Being on the Buckingham Palace Balcony Isn’t What Matters to Harry and Meghan, Source Says

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published 14 May 2022

For Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, it was never about being on the Buckingham Palace balcony during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee next month. All the couple cares about, reports the Mirror, is that kids Archie and Lili get to see the Queen—Archie for the first time in two and a half years, and Lili for the first time ever.

The Queen made the decision that only working members of the royal family would join her on the balcony for Trooping the Colour on June 2, meaning that the Sussexes—as well as her disgraced son, Prince Andrew—would not join her for the occasion.

“They didn’t ask to be on the balcony, so I think that’s the thing,” commentator Loni Love told E! News, via the Mirror. “I think this is more about Prince Andrew and making sure he’s not on it than Harry and Meghan. They just added Harry and Meghan so it wouldn’t look [like] they snubbed Andrew.”

In a statement from the Sussexes released shortly after the Queen’s balcony decision was released by Buckingham Palace, a spokesperson said, “Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are excited and honored to attend The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations this June with their children.” (The Platinum Jubilee, set for June 2 to June 5, will also coincide with the first birthday of Harry and Meghan’s daughter Lilibet Diana, named for Her Majesty’s familial nickname.)

Talks of the couple attending the Platinum Jubilee began buzzing after the Sussexes visited the Queen at Windsor Castle on April 14, en route to The Netherlands and the Invictus Games there. And, Love says, it’s the Queen—and making sure their kids meet her—that is what matters most to Harry and Meghan.

“The thing that Harry and Meghan reportedly want to do is make sure that their grandchildren [sic] meet the Queen,” she says.

And who wouldn’t swoon for a Lilibet meets Lili moment during the Queen’s big celebration?

Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.