Prince Harry Was Blocked by a Giant Feather in Princess Anne's Hat During the Coronation

Prince Harry Was Blocked by a Giant Feather in Princess Anne's Hat During the Coronation
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Welp, just as expected, Prince Harry's appearance at King Charles' coronation was thoroughly scrutinized. And if you thought the drama surrounding Harry's seat assignment at the coronation would be limited to things like where the actual seat was and exactly how far away it placed him from Prince William and Kate Middleton, you would be so, so very wrong.

As it turns out, the award for "Most Controversial Thing About Prince Harry's Coronation Seat Assignment" goes to a giant red feather, which may or may not have been strategically placed (or at least strategically aligned with some of the cameras documenting the big event).

The giant red feather in question belonged to Harry's aunt, Princess Anne, who was seated in front of him at the coronation and was decked out in a military uniform (including a hat adorned with an impressively enormous red feather). The combination of the feather's impressive size and Anne's position directly in front of Harry meant that, from some angles at least, said feather perfectly blocked out Harry's face from view, like so:

FWIW, Princess Anne was among the few royals Harry was spotted chatting up at the coronation and didn't seem to have any problems with her nephew. She actually paused to talk to Harry for a moment before the ceremony and it was one of the sweeter moments Harry had with a relative during the event:

topshot britains prince harry, duke of sussex talks to britains princess anne, princess royal at westminster abbey in central london on may 6, 2023, ahead of the coronations of britains king charles iii and britains camilla, queen consort the set piece coronation is the first in britain in 70 years, and only the second in history to be televised charles will be the 40th reigning monarch to be crowned at the central london church since king william i in 1066 outside the uk, he is also king of 14 other commonwealth countries, including australia, canada and new zealand camilla, his second wife, will be crowned queen alongside him, and be known as queen camilla after the ceremony photo by richard pohle pool afp photo by richard pohlepoolafp via getty images
RICHARD POHLE - Getty Images

It's also important to point out that, as Page Six reports, Princess Anne's coronation ensemble choice was far from random; she wore a military uniform for the event (something that set her apart, fashion-wise, from other women in the audience) because of her official role as the Gold-Stick-in-Waiting (aka the person responsible for King Charles' personal safety at the coronation).

Not that the very rooted-in-tradition reason for the ensemble stopped royal Twitter from pointing out how perfectly the red feather obscured Harry's face and/or speculating that the whole situation was a very intentional snub intended to minimize Harry's visibility at the coronation. Because, just to be clear, people (on both sides of the royal feud, FWIW, although with particular glee from people who don't seem to be fans of Harry's) did *lots* of that.



Several commentators compared the red feather to the large candle that blocked Meghan Markle from view from some angles during the Queen's funeral last fall.

And just in case you're like "huh? Meghan Markle? Queen's Funeral? Candle? What are you talking about?" here's a little visual refresher:

So...thoughts?

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