Prince Harry Was in the Air, Not at Balmoral, When the Queen’s Death Was Announced

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Prince Harry was not at Balmoral Castle when the announcement of the queen’s death was made.

Flight tracking data shows that the jet Harry was aboard touched down at Aberdeen airport at 6:46 p.m., more than 15 minutes after the formal announcement was made at 6:30 p.m. local time.

The Daily Mail reported that he was then whisked to Balmoral by private car, arriving shortly before 8 p.m.

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The palace declined to say why the announcement was not held for Harry’s arrival, or why he was not able to travel with William, Edward, Sophie, and Andrew, who traveled to Scotland on a flight that arrived several hours earlier. Photographs of William driving the group to Balmoral were widely circulated.

However, the late arrival of Harry will inevitably be interpreted in some quarters as a snub and further evidence of the ongoing bad blood between the Sussexes and the larger Windsor clan.

There had been no plans, until the death of the queen, for Harry and Meghan to spend any time with the rest of the royals, despite Harry and Meghan living so close to William and Kate Middleton during their stay in the U.K. The royals are said to be wary of spending time with Harry, especially with the publication of his memoir so imminent, and its contents still unknown.

Duncan Larcombe, a former royal editor of British tabloid the Sun and a biographer of Prince Harry, told The Daily Beast, “Earlier in the day it was announced by Omid Scobie, who seems to have become a quasi-spokesperson for Harry and Meghan, that Meghan would be traveling up to Balmoral with Harry.

“Then, a few hours later, there was a clarification from him that actually, Meghan wouldn’t be making the trip after all.

“It’s not clear why she didn’t come. She may have made a very sensible decision not to intrude on the family’s grief. But it is at least a possibility that Charles asked her not to.

“It does, admittedly, also look strange that no room could be found for Harry on the earlier flight. But it has been a chaotic day, and they do fly separately as a rule. For example, when I was on a joint royal tour of South Africa by both brothers, they always took different flights.

“But it’s not as strict a rule as it used to be, especially given George, Charlotte, and Louis have all displaced Harry in the order of succession. I would suspect that for Harry, getting off that plane and actually seeing the announcement had already been made was a very humbling experience.”

Harry was only in the U.K., rather than Montecito, California, where he now lives with his family, by sheer chance. He and Meghan had arranged to attend a number of charity events in the U.K. and Germany this week. They were supposed to be attending the WellChild Awards in London tonight—an appearance that was inevitably canceled.