The royal family sent out an invitation for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to attend King Charles III‘s coronation on May 6, the same day as their son Archie’s fourth birthday.
This act has left supporters of the Duke and Duchess wondering if the invitation was purely a pleasantry, or if the date was chosen to cause conflict.
“I can confirm The Duke has recently received an email correspondence from His Majesty’s office regarding the coronation,” a spokesperson for the pair said. “An immediate decision on whether The Duke and Duchess will attend will not be disclosed by us at this time.”
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The relationship between the royal family and the couple has been publicly strained since they stepped down from their duties in 2020 and moved to California. In 2021, during an interview with Oprah Winfrey, the couple revealed how the relationship with the royal family has been strained for much longer privately.
And with Harry’s memoir, Spare, published in January 2023, he laid out his troubles with the family from physical abuse from his brother, his father’s teasing and the death of his mother, Princess Diana.
In an excerpt, Harry wrote, “Pa liked telling stories, and this was one of the best in his repertoire. He’d always end with a burst of philosophizing … ‘Who knows if I’m really the Prince of Wales? Who knows if I’m even your real father?’ He’d laugh and laugh, though it was a remarkably unfunny joke, given the rumor circulating just then that my actual father was one of Mummy’s former lovers: Major James Hewitt. One cause of this rumor was Major Hewitt’s flaming ginger hair, but another cause was sadism.”
