King Charles + Prince Harry
Royal expert sure: After the coronation there are “regrets from both sides”
Prince Harry and King Charles
© Jon Super / Getty Images
The world has been waiting for this encounter – and the main characters probably imagined their first meeting after months differently: when Prince Harry agreed to the coronation of King Charles, this inevitable meeting was not under a lucky star. The monarch’s youngest son probably suspected that there was no chance of a resolved appearance after his public attacks on the royal family. In the aftermath of the historic event, both the exiled royal and his father should have had a bitter aftertaste.
For King Charles, 74, it was the greatest event of his life in the service of the crown: after decades of waiting, the eternal heir to the throne was finally crowned on May 6, 2023. A milestone in which the support of the family is at least as important as holding the scepter, which is presented to the regent at the ceremony as a symbol of his position of power. But this feudal day of joy was clouded: Prince Harry, 38, traveled from his adopted home of California to the coronation in London’s Westminster Abbey after a long period of consideration. But his short visit was a humiliation for him and probably an unpleasant rumbling in his stomach for his father.
King Charles referred Prince Harry to his new seat
Harry faced public disparagement within the royal fabric. With the exit from royal duties in January 2020, the youngest of today’s monarch deliberately renounced his position within the royal family. Various interviews, a Netflix documentary and the publication of his memoirs entitled “Spare”[Germantitle:”Reserve”|followedIfawaybackintothebosomofthefamilyaftertheMegxitwasstillconceivableforalongtimetheroyalhadblockeditwithhissharpattacksontheclosestrelativesintheobviousblindflight[deutscherTitel:”Reserve”|folgtenWareinWegzurückindenSchoßderFamilienachdemMegxitnochlangeZeitdenkbarhattesichderRoyaldiesenmitseinenscharfenAngriffenaufdieengstenAngehörigenimoffensichtlichenBlindflugverbaut
Even before the coronation, there was speculation as to which stage the 38-year-old would be offered. It quickly became clear that on the king’s big day he should not be given a chance to attract more attention. Harry was moved to the third row, two rows behind his brother Prince William, 40, and his wife, the Princess of Wales, 41.
King’s son offside
Harry the outsider. Even before the beginning of the sacred ceremony in Westmister Abbey, his loss of status became clear. Long before his father, the king, and his wife Queen Camilla, 75, he entered the church flanked by his two cousins Princess Beatrice, 34, and Princess Eugenie, 33, and their husbands. Without Duchess Meghan, 41, at his side, who preferred to celebrate the fourth birthday of their son Prince Archie in the United States, he seemed even more lost than at the state funeral for his grandmother Queen Elizabeth, † 96, who died in September 2022 his sweetheart had accompanied him.
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Even after the ceremony, he had nothing to look forward to except the prospect of a lot of cold shoulders. He was denied an appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace due to his resignation as Senior Royal. At the shared banquet, a large part of society would probably have ignored him. So it went straight back to the USA to at least make the son happy on his special day.
“Regrets on Both Sides”
In an interview with Lorraine Kelly on her itv show of the same name, the royal expert on the “Mirror”, Russell Meyer, considered how Harry’s visit could have been under more favorable conditions: “I mean, what could have been if his departure was over of the royal family hadn’t been so bitter? Couldn’t he have gotten down to the third row?” asked the journalist in the room – and immediately answered his own questions: “I honestly don’t think he would be. He would have can go to the reception where I imagine later we’ll see some photos in the official portrait of the coronation and that’s a great shame.”
But the child fell into the well. Looking back, Meyer suspects that it will not only be the king who feels sad about his youngest son’s role in his big day. “Regardless of how things have been handled, I think there’s probably regret on both sides.”
Whether father and son even had time to exchange a personal word has not yet been officially confirmed. Harry is said to have rushed to the airport right after the coronation and arrived at Los Angeles Airport at 4:30 a.m. German time. A flying visit combined with a faint hope for reconciliation, which probably leaves a void not only for him.
Sources used: mirror.co.uk, itv.com