King Charles ‘hadn’t decided’ whether to invite Harry to the coronation in February

Immediately following Prince Harry’s promotion around Spare this past January, the British media began focusing – almost solely – on whether Harry would attend the coronation. The first round of rumors began in late January, just weeks after Harry was extremely ambivalent about attending the Chubbly in interviews. I said at the time that it felt like there was a briefing war happening between Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace, with William throwing a tantrum and issuing threats, and Charles dithering about whether or not to extend an invitation. Thus, we got some back-and-forth about how the Archbishop of Canterbury is “dangerously friendly” with the Sussexes and he could be tasked with acting as an intermediary. By February, the palace was blatantly briefing the papers that they had every confidence that the Sussexes would attend, despite not actually inviting them. Well, Omid Scobie’s Endgame points out that during that same time frame, Charles was dodging Harry’s phone calls and no invitation had even been extended.

King Charles was ‘stubbornly hard to pin down’ over whether Prince Harry and Meghan would be invited to the Coronation, Omid Scobie has claimed.

Writing in his new book Endgame, Scobie claims that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were unsure for months if they were going to be invited. In response to Harry’s queries about an invite, the King allegedly said in a February phone call initiated by Harry, ‘I… haven’t decided’.

Scobie adds that whilst the Duke had an ‘extensive list of reasons for skipping the proceedings altogether’, Harry had allegedly told a source that supporting his father ‘”still outweighed other things”‘.

Harry attended the ceremony in a suit, with his medals pinned to his chest, after being told he would not be allowed to wear his military uniform. But Scobie says Charles gave the disgraced Prince Andrew a ‘firm nod’ to wear his ‘lavish’ Order of the Garter ceremonial robes.

The Duke of Sussex was reportedly invited to lunch at Buckingham Palace following the service but did not attend.

[From The Daily Mail]

Scobie also noted that while Harry was nervous to return to England for the Jubbly in 2022, he felt much more confident and breezy for his quickie coronation drive-by. Anyway, I appreciate the fact that Scobie is clarifying this somewhat minor issue. I had the sense, from the reporting at the time, that the palace briefings were far from truthful and that Charles had not actually invited the Sussexes until much later. In fact, I’m pretty sure that Harry wasn’t officially invited until Harry made it clear that he would not turn up at the coronation if his father did not contact him directly.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.