KEY POINTS
- Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were not seen at King Charles’ Trooping the Colour Saturday
- The Sussexes are no longer working royals, and were reportedly not invited to the festivities
- A royal author claimed King Charles made it clear that he is not eager to mend fences with the Sussexes
Prince Harry was noticeably missing from his father King Charles III’s first official birthday parade as monarch.
Multiple outlets, including People and Entertainment Tonight, reported this week that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were not invited to this year’s Trooping the Colour, the annual celebration of the British monarch’s birthday. While neither Buckingham Palace nor the Sussexes confirmed the reports, the couple was absent from Saturday’s festivities, the BBC reported.
According to the outlet, the event highlighted the senior working royals who will likely take center stage during King Charles’ reign, including the monarch, Queen Camilla, Prince William, Kate Middleton, Prince Edward and Sophie, who are the new Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back from their roles as working royals and relocated to California in 2020.
Ahead of the event, journalist and royal author Christopher Andersen predicted that Prince Harry would not show up at this year’s Trooping the Colour because he would not want to be subjected to another humiliation. International Business Times could not independently verify this information.
“Now that they are no longer working royals, neither Harry nor Megan – nor Prince Andrew for that matter – are welcome on the Buckingham Palace balcony,” Andersen told Fox News Digital. “Harry isn’t about to show up just so he can be humiliated one more time. What’s the point of that?”
The “King: The Life of Charles III” author claimed that the monarch would rather surround himself with the members of the family he trusts following the Sussexes’ falling out with Charles and the rest of the family.
“King Charles will surround himself with those people he feels he can trust and rely on to do the heavy lifting: Queen Camilla, Princess Anne, Prince Edward and his wife, Sophie, and, of course, the real stars of the show these days, Prince William, Kate Middleton and their three children,” Andersen claimed. “I think there will be a lot of gasps when the kids step out and people see just how much Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis have grown.”
But Andersen said it was “sad” that Prince Harry and Markle’s children, Prince Archie, 4, and Princess Lilibet, 2, could not join the event and see their cousins.
The royal author went on to tell the outlet he believes that by not inviting the Sussexes to “one of the most important events on the royal calendar,” King Charles showed where he currently stands with his younger son.
“Charles has once again made it clear that he is not particularly eager to mend fences with his younger son,” Andersen claimed.
But royal historian Gareth Russell told Us Weekly that whether or not Prince Harry and Markle were invited to Trooping the Colour shouldn’t “necessarily be seen as an indicator of sentiment either way.”
“I don’t think they need to be invited,” the “Do Let’s Have Another Drink!” author said of the Sussexes. “Not as a kind of insult to them, but you know, it’s a long trip to make from California for the sake of Trooping the Colour. … I think this is one of the events where the Sussexes were never going to be invited.”
