation.
Charles’s coronation is expected to take place on May 6 at Westminster Abbey in London. Buckingham Palace announced on Oct. 11, 2022, that the coronation ceremony will be conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury and that Queen Consort Camilla will also be crowned alongside her husband. “The Coronation will reflect the monarch’s role today and look towards the future, while being rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry,” the Palace added.
The coronation date is the same as Archie’s fourth birthday. On March 6, ITV’s “This Morning” royal journalist Camilla Tominey said it was widely believed that Markle would stay home to celebrate the occasion.
The ongoing public rift between Harry and the royal family following the release of his memoir “Spare” led many to question whether he would attend his father’s coronation at all. This was further fueled on March 1 after a spokesperson confirmed the couple had been evicted from their UK home, Frogmore Cottage.
When Harry was asked about the coronation in his ITV interview with journalist Tom Bradby in January, he didn’t confirm his attendance either. “There’s a lot that can happen between now and then. But the door is always open. The ball is in their court,” he said.
A source previously told People that Charles reportedly wants the situation between his family to “calm down” in time for his coronation. The insider adds: “It is such a momentous occasion for Charles, and he would want his son to be at the coronation to witness it. He would like to have Harry back in the family. If they don’t sort it out, it will always be part of the king’s reign and how he has left his family disjointed. He has had a reputation as a distant parent, and it would be awful for him for that to continue.”
In a live-streamed event by Harry’s publisher, Penguin Random House, on March 4, the Duke of Sussex told “toxic trauma” expert Dr. Gabor Maté how much therapy helped him and that he “did the thing of trying to encourage everyone [in his family] to do it.” He explained that therapy had taught him a “new language and the people that I was surrounded by, they didn’t speak that language.”