Trooping the Colour, unbelievably, is next Saturday—King Charles’ first as monarch. The annual event is the public birthday celebration of the monarch, held every June despite Charles’ actual birthday being in November. (Her late Majesty’s actual birthday was in April; June was chosen because of London’s generally favorable weather that month, despite a heat wave happening now.)
The Mirror reports that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were left off the guest list (and it would seem unlikely that Harry would attend, as he was just in the U.K. last week for his court case against Mirror Group Newspapers—that’s a lot of transatlantic travel). For its part, Buckingham Palace is refusing to comment on whether Harry and Meghan were invited.
Harry and Meghan were at the last Trooping the Colour, held during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations for the late Queen last June, but “since then, Harry’s memoir and the couple’s Netflix documentary are believed to have strained their relationship with the royals,” The Mirror reports.
The Daily Mail’s Richard Eden says of a possible snub “I hear that Prince Harry and Meghan have not, however, been invited to the King’s Birthday Parade next weekend.” The lack of an invite for the Sussexes was “a reflection on the state of relations,” a source told the outlet.
However, Harry and Meghan were invited to the King’s Coronation last month; Harry attended solo, as Meghan stayed behind in California with their children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. Archie’s fourth birthday coincidentally fell on the same day of the Coronation, May 6.
Prince William carried out the Colonel’s Review of the troops yesterday as part of the preparations for next weekend, with more than 1,400 soldiers of the Household Division and The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery taking part in the review. As temperatures climbed up to 30 degrees Celsius in London (86 degrees Fahrenheit), three guards passed out in the sweltering heat.
