Vanishing act made Harry risk being duke of hazard

Prince Harry made it painfully clear he did not want to be in London one minute longer than he must as he attended, through gritted teeth, his father’s coronation.

Prince Harry arrives at Westminster Abbey. Picture: Getty Images

Blink and you may have missed the most talked about guest at the King’s coronation. Prince Harry made it painfully clear he did not want to be in London one minute longer than he must as he attended, through gritted teeth, the coronation of his father, King Charles III.

The Duke of Sussex spent barely 24 hours in Britain, arriving the day before the coronation and departing later on the day of the ceremony. He won’t attend the coronation day-after concert at Windsor Castle and he did not appear on the balcony with the royal family after the coronation.

Despite this, his attendance at Westminster Abbey was perhaps the most scrutinised of any of the 2000 guests at the coronation. Every movement, gesture, grimace or grin was recorded and raked over for meaning about the prince’s mood towards his estranged family.

Did he make eye contact with brother Prince William and his wife, Catherine, with whom he has fallen out? What were his thoughts on his father’s wife, Camilla, the woman he once labelled as “dangerous”?

The simple act of the royal “spare” attending the service has added rocket fuel to soap opera that has surrounded the rift between Harry, his American wife Meghan Markle and the royal family, a story that has helped keep British tabloids afloat as they feed a seemingly insatiable public interest in the spat.

Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex leaves Westminster Abbey after the Coronation Ceremonies of Britain's King Charles III. Picture: AFP

The coronation may have been the last time for many years that the royal family gathered under the same roof, at least in public.

The breakdown in relations between Harry, Meghan and the royals has shown no sign of thawing since the Sussexes used a lucrative six-part Netflix series and Harry’s memoir Spare to deliver a series of stinging accusations against the royals.

To the likely relief of the royal family, Meghan chose not to attend the coronation, preferring to stay in California with their two children, Lilibet, who is almost two years old, and Archie, who turned four on the day of the coronation.

The presence of Meghan, who has become a deeply divisive figure in Britain, would have created a media circus that royal aides feared could have overshadowed the coronation itself. Yet her absence for the coronation of her ­father-in-law – who walked her down the aisle at her wedding – says much about the depth of the rift within the family.

“The outcome chosen is one that suits all,” a royal aide was quoted as saying. “The King is pleased Harry is coming and understands why Meghan might want to stay behind with Archie and Lilibet. There is no ill-feeling. We are pleased to have arrived at a resolution.”

Harry was said to have agonised over whether he should come to Westminster to see his father crowned, with the couple waiting weeks beyond the RSVP date to confirm their plans. Behind-the-scenes negotiations about Harry’s attendance included seating plans in Westminster Abbey that Buckingham Palace had to ensure fell short of insulting him but also reflected his diminished status after choosing to end his days as a working royal in January 2020.

Harry had been seeking a meeting prior to the coronation with his father and perhaps other royals to discuss the claim he made against them in the six-part Netflix series Harry and Meghan and the book. The Sussexes were reportedly seeking a private apology from Charles and Camilla and also William and Kate.

They appear to have misjudged the level of hurt that their allegations – and disclosure of private conversations within the family – have inflicted. Harry, who said earlier this year he wanted “a family not an institution”, said his royal relatives have shown “no willingness to reconcile”.

When it became clear no apology was forthcoming, Harry is said to have chosen to attend the coronation – the most important day of his father’s life – for fear he would regret the decision later if he stayed away.

Harry reportedly had also wanted to meet with Charles recently when he visited Britain for a legal case, but the King was too busy to see his son.

Charles is said to be happy that his youngest, whom he once described as his “darling boy” before the blow-up, chose to ­attend the coronation yet it is difficult to see how the relationship between the Suxesses and the royals can be easily repaired after the breakdown caused by Harry and Meghan’s accusations against them over the past two years.

The Suxesses have fired repeatedly arrows against the royals via their interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, followed by their Netflix series and then via Harry’s book.

They have portrayed a deeply dysfunctional royal family, alleging Charles and William allowed their staff to leak negative stories about them to the media.

They have at times adopted a lecturing tone, saying the royal family needed to “learn and grow” so it could be “part of the solution rather than part of the problem”.

They have even accused the family of unconscious bias when it comes to issues of race; Meghan famously accused one unnamed member of the royal family of speculating about the skin colour of their baby, given Meghan’s mother is African American.

Charles reportedly wrote to the couple afterwards, saying he was “disappointed” that they felt the needed to make such a profile and damaging allegations. Harry has accused Charles of being a distant father, saying he had an “incredibly painful childhood” where he was starved of hugs and attention.

The biggest rift after the disclosures appears to be between the brothers, who on the day of the coronation had reportedly not spoken since the queen’s funeral in September.

At that time the frosty body-language between the two was palpable, and that was before the release of Harry’s memoir, where he accused his brother of once calling Meghan “rude” “difficult” and “abrasive” and then physically attacking him.

Not surprisingly, relations between royal wives Meghan and Kate also appear to have broken down. According to Harry’s memoir, Kate demanded an apology from Meghan for suggesting that the Princess of Wales had “baby brain”, an accusation which, Harry wrote, led Kate to complain that their friendship was not close enough to discuss hormones.

Harry’s relationship with the new Queen Camilla appears to be equally strained after he revealed both he and William pleaded with Charles not to marry her after the death of their mother, although Harry adds they were not opposed to the relationship.

Harry has described Camilla as “dangerous” and “a villain”.

In Spare, he claimed that Camilla leaked stories about the royals to bolster her image and that she sacrificed Harry “on her personal PR altar”.

Camilla’s spin doctors have sought to stem that damage as best as possible, but who knows how she might really feel?

One of Camilla’s confidantes, the Marchioness of Lansdowne, said “Of course it bothers her, of course it hurts. But she doesn’t let it get to her. Her philosophy is always ‘Don’t make a thing of it and it will settle down; least said, soonest mended’.”

Harry’s resignation as a working royal has also been complicated by the Sussexes’ desire to retain some royal duties and the security that came with their titles. Yet they have been stripped of more privileges that they wanted and they are unhappy about it.

“You can’t sit on the fence and keep one foot in and one foot out,” Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, said about her decision to leave the royal family. “You’re either in or you’re out. But then don’t cry about not being invited to weddings. You choose to leave, now go and live it – and be it.”

That is the challenge for Harry in the future as he lives his chosen life of self-exile. This weekend, the personal price of that decision was there for the world to see as Harry cut a lonely figure without his wife and children in this, the most royal of celebrations.