There has been much discussion about who will and won't be in the congregation for King Charles' Coronation when he's crowned alongside wife Camilla this weekend.
While the late Queen Elizabeth II had about 8,000 in attendance, Charles' guestlist has been slimmed down to about 2,200 people.
It's likely there have been some awkward decisions made behind closed doors when it came to deciding who to include in the celebrations, with people from around the world desperate to be part of the historic celebrations at Westminster Abbey.
Ant & Dec, magician Dynamo and Repair Shop presented and master craftsman Jay Blades are among the celebrity guests who have been invited, along with hundreds of school children.
There will also be members of the Royal Family, world leaders and foreign royalty.
But there will also be some more controversial guests. Here, we've looked through some of the more surprising names on the list...
Michelle O'Neill, Sinn Fein's deputy president and leader in Northern Ireland
Michelle O'Neill's attendance at the Coronation in Westminster Abbey on Saturday will be seen as highly controversial.
The leader of Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland said she had accepted the invitation on behalf of the people in Northern Ireland "for whom the Coronation is a hugely important occasion".
However Unionists have said that Sinn Fein-run councils in Northern Ireland have refused to support celebrations and street parties back home.
She would be in line to become Northern Ireland's First Minister if not for the current power-sharing impasse at Stormont, it is for this reason she would have been invited, based on government advice.
Sinn Fein has historically been associated with the IRA, which murdered Lord Mountbatten – King Charles' mentor – in a 1979 bomb attack.
Ms O'Neill's decision to attend is the latest signal of the greatly improved relations between the republican movement and the monarchy since the start of the peace process in Northern Ireland.
She said she will go to advance "peace and reconciliation" despite being "an Irish republican".
Han Zheng, vice-president of China
Han Zheng, the man responsible for the crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong is expected to be China's representative at the Coronation.
The news comes after China’s President Xi Jinping snubbed an invitation to attend the Coronation, sending his deputy instead.
Human rights groups slammed Mr Han’s handling of demonstrations in Hong Kong in 2019 which saw thousands of pro-democracy campaigners arrested and many injured with some being shot and killed.
Mr Han was recently appointed by Chinese president Xi Jinping as his deputy, he was head of the Central Leading Group on Hong Kong during the protests in 2019.
Former Tory Party Leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: “This is the man responsible for trashing the international treaty, the Sino-British Accord, in the course of which the Hong Kong authorities have persecuted peaceful democracy campaigners. Having this man here, given his role, is outrageous."
Prince Andrew
Despite being forced to step down from public life, it is expected that the King's brother Prince Andrew will be at the Coronation.
The disgraced Duke of York, 63, was forced to step back from royal life in 2019 after being embroiled in a sex abuse scandal which he denied.
But although he is expected at the Abbey for the ceremony, he be banished from appearing at the monarch's side during his big moment appearing on the Buckingham Palace balcony in front of an expected crowds of thousands as it is limited to working royals only.
A source with knowledge of the plans said: "The King has been very clear who he wants to represent the monarchy.
"There is little room for sentiment, this is a State occasion, not a family occasion and it is right that only the working members of the family are there at the big public moment."
Haitham bin Tariq, Sultan of Oman
Haitham bin Tariq the current Sultan of Oman has reigned since the death of his cousin, the former sultan and longest-serving ruler in the Arab World.
Oxford-educated Haitham bin Tariq personally welcomed Charles and Camilla on a 2016 diplomatic visit to Oman.
Although hailed by The Economist magazine as "outward-looking and Western-oriented", Oman still cracks down hard on critics of the regime. People are still arrested and jailed for social media posts criticising the government.
“Omani authorities continued to block local independent newspapers and magazines critical of the government, harass activists, and arrest individuals for their real or perceived gender identity and sexual orientation,” reports charity Human Rights Watch.
Oman is one of the few countries in the world that directly criminalises gender expression with a jail term of up to one year for any man who “appears dressed in women’s clothing.”
Liz Truss, former Prime Minister
Britain’s shortest-serving PM will be afforded a place at the Coronation alongside all the other former Prime Ministers including John Major, Tony Blair and David Cameron.
Her seven-week reign collapsed in chaos in October when her mini-Budget trashed the country’s finances.
The pound nosedived while interest rates soared – fuelling the cost-of-living crisis and leading to a big rise in interest rates for homeowners.
Despite only lasting 49 days in the job, Truss is set to benefit from the privileges extended to all UK former Prime Ministers such as a £115,000 per year allowance and a spot at the coronation.
Hassanal Bolkiah, Sultan of Brunei
Since the death of Queen Elizabeth II Hassanal Bolkiah is world’s longest-reigning current monarch - he is also Minister of Defence, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Finance and Supreme Commander of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces in the tiny nation and former British Protectorate.
As absolute monarch, there is a lot of confusion around where the sultan’s private wealth ends and the national finances of Brunei begin. What is certain is that the sultan is one of the wealthiest individuals on earth with a fortune of $20 billion, a gold-plated Boeing 747 plane and 7,000 luxury cars.
The 76-year-old has in recent years implemented the Sharia law penal code in Brunei that includes death by stoning, the severing of limbs, and flogging for crimes in Brunei such as abortions, adultery, and same-sex sexual acts. This led to international calls for a boycott of the well-known Dorchester Collection hotels, owned by the sultan.
In 1997 the sultan and his brother were sued by a former Miss USA, Shannon Marketic, accused of trafficking her and five other women, including the then-current Miss USA Brandi Sherwood, to Brunei. The lawsuit claimed the women had been offered promotional work but instead she and the others were held as a "virtual prisoner", drugged and sexually abused. The sultan denied the claims and a US court dismissed the claims stating that the sultan had sovereign immunity as head of state.
King Abdullah II of Jordan
The Pandora Papers leaks saw embarrassing revelations for the Jordanian monarch, who will be attending the coronation on May 6.
The leaked data showed the King of Jordan secretly amassed a property empire in the UK and US worth more than £70m.
A network of offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands and other tax havens were used by Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein to buy 15 homes since he came to power in 1999, reports the BBC.
These include luxury properties in Malibu and Washington DC, as well as eight properties in London and south-east England.
And it all comes with the 59-year-old accused of imposing austerity measures and tax rises on his people.
His legal team said the properties were all purchased via his personal wealth, adding it was common for such high profile people to buy homes in this way to ensure they retain privacy.
A 2022 Credit Suisse leak revealed that Abdullah owned six secret accounts, including one whose balance exceeded $224 million - the result of selling an Airbus A340 plane that belonged to his father, according to a statement from the royal court.
Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos, president of the Philippines
The only son of former military dictator Ferdinand Marcos and wife Imelda Marcos, Bongbong, as he is known, announced he was accepting an invite to the coronation earlier this month.
His family fled to Hawaii after a popular uprising unseated his dictator father in 1986, he was allowed to return after the death of his father in 1989.
His election campaign received criticism for whitewashing the human rights abuses, disappearances of regime critics and plunder which took place under his father’s regime, which is accused of syphoning billions into private accounts.
The Washington Post outlined a concerted social media effort dating back to the early 2000s to sanitise the family’s image and pave the way for them to return to power by winning over the country’s young electorate.
The New York Times reported Bongbong has been convicted of tax fraud, refused to pay his family’s estate taxes, and misrepresented his education at Oxford University.
