We finally know the answer we’ve speculated about for so long: Meghan Markle will not attend father-in-law King Charles’ Coronation on May 6 at Westminster Abbey. The question on everyone’s lips—now that that one is answered—is why? And, while anything we say is pure conjecture (only Meghan and Harry know the answer to that), the most obvious answer is that May 6 is also son Prince Archie’s fourth birthday, and she is prioritizing that occasion from her home base of California. (Marie Claire reported recently on what we know about his party, set to be close knit and include Archie’s friends from preschool, Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland, and even some celebrity friends of Meghan and husband Prince Harry. And, potentially, Harry himself, who is said to be keen to hop on a flight right after the 11 a.m. London time ceremony and fly home to make it to the party by evening time in California.)
“There is still a great deal of bad blood between the Sussexes and the rest of the royal family—so many as yet unresolved issues,” Christopher Andersen, author of The King: The Life of Charles III, tells Marie Claire exclusively. “Harry and Meghan were pretty much ignored by their Windsor relatives during Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, and there is every expectation that the same thing would happen if they showed up as a couple again. Their popularity in the U.K. has tanked since Megxit, but it’s Meghan who seems to get the brunt of the criticism. I don’t think she relishes the idea of having people boo her. Since the day of the Coronation—May 6—also happens to be Archie’s fourth birthday, it offers a fairly clever solution: Meghan stays behind for her children’s sake, while Harry faces the music in London. He really didn’t have much of a choice. It’s a singular moment in history, and the biggest moment in his father’s life.”
