Prince Harry, solo, stayed on the sidelines of the coronation
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Prince Harry appeared alone at the coronation of his father, King Charles III, and stayed on the edge of pageantry all day.
Harry had no formal role in the coronation service at Westminster Abbey. He was denied a seat in a carriage for the grand procession back to Buckingham Palace. And he didn’t join other members of his family on the palace balcony for the last moment.
This was the first known time he has seen his family since the release of his memoir Spare and the release of his Netflix documentary Harry and Meghan – both attacking his royal relatives and the courtiers who work for them.
The coronation of King Charles III: Unforgettable moments in photos and videos
Harry had played a similarly marginal role at his grandmother’s platinum jubilee in June, which palace officials explained at the time by noting he was no longer a “senior working king” after relinquishing that responsibility in January 2020.
But since then, family relations seem to have continued to deteriorate. And it’s now his father, not his grandmother, who makes the ultimate decisions about how royal events are choreographed.
On Saturday, Harry walked into the Abbey smiling and laughing with his cousin Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank. Harry’s own wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex stayed behind in California, palace officials said.
Finally, King Charles III. crowned in a medieval and modern coronation
Harry sat in the third row of pews reserved for the royal family. British newspapers have suggested it was a demotion – one row down from where he sat at the funeral of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, in September. At times his vision seemed to be obscured from him by the red feather on his aunt Princess Anne’s hat.
From ornate robes to flower crowns, royals wore a range of colorful outfits for the coronation of Britain’s King Charles III. (Video: The Washington Post)
The coronation celebrates Queen Camilla and a long-maligned romance
Also in the third row: Harry’s uncle Prince Andrew, still in the royal wilderness after Queen Elizabeth stripped away his titles and patronage when he was sued by a woman who said she was coerced into having sexual encounters with him. (It is widely believed that Elizabeth tacitly contributed to his legal settlement of this case.)
During the service, Harry was seen saying “God save King Charles” during a tribute to the King. But it was his elder brother, William, the heir who stood up for the kin, kneeling at his father’s feet and swearing allegiance to him ‘as your liege man for life and limb’.
Harry, who served on two deployments to Afghanistan, was denied a military uniform at royal events and on Saturday wore medals pinned to the jacket of his morning suit.
Whether he could join his father and Queen Camilla on the balcony of Buckingham Palace had been a question that started the day. Palace officials were quite shy. In the end, the gathering on the balcony was larger than at the anniversary, but Harry wasn’t among the family members waving to the crowd.
He was scheduled to return to the United States shortly after the coronation. The tabloids reported that his car was headed towards Heathrow Airport. Saturday was also his son Prince Archie’s fourth birthday.
However, court cases against British tabloids could soon bring Harry back to London.
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