Palace sources walked back the ‘Sussexes were snubbed from Balmoral’ story

It was interesting to see, over the course of a week, how this particular story became its own little five-act drama. At first, Becky English at the Mail claimed that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had an “open invitation” to visit Balmoral this summer but they would likely not go. Then the story shifted to “King Charles is hosting a special family memorial for QEII on the anniversary of her death, and he’s making a point of not inviting the Sussexes.” Which would be on brand, honestly – the one-year anniversary of QEII’s death is also the anniversary of Charles’s first act as king, which was calling Harry and telling him not to bring Meghan to Scotland because it’s “family only.” In any case, it turns out that Charles isn’t even organizing anything for the anniversary of his mother’s death:

There will be no official public event to mark the first anniversary of the death of Queen Elizabeth II, a royal spokesman has said. King Charles is to spend 8 September “quietly and privately”. The day also marks his own accession to the throne. Nor are there any plans for a private gathering of the Royal Family on the anniversary of the late Queen’s death.

Senior royals will be in Balmoral in Aberdeenshire over the summer, the place where the Queen died last year.

The King is following his mother’s tradition – the late monarch spent the anniversaries of her father’s death, and the start of her reign, in what used to be termed “private reflection” – with no planned official events. If there are other commemorative events in the week of the anniversary, King Charles and Queen Camilla are not expected to attend.

[From BBC]

Is it weird that Charles won’t mark the bummer anniversary in some public way? Eh. I mean, yes, it is strange, especially given the historic nature of QEII’s reign. On the other hand, I sort of understand why Charles is just doing what his mother did about King George VI’s death-anniversary. After the BBC reported that, suddenly the “palace sources” were walking back all of that talk about snubbing the Sussexes:

Palace sources today denied that the Royal Family is ‘snubbing’ Harry and Meghan on the anniversary of the Queen’s death – as King Charles prepared to spend the day in quiet reflection at Balmoral.

The Daily Mail revealed last week there were no plans to mark the occasion publicly involving members of the family and that His Majesty would spend the day quietly reflecting on the moment at Birkhall, his home on the Balmoral estate.

Following claims in The Sun that the Sussexes had been left out of commemorations, a source said it was ‘simply untrue’ that they had been [snubbed] and there are no plans for any public event or for any private family gathering to mark the anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s demise.

[From The Daily Mail]

So, no snubs, no Sussexes, no commemoration, no events, and probably no invitations, open or otherwise. I do find it interesting that this whole story got walked back. I don’t have a big theory about it, other than it was more about Charles rather than the Sussexes. As in, Charles wanted to call attention to the fact that he’s not doing a commemoration.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.