Major blow to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s UK homecoming

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s hopes for a warm welcome home were dashed despite being ‘odds-on’ to attend the King’s coronation.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are odds-on favourites to attend the King’s coronation, but any hopes of a warm homecoming were dashed with polls showing they’re not welcome in the United Kingdom.

After Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet were officially given their “birthright” titles by King Charles III, bookies said Prince Harry and Ms Markle are more likely to return to London for the ceremony than remain in California.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are odd-on favourites to attend the King’s coronation, but they’re less likely to receive a warm welcome home. Picture: AFP

Their role in the “Firm” is said to have been replaced by Prince Edward and his wife, Sophie, who received the titles of Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh. Picture: Getty Images

“The odds suggest that temperatures between the King and Harry are thawing somewhat, and the couple will be in attendance at the historic coronation,” Jessica O’Reilly of Ladbrokes said.

After the Duke and Duchess of Sussex confirmed “email correspondence” with Buckingham Palace, the British bookie gave odds of 4/5 that the pair would attend compared to 6/4 odds of remaining in the US.

While they have a more than 50 per cent chance of making an appearance, it will likely be little more than a cameo as their popularity takes a nose dive in the wake of the couple’s Netflix documentary and memoir, Spare.

A staggering 85 per cent of 96,000 Brits polled by the UK’s Telegraph believe the Duke and Duchess of Sussex should not be a part of the state occasion, given they’ve resigned as working members of the royal family.

If they do attend, a fifth of Britons would be less likely to watch the Coronation on television, according to a survey by WatchTVAbroad.com.

Amid their falling popularity, Prince Harry and Ms Markle will be relegated to “minor figures at the fringe of this event”, according to royal expert and historian Dr Ed Owens.

“Harry and Meghan will have no control over how this event plays out, the Royal Household will have complete control over this event,” he told Express.co.uk. “Everything will be organised down to the second in terms of how the event is meant to unfold, in terms of the role of the different performers.”

Their roles in the firm, and by extension the coronation, are said to have been replaced by the new Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh.

The King conferred the titles to his younger brother, Prince Edward and his wife, Sophie, Countess of Wessex.

The Queen once wanted Sophie to mentor Ms Markle in her transition into the royal family, but her efforts proved ineffective.

“Remember I’d had five years to adjust [to royal life]. And for our six-month engagement, I was even staying at Buckingham Palace. Not that you necessarily know how it will pan out,” she said in a rare interview with The Sunday Times.

The King waited to coincide the recreation of the dukedom with Prince Edward’s visit to Edinburgh on Friday, local time, for his 59th birthday.

The new Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Edward. Picture: AFP

It was Prince Philips’s wish that his youngest son inherit his title. Picture: AFP

A royal source said the move was in recognition of their decades of service to the crown.

The Scottish title has been conferred on the Duke for the duration of his life and will be returned to the Crown upon his death.

It was Prince Philip’s wish that his youngest son, the Earl of Wessex, inherit his title.

The Duke’s daughter Lady Louise Windsor’s title will not change but his son James, Viscount Severn, 15, will become the new Earl of Wessex upon his father’s death.

Prince Edward has previously said it would be “a bittersweet role” to accept after “both my parents have actually passed away,” and that “theoretically” the title should have gone to the Duke of York.

“My father was very keen that the title should continue, but he didn’t quite move quickly enough with Andrew, so it was us who he eventually had the conversation with,” he said.

“It was a lovely idea; a lovely thought.”

Originally published as Major blow to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s UK homecoming