Prince Harry, Prince Andrew Will Not Have Formal Roles At King Charles' Coronation
The official Order of Service for King Charles’ coronation was released on Friday, and two big names are missing.
Neither Prince Harry, who arrived in the U.K. via a commercial flight on Friday, nor Prince Andrew are listed under any part of the Westminster Abbey service or procession according to the newly released document, which was shared with HuffPost. While the two are attending, the lack of a formal roles is likely due to the fact that the two are no longer senior working members of the royal family, albeit for very different reasons.
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All of Charles’ siblings except Andrew were named in the “Procession of the King and the Queen” in the Order of Service, as is his eldest son, Prince William, and the entire Wales family.
The lineup of working royal family members who are listed for the procession back to Buckingham Palace includes the Prince and Princess of Wales and their three children (George, Charlotte and Louis), Prince Edward and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, and their two children (Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor and James, Earl of Wessex). Princess Anne, her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester are also named.
The Order of Service further notes the additional roles that William and his son George will carry out during Saturday’s service, which was previously noted in the liturgy of the coronation service.
It’s not clear where Harry and Andrew will be seated during the coronation ceremony, though there is some clarity over what they will wear.
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The Duke of Sussex is set to wear morning dress at the ceremony tomorrow, which both Andrew and Harry did when they took part in Queen Elizabeth’s funeral in September. They were each given separate exceptions to wear their military uniforms for certain events related to the funeral.
At the time, a Sussex spokesperson told HuffPost that Harry’s “decade of military service is not determined by the uniform he wears and we respectfully ask that focus remain on the life and legacy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.”
Prince Harry and Prince Charles attend the International Year of the Reef 2018 meeting at Fishmongers' Hall on Feb. 14, 2018, in London. WPA Pool via Getty Images
There is not yet any official confirmation of whether Harry and Andrew will be present at the Buckingham Palace balcony for a flypast following the coronation.
Andrew and Harry were also not on the balcony during Queen Elizabeth’s Trooping the Colour celebrations last year, as Buckingham Palace said at the time that the balcony appearance was “limited to Her Majesty and those members of the Royal Family who are currently undertaking official public duties on behalf of the Queen.”
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While the treatment of the Duke of Sussex and the Duke of York might appear to be similar ― since the two are both no longer working royals ― the reasoning behind their respective steps back could not be more different.
Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, announced their intention to step back as senior members of the royal family in January 2020, in order to pursue a new life in North America and secure financial independence. A year after their decision, the Sussexes confirmed they would not be returning as working members of the royal family, and returned all honorary military appointments and royal patronages to the queen.
Andrew’s step back from public duties is an entirely different story. The duke’s retreat came after he did a disastrous 2019 interview with the BBC’s “Newsnight.” During the interview, he was asked about sexual assault allegations leveled against him, and about his ties to the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew, who has long denied the accusations, recently reached an out-of-court settlement with his accuser, Virginia Giuffre, after she filed a lawsuit against him in Manhattan. Andrew’s military titles and royal patronages were stripped from him in January 2022, one day after a federal judge in New York denied the duke’s motion to drop the civil case against him.
Source: HuffPost
