Prince Harry and Prince Andrew Will Attend the Coronation but Have No Role in the Ceremony

It’s official: Prince Harry and Prince Andrew will attend King Charles III’s coronation but have no role in the ceremony.

The Washington Post confirmed the news with Buckingham Palace on Thursday, putting an end to speculation about how—if at all—the two would be involved in the proceedings. They will both sit in the congregation on Saturday and travel discreetly to the palace in cars, rather than in the royal procession. The traditional homage by royal dukes has been taken out of the program.

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“It avoids Harry and Andrew doing it and it shortens the ceremony,” Chris Prescott, an academic and the author of a forthcoming book on modern monarchy, told the Post. “That’s one big change to the coronation from 1953.”

Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, decided to forgo their senior royal duties back in 2020. Tensions have remained elevated between the Sussexes and the royal family due to the couple’s Oprah interview and the release of Harry’s Spare memoir, among other events.

Andrew, meanwhile, has been surrounded in controversy over his relationship with Jeffery Epstein and was sued by a woman who said he forced her into sexual encounters. In response, Queen Elizabeth II stripped the prince of his titles and patronages.

Now it lands on Charles to make decisions regarding the British royal family. In March, the king reportedly evicted Harry and Meghan from their U.K. home, Frogmore Cottage. He is also allegedly trying to get Andrew to give up Royal Lodge, his house in Windsor. It remains to be seen what else Charles will do with his son and brother, respectively.

“I think it’s all absolutely right,” Robert Lacey, a royal biographer, told The Washington Post. “I think Harry has been very skillfully handled by the king.”

Some details for the coronation are still up in the air, such as whether Harry will stand with his family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to hear the military jets fly by. At the queen’s Platinum Jubilee last year, neither he nor Meghan was invited to do so. (Meghan won’t be attending the coronation, opting instead to stay at the couple’s home in California.)

One thing’s for sure, though: Royal watchers will be keeping a keen eye on Harry and Andrew throughout the ceremony to see how the two estranged royal family members are treated by their relatives.

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