Meghan Markle says leaked ‘reason’ for not attending coronation ‘ridiculous’

Meghan Markle wants it known that a leaked story about why she wasn’t attending the King’s coronation was “false and frankly ridiculous”.

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. Picture: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

The Duchess is irritated. Meghan Markle wants it known that a leaked story to the British media that she was dissatisfied about the monarchy’s response to her “unconscious bias” claims as the reason why she wasn’t attending the King’s coronation was “false and frankly ridiculous”.

Markle has not publicly revealed why she is not attending the coronation. She will stay in Montecito, the day of her son’s fourth birthday, missing the crowning of the man who walked her down the aisle at the lavish Windsor Castle wedding, and avoiding British public displeasure for her trashing of the royal institution.

Over the weekend The Daily Telegraph had revealed Markle was missing the landmark day on May 6 because she had received an “unsatisfactory response” from the King about unconscious bias in a letter exchange following the explosive Oprah Winfrey tell-all in March 2021, in which Meghan and Prince Harry eviscerated the royal family.

“A source has said that the Duchess feels she has not received a satisfactory response to her concerns,’’ the paper said, referring to their allegations a royal family member had spoken of concerns about the colour of the skin of her firstborn, Archie.

But Meghan has denied this is the reason for missing the coronation through the Twitter account of Omid Scobie, the author of her hagiography Finding Freedom.

In a statement she said: “The Duchess of Sussex is going about her life in the present, not thinking about correspondence from two years ago related to conversations from four years ago. Any suggestion otherwise is false and frankly ridiculous.”

The statement added: “We encourage tabloid media and various other royal correspondents to stop exhausting the circus that they alone are creating.”

The subject of racism in the royal family is a particularly sensitive one, especially since Prince Harry rowed back from the damaging skin colour accusations only two years later when publicising his own book Spare.

Prince Harry is only expected to attend the ceremony at Westminster Abbey, and will miss the coronation concert at Windsor Castle on the Sunday and the volunteering Big Day Out on the Monday.