Marie Claire reported recently that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are making some pretty major demands in order to attend King Charles’ Coronation on May 6 at Westminster Abbey: They want their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, to be included; they want the entire Sussex family of four to appear on the Buckingham Palace balcony alongside the rest of the royal family after the ceremony concludes; and, since May 6 also happens to be Archie’s fourth birthday, they want some kind of acknowledgement of that the day of, despite the attention being on Charles and Queen Consort Camilla, who will be crowned alongside her husband at the Abbey.
At least one of those demands is most assuredly not going to happen, reports OK—they will not be on the Buckingham Palace balcony alongside working members of the royal family, royal expert Angela Mollard says.
“The latest thing they’ve said is they want to be on the balcony for the Coronation, while not giving a confirmation themselves that they’re going to be there,” she says. “This is five weeks out. They need some planning around this. They need to know whether to set aside the chairs.”
Harry and Meghan have been invited, their office confirmed—but there is no word as to whether they will RSVP yes or no to the historic event. (There hasn’t been a coronation since June 1953, when Queen Elizabeth was crowned.)
“There is no chance they’re going to be on the balcony,” Mollard says. “The Queen wanted a slimmed-down monarchy. Charles is further enforcing that. He has dealt beautifully with Andrew, and they need to turn around and say there’s no chance they’ll get a place on that balcony.”
It has become tradition as of late—with Prince Andrew, Harry, and Meghan no longer working royals—to only have working royals appear on the balcony for events, like at the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee last June.
“Once the King has been crowned, there will be a Coronation procession that will start at Westminster Abbey and end at Buckingham Palace,” an insider says. “Once the procession reaches the Palace, the King will take to the balcony and wave at the crowds with the rest of the royal family members and their children. This is where Harry and Meghan have requested inclusion.”
The only reason why precedent could be broken and Harry and Meghan (and potentially Archie and Lili as well) could be allowed on the balcony is because Harry is the son of the monarch—possibly overriding the fact that he is no longer a working member of the royal family. But that doesn’t appear to be in the plans. A second source says Harry and Meghan’s alleged refusal to come to an agreement on the matter may end in them not attending the event at all.
“The Palace are trying to wrap up negotiations as quickly as possible, because they can’t go right up to the wire,” a source says. “It could lead to chaos. It could very well be that it ends in stalemate and they won’t attend. But the Palace is doing everything in its power to not let that happen.”
