Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Reportedly Want an In-Person, Sit-Down Meeting—Apology Included—with the Royal Family Before They’ll Attend Coronation

Before they’ll consider attending King Charles’ coronation in May, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle apparently want an in-person, sit-down meeting with the royal family—with the expectation that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will receive an apology, multiple outlets report.

The Mirror reports that the Sussexes want the Firm to “take responsibility” for the pain and damage it put the couple through, and The Times reports that a source close to Harry and Meghan says they want the meeting to take place before they attend the coronation, the date of which—May 6—is coincidentally also the fourth birthday of their son, Archie. The meeting would consist of claims leveled against the Firm in Harry & Meghan, the Sussexes' Netflix docuseries that dropped this month, and the outlet reports that “the couple were particularly incensed that the Palace facilitated a warm reconciliation meeting between Black charity boss Ngozi Fulani and Lady Susan Hussey, a former lady-in-waiting, after a race row. Harry and Meghan reportedly see this meeting, where Hussey offered her ‘sincere apologies,’ as a ‘double standard,’ as no such efforts have been made for them,” The Mirror writes.

“Nothing like that was ever done when Harry and Meghan raised various concerns—no meeting, formal apology, or taking responsibility or accountability,” a source tells The Times. “That is hard to swallow—100 percent yes, they’d like to have a meeting.”

In the docuseries itself, Harry said he had to “make peace with the fact we’re probably never going to get genuine accountability or a genuine apology” from the royal family.

A Palace source says the King could be open to the meeting, saying “if they want to get in touch with the King, they know where he lives,” reports The Sun.

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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.