Rumors Swirl That Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Were Not Invited to Trooping the Colour Next Weekend

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle walk next to one another

(Image credit: Getty)

published 11 June 2023

Trooping the Colour, unbelievably, is next Saturday—King Charles’ first as monarch. The annual event is the public birthday celebration of the monarch, held every June despite Charles’ actual birthday being in November. (Her late Majesty’s actual birthday was in April; June was chosen because of London’s generally favorable weather that month, despite a heat wave happening now.)

The Mirror reports that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were left off the guest list (and it would seem unlikely that Harry would attend, as he was just in the U.K. last week for his court case against Mirror Group Newspapers—that’s a lot of transatlantic travel). For its part, Buckingham Palace is refusing to comment on whether Harry and Meghan were invited.

Harry and Meghan were at the last Trooping the Colour, held during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations for the late Queen last June, but “since then, Harry’s memoir and the couple’s Netflix documentary are believed to have strained their relationship with the royals,” The Mirror reports.

The Daily Mail’s Richard Eden says of a possible snub “I hear that Prince Harry and Meghan have not, however, been invited to the King’s Birthday Parade next weekend.” The lack of an invite for the Sussexes was “a reflection on the state of relations,” a source told the outlet.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle leaving an engagement

However, Harry and Meghan were invited to the King’s Coronation last month; Harry attended solo, as Meghan stayed behind in California with their children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. Archie’s fourth birthday coincidentally fell on the same day of the Coronation, May 6.

Prince William examining the troops for Trooping the Colour

Prince William carried out the Colonel’s Review of the troops yesterday as part of the preparations for next weekend, with more than 1,400 soldiers of the Household Division and The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery taking part in the review. As temperatures climbed up to 30 degrees Celsius in London (86 degrees Fahrenheit), three guards passed out in the sweltering heat.

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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.

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