Invited but kept separate: Harry, Charles III’s youngest son, who is at odds with the royal family, and Andrew, the king’s brother, who is already bereft of public engagement, will have no official roles at the coronation, the palace confirmed on Saturday.
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The Duke of Sussex (Harry) and the Duke of York (Andrew) are no longer working members of the royal family, the first since leaving the United States voluntarily with his wife Meghan in 2020, while the second following their sex out of grace fell charges of assault.
If they attended the funeral procession behind Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin at Westminster Abbey following her death last September, this time Harry and Andrew will not walk behind the royal couple in the procession, who will accompany them back to Buckingham Palace afterwards will the ceremony.
They are also unlikely to appear on the balcony for the traditional salute of members of the royal family, even though the palace has not revealed who will be surrounding Charles and Camilla for the occasion.
But even without an official role, Harry will no doubt turn heads. His place at Westminster Abbey will say a lot about the state of his relations with his father and perhaps even his older brother William, heir apparent to the throne whom he did not spare in his memoir The Substitute, which was published in January.
In particular, he details an argument in 2019 in which William would have thrown him to the ground in the dog bowl.
While tension has long hung over his presence, which was only confirmed a few weeks before the coronation, it is the first time since the publication of this book that Harry is seeing his loved ones again, particularly the queen-consort Camilla, whom he accuses of many evils in ” The Substitutes”.
The contrast will be stark with the role assigned to William, who as heir to the throne must kneel during the ceremony and swear allegiance to the monarch.
Meghan, Harry’s wife, and their two children, Archie and Lilibet, have stayed in California, where Harry will join them to celebrate Archie’s fourth birthday right after the coronation.
Now used to keeping a low profile, Andrew was barred from any official public appearance and stripped of his military titles in early 2022 after he was accused of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl, a case he settled with a financial deal had.
Her presence shortly thereafter on the arm of the Queen, who accompanied her to Westminster Abbey for a service in honor of her father, Prince Philip, who died last year, had sparked criticism.