Prince Harry to attend King Charles’ coronation; Meghan Markle will not

Prince Harry plans to attend the coronation of his father, King Charles, in England next month, but wife Meghan Markle and their kids will not be there, Buckingham Palace announced Wednesday.

Harry and his representatives had been non-committal about his attendance in recent months after the prince publicly detailed a strained relationship with his family.

“Buckingham Palace is pleased to confirm that the Duke of Sussex will attend the Coronation Service at Westminster Abbey on 6th May,” the palace said in a statement.

“The Duchess of Sussex will remain in California with Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.”

Harry and Meghan, who married in 2018, stepped down from their senior royal duties in 2020 and moved to Southern California, where they are raising 3-year-old Archie and 1-year-old Lilibet. In an explosive 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Harry claimed his father stopped taking his calls at one point and said the royal family cut him off financially.

Harry, 38, also described issues with his family, including older brother Prince William, in a tell-all memoir, “Spare,” that came out in January. That month, Harry expressed uncertainty over whether he’d attend the coronation.

“There’s a lot that can happen between now and then, but the door is always open,” Harry told ITV at the time. “The ball is in their court. There’s a lot to be discussed and I really hope that they are willing to sit down and talk about it.”

In March, representatives for Harry and Meghan confirmed the couple received a “correspondence” about the coronation but declined to disclose whether they planned to attend.

King Charles’ coronation comes seven months after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, at age 96. Her death ended her 70-year reign, the longest ever for a British monarch.

Earlier this week, Buckingham Palace shared plans for the coronation, including that Charles and Camilla, the queen consort, would ride in the Diamond Jubilee State Coach introduced in 2012 to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s 60-year anniversary as monarch.

Charles, 74, and Camilla, 75, will travel 1.3 miles from Buckingham Palace to the Westminster Abbey church. Their procession route is slightly shorter than the 1.6-mile path Elizabeth took to her coronation in 1953.