After spending a week dissecting Meghan Markle’s every move — from the way she held her husband’s hand to the creases on her dress — the British press seems to have graduated to a new subject: her husband, Prince Harry. Throughout the royal mourning of Queen Elizabeth, rumors about Harry’s tense relationship with his father are growing. Those rumors have only continued to grow as King Charles III approaches his official coronation. And it sounds like he just might be the pettiest royal of all.
Charles reportedly waited hours to tell Prince Harry of the Queen’s death.
According to a report from the Daily Telegraph’s royal correspondent Victoria Ward, via the Daily Beast, Charles waited almost two hours to tell Harry that the queen had died. Ward reported that Charles called both his sons early on September 8 to get them to Balmoral to see the queen before she died, but that Harry “received that call some time after Prince William.” She reportedly suggested that Harry was not invited to join the royal family’s private flight to Scotland, which meant he had to scramble to get his own flight to Balmoral. Per the report, Harry’s flight took off at 5:35 p.m. — an hour after Prime Minister Liz Truss had been informed of the queen’s death. Charles reportedly didn’t tell Harry about his grandmother’s passing until around 6:25 p.m., five minutes before the royal family released the official announcement. And, to top it all off, Ward claimed that Harry didn’t even get to see his father or brother when he arrived. So much for sending his “love” to Harry and Meghan.
Prince Harry was not allowed to wear his military uniform to the Queen’s service.
In the days following King Charles’ new title, his reign only got messier. First, Harry was not allowed to wear his military uniform to attend Queen Elizabeth’s service — something both he, an actual veteran, and Prince Andrew, an alleged rapist, were denied. Then, reports stated that he and Meghan were invited to attend a royal-family reception for world leaders at Buckingham Palace on Sunday, September 18. Many saw the invitation as a gesture of goodwill, until Saturday, when it was announced that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had actually been disinvited with a palace spokesperson saying that the reception was “for working members of the royal family” only.
That wasn’t the end of the uniform drama. After reports surfaced that Princes Harry and Andrew would be the only men in the immediate line of succession not allowed to wear their service uniforms, King Charles decided that Harry could wear his military uniform to attend a vigil on Saturday night, only to reportedly remove the queen’s “EIIR” royal cypher from Harry’s jacket, a “snub” that reportedly left Harry “heartbroken.” Harry was once again in his morning suit (a.k.a. commoner clothes) as he attended Queen Elizabeth’s funeral at Westminster Abbey on Monday, but he made it clear through his spokesperson that what he wore didn’t matter. “His decade of military service is not determined by the uniform he wears and we respectfully ask that focus remain on the life and legacy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,” he said in a statement last week. All in all, the insistence on Harry’s morning suit may have been a misstep: After he wore his suit to the queen’s procession earlier this week, fans immediately latched onto the image of him standing out among the royal family in their military uniforms, making him look like a king.
King Charles has yet to confirm Archie and Lilibet’s royal titles.
King Charles has yet to make official decisions about the titles to be held by Harry and Meghan’s children, Archie and Lilibet. Tradition and current law would have them retain HRH titles and officially become prince and princess, but their titles have not been officially announced, and they remain “Master” and “Miss” on the official Royal Family website’s line of succession. According to reports, what King Charles decides could make or break these family relations for good.
Reports suggested Prince Harry might not be invited to King Charles’ coronation in May.
King Charles’ coronation will take place on May 6, 2023, in front of 2,000 guests at Westminster Abbey. And it’s reportedly unclear if Harry and Meghan will attend — or even be invited, let alone involved. According to The Daily Beast, sources claim that Harry might not get an invite if Charles feels he’s publicly attacking the monarchy and royal family, which is reportedly his major concern of Harry’s upcoming memoir and Harry and Meghan’s planned Netflix docuseries. Fans have also noted that Charles’ coronation also happens to coincide with Archie’s fourth birthday, which some have interpreted as giving the Duke and Duchess of Sussex an excuse to bow out of the ceremony, while others have perceived as a strategic dig at the non-working royals. (Royal author Tom Bower told “Page Six” that the date was purely a coincidence.) Sounds like we have a lot more royal pettiness to look forward to.
This post has been updated.
