Prince Harry and Meghan Markle May Skip Coronation to Avoid ‘Public Humiliation,’ Royal Experts Say
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With King Charles III’s coronation just around the corner, the biggest question about the event is still up in the air: Will his second son Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle be making the trip across the pond for the big day?
Without the royals themselves—or Harry and Meghan, who are better classified as former royals—weighing in directly, there’s a lot we can’t know. But royal experts have been offering plenty of educated guesses as to why the Sussex couple might choose to skip the May 6 ceremony, with The King author Christopher Andersen and “To Di For Daily” podcast host Kinsey Schofield both recently speaking with Fox News Digital about the thorny potential royal reunion.
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Andersen told the outlet that it’s “increasingly beginning to look” like Harry and Meghan might “opt out of the coronation,” both due to practical concerns and fears that reconciliation would be too difficult amid Harry’s myriad confessions in his memoir Spare.
“There are genuine security concerns, to be sure, and then there is the prospect of the Sussexes being roundly booed,” Andersen explained. “Harry and Megan are still licking their wounds over having been sidelined during the queen’s funeral [in September]. It’s highly doubtful that they would be willing to face the prospect of that sort of public humiliation again, particularly on [their son] Archie’s birthday.”
That’s right—May 6, the date of Charles’s coronation, is also the day of Meghan and Harry’s son’s fourth birthday, which in and of itself could create a conflict with their attendance. But, truth be told, if Harry and his father were as close as they’d ever been, it’s unlikely that he would even consider skipping such a milestone event. The “wounds” that Andersen refers to go far deeper than the Queen’s funeral, at which Meghan and Harry were not seated among fellow royals in the first row of Westminster Abbey, and back to a lifetime of Charles’s second son feeling betrayed and controlled by the institution of the Palace, known internally as The Firm.
Harry’s feelings that the royal life no longer suited him only intensified once he met and married actress Meghan Markle and battled vicious media attacks, many of them racist in nature, against his new wife. The battle reminded him of his late mother Princess Diana’s hounding at the hands of paparazzi, and he has both written and said in interviews that he felt unsupported by his family in his attempts to protect her.
Schofield, another royal expert, believes that Harry may fly to the UK to attend the coronation alone, and also believes that Harry was hoping for a private meeting with Charles ahead of the event.
“I think there is a possibility that Harry could do a quick turnaround for the coronation alone,” Schofield told Fox News Digital. “He did say during the Netflix documentary that he missed aspects of royal life and I believe traditions are one of them. Based on his military experience, duty is also important to him and there is a sense that it is his duty to attend as the son of the sovereign.”
She further recounted whispers that Harry had tried to “secure a meeting” with Charles in order to feel more comfortable among family at the event, and the alleged response from Palace staff: “The king is too busy.”
Harry and Meghan will ultimately have to weigh their own priorities against the optics of either decision and make the choice that’s best for them. But if they do attend, these royal experts would advise them not to expect a warm and fuzzy welcome.
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