This year will be the second year in a row that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have not been invited to the parade marking the birthday of King Charles III.
Harry and Meghan ride in a carriage during the ‘Trooping the Colour’ ceremony in 2019. Photo: UK Press
According to People , Harry and Meghan will be absent from the Trooping the Colour parade taking place in London on June 15. Last year, they were also not invited to the event held to celebrate the British King’s birthday.
The Sussexes now live in California after stepping down as senior members of the British Royal Family in early 2020. They have only attended Trooping the Colour together twice: in 2018 (a month after their wedding) and in 2019 (a few weeks after the birth of their first child).
Harry – Meghan on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with the royal family in 2018. Photo: UK Press
After two years of Covid-19, Trooping the Colour returns for an event in 2022 – coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the accession of the late Queen Elizabeth II . Harry and Meghan will also be in the UK at that time but will not be able to join the royal family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace as before.
Most recently, Harry returned home in early May to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games. However, the 39-year-old prince did not reunite with his father due to King Charles III’s “packed” schedule. Previously, the father and son only met briefly in February, shortly after the 75-year-old monarch announced he had cancer.
The Sussexes will not be present at the first Trooping the Colour ceremony under King Charles III in 2023. Photo: Mockford
King Charles III is expected to attend Trooping the Colour this year while still undergoing cancer treatment. Instead of riding a horse like last year, he will ride in a carriage with Queen Camilla . It is not yet clear whether his daughter- in-law , Princess Kate – who is also suffering from cancer – will attend this year’s ceremony. Since marrying Prince William in 2011, Kate has never missed a Trooping the Colour parade .