What Prince Harry’s decision to go to King Charles’ coronation shows amid hopes of reconciliation

Kate’s brutal move against Meghan may have made all the difference after Prince Harry nearly drove King Charles mad.

After the most devastating grenade Spare was fired at the royal family, Prince Harry knew his book would cause untold damage and require a mountain of work to mend severed relationships.

And it only took him three months since the tell-all memoir was published to decide to attend the coronation — a delay that not only threw coronation plans into disarray but that heightened existing tensions within the royal household.

The guessing, will he, won‘t he attend, the infernal emails he sent to the palace, scrapped and resent, were driving the King mad and frustrating organisers of the coronation who were prevented from signing off plans until dithering Harry could make up his mind.

The Duke of Sussex took three months since the tell-all memoir was published to decide to attend the coronation, - a delay that threw coronation plans into disarray and exacerbated tensions. Photo: Getty Images

The Royals need to seem extremely reasonable and conciliatory because that‘s the only position they can take and, for his part, the King swallowed his pride after the untold damage of Harry’s autobiography and Netflix series, and, with sincere love for his son, posted an invite to the Sussexes to attend his most sacred occasion, when he is anointed, at Westminster Abbey, on May 6.

Harry needs to be invited, he is the King’s son.

Yet, privately, he has been naturally worried about his British reception.

Prince William and Kate will appear as obliging as they did on that joint walkabout after the Queen‘s death in September when they looked at flowers laid in the grounds of Windsor Castle. Photo: Getty Images

At a time when the King was almost egged twice, Harry is said to be worried about booing, anxious about jeering and concerned about more vegetable throwing.

Private discussions about whether the Sussexes might accept the invitation if they were given a prominent pew and an undertaking that Harry would not lose his Royal titles added to the delays.

There was talk, too, about whether Prince Archie of Sussex, who turns four on the day of the coronation, would be given a prominent role in the ceremony to not let Prince George steal the show.

But with little over three weeks until the king is officially crowned, Harry crumbled under a moral obligation to declare his hand and accepted his father’s invitation.

Mission Harry in a Hurry has now kicked in.

The Duke has used his escape clause of the children in America to put in a brief appearance at his father’s coronation. Meghan will stay in California with Archie and Lilibet. Picture: Getty

Harry will be whisked in and out of Britain for a 24-hour appearance at King Charles’s Coronation without his wife Meghan, sources have revealed.

With Meghan blamed, perhaps unfairly, for many of the royal rifts, (The King asked Harry not to bring her to the Queen’s bedside in her final moments saying she would not be welcome) the Sussexes have used their escape clause of needing to look after the children in America for her not attending.

The couple‘s friend Omid Scobie confirmed Archie’s birthday “played a factor in the couple’s decision” and he expected it would be a “fairly quick trip to the UK” for Harry. The Duke will only attend the ceremony itself, which is likely to last a few hours.
Former BBC journalist Tom Bower has also claimed Princess Kate, insisted Meghan would not be welcome.
“We must all be grateful that Kate, in the end I think, prevented Meghan from coming, and said she ‘wouldn’t have her there under any circumstances’,” Bower said. “And if she [Meghan] did come, she’d have to sit at the back.”

“I do think that for the Royal Family, Harry’s presence is constitutionally important. If, God forbid, the Cambridges all died, we’d have King Harry on the throne after Charles, so he’s got to be there.”

The reality is the King would have loved to have seen both his grandchildren - Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet of Sussex - on his big day.

King Charles III is relieved his son Harry will attend the coronation but saddened he will not see both his grandchildren - prince and prince Archie and Lilibet of Sussex. Picture: Getty Images

The King would have loved to have seen his grandchildren Archie and Lilibet for the coronation. Picture: Alexi Lumbomski

The royals will now accommodate Harry back into the royal fold. He will get drawn into their security arrangements for the big bank holiday weekend in London. He can‘t complain that he hasn’t got security.

The Prince and Princess of Wales for their part will feel duty bound to extend a hand of friendship to the exiled royal, which won’t be easy, but with Meghan in Montecito, it will be perhaps easier for all involved.

With the King engrossed on his big weekend in Diamond Jubilee stagecoaches and crowns, and the Queen fussing in rehearsals for the day she is crowned alongside the King, it will be left to William and Kate, to appear as obliging as they did for that joint walk about after the Queen‘s death in September when they perused the flowers in the grounds of Windsor Castle.

There may well be a reconciliation of sorts.

Prince Harry is unlikely to appear on the palace balcony for the coronation, a position reserved for working royals, unless the King decides. Pictured at the Trooping The Colour in 2018. Picture: Getty Images

Harry‘s image in the UK has plummeted. Public ratings for both Harry and Meghan are at an all time low. Indeed Meghan has been conspicuous by her absence; in the promotions of Spare and the Netflix documentary she is nowhere to be seen clutching his hand.

His tales in Spare about his frostbitten penis, how many Taliban insurgents he killed while serving in Afghanistan and how he lost his virginity to a butt-slapping older woman in a field behind a pub have turned him into a parodied figure.

William has been clearly desperate to get across to his brother. The fact that, according to Spare, he held Harry against a wall in a rage and tackled him to the floor over a dog bowl to get him to see sense shows not only an edgier side to the Prince of Wales but a genuine love for his brother.

So while it is difficult to truly know how broken relations are between the brothers or sons and their father, on May 6 they will present a united front.

After Spare, there is still a lot of work to do to fix broken relationships. Rome wasn‘t built in a day but Harry’s attendance is an olive branch, a symbol of peace, and the first reunion with members of the royal family since the January release of his blockbuster memoir.

Originally published as What Prince Harry’s decision to go to King Charles’ coronation shows amid hopes of reconciliation