Over the weekend, King Charles III and Queen Camilla were officially crowned King and Queen with an elaborate and regal coronation at Westminster Abbey. There were a lot of questions as to whether or not Prince Harry and Meghan Markle would be in attendance after they stepped back from their roles as working members of the royal family in 2020 and moved to California. Tensions grew higher when they released their bombshell Netflix doc Harry & Meghan and Harry’s tell-all memoir Spare. It was decided that Harry would attend to support his father while Meghan stayed home to celebrate their son Archie’s 4th birthday.
The Duchess of Sussex was spotted out on a hike on Sunday, alongside friends Markus Anderson, a consultant for Soho House, and Heather Dorak, owner of Pilates Platinum. She was dressed casually for the excursion, wearing a black tank and black leggings, with an army green coat tied around her waist. She wore hiking-appropriate books but added some glam accessories with her wide-brim sun hat, scarf tied around her neck, a Maya Brenner x Abigail Spencer “the Clarity Retreat” necklace and gold-framed sunglasses.
She wasn’t seen with her children, Archie, 4, or Lilibet, 1, or husband Harry, who had arrived back in California by late Saturday evening.
On Saturday morning, Prince Harry arrived to the coronation ceremony solo and was seated three rows back, alongside his cousins Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice and their respective husbands, Jack Brooksbank and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi.
After the ceremony, Harry didn’t participate in the procession to Buckingham Palace or appear on the balcony with his family — reportedly, only working royals are allowed to stand on the balcony. There also appeared to be no interaction between Harry and his brother Prince William.
Harry looked smiley while talking to his cousins as he exited Westminster Abbey before getting into a car while the rest of his family rode in carriages through the procession. Harry was taken right to Heathrow Airport and arrived in Los Angeles just before 6:30 p.m. Pacific Time on a British Airways flight, People reports. After the 11-hour journey, he had about a two-hour ride to his home in Montecito.
After much speculation around their RSVP to the grand affair, an announcement was made in April saying, “Buckingham Palace is pleased to confirm that The Duke of Sussex will attend the Coronation Service at Westminster Abbey on 6th May. The Duchess of Sussex will remain in California with Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.”
“People around the Sussexes guided the press at the time that this was very much about Archie’s 4th birthday. I disagree with that to some extent because I also know from friends of hers that she’s protecting her peace as well,” Scobie said on ITV’s This Morning. “She is aware of how much of the spotlight goes on her when she sets even a foot near the story.”
Scobie believed members of the royal family were glad she decided not to attend. “And I would put it down to the fact that so much of the attention then goes on someone who they would rather the attention didn’t go onto. And if you look back at some of Harry and Meghan’s biggest problems, it was all down to the fact that everyone was always talking about them, the attention was always on them at times when it shouldn’t have been.”
Reportedly, King Charles toasted Archie’s birthday during a lunch after his appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. According to the Daily Mail, King Charles toasted “those that weren’t there” and wished Prince Archie a happy birthday “wherever he was.” A source told the outlet it was “apparently a very sweet moment.”
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