Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, have received an invitation to King Charles’s coronation, a spokesperson for the couple indicated on Sunday, but will not yet confirm publicly whether they will attend.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s attendance at his father’s coronation has been the subject of much speculation after the fallout from Harry’s explosive memoir, Spare.
The coronation of the King and the Queen Consort is set to take place at Westminster Abbey on the morning of Saturday 6 May. This falls on the fourth birthday of Harry and Meghan’s son Archie.
A spokesperson for the Sussexes said: “I can confirm the duke has recently received email correspondence from His Majesty’s office regarding the coronation.
“An immediate decision on whether the duke and duchess will attend will not be disclosed by us at this time.”
The Sussexes – who gave up their roles as working members of the royal family in 2020 and now live in the US – have aired many allegations that dealt blows to the British monarchy’s public image.
Following the 2021 tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey and last year’s Netflix docuseries, the latest jolt came from Spare, in which Harry details intimate glimpses of family dynamics and altercations.
In interviews, Harry has spoken of rifts with his father and brother, the heir to the throne Prince William. He has also opened up about trauma from the death of his mother, Princess Diana, who was killed in a car crash in 1997.
On Saturday, Harry appeared in a pay-per-view livestreamed conversation with author and therapist Gabor Maté. “I certainly have felt throughout my life, my younger years, I felt slightly different to the rest of my family,” he told Maté.
Harry, who has previously drawn parallels with his mother’s difficult experience in the royal family, said: “I felt strange being in this container, and I know that my mum felt the same, so it makes sense to me.”
While his memoir shook the British throne, Harry said he felt “free” after its release. “Once the book came out, I felt incredibly free,” he said. “I felt a huge weight off my shoulders.
“The system of which I was, and I guess to some extent still am part of, doesn’t encourage free living.”
Earlier this week, the couple confirmed that they had been asked to vacate Frogmore Cottage, their UK home. The residence was reportedly offered to Prince Andrew, who is no longer a senior figure in the family.
The duke was stripped of his military patronages and use of the HRH title after he paid a financial settlement to Virginia Giuffre, who had accused him of sexual assault, a claim he denied.
