Prince William ‘Baffled’ by Prince Harry’s ‘Difficult’ Coronation Behavior

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Prince William is “baffled” by his brother’s reluctance to publicly accept his invitation to King Charles’ coronation, a friend of the prince has told The Daily Beast, and thinks Prince Harry is trying to “be difficult” by not announcing his and his wife’s intentions.

Harry and wife Meghan Markle have said that they have been invited to the coronation but have not yet said if they will come. In January, Harry told interviewer Tom Bradby that he needed to have a face to face meeting with his family of origin before attending, and told another interviewer, Bryony Gordon, that he wanted “an apology for my wife,” although without specifically linking it to their attendance at the coronation.

Royal sources have insisted that the family will make no such gestures towards Harry and Meghan, firmly believing they have nothing to apologize for.

Harry & Meghan in ‘Tense’ Talks With Palace Over CoronationRSVP

Tom Sykes, Tim Teeman, Tim Teeman

Meanwhile, the personal friend of William’s, who used to also be friends with Harry but has not maintained the relationship in recent years, told The Daily Beast: “William is baffled by Harry not publicly saying that he is coming to the coronation, especially because everyone thinks he will be there. Relations have never been this bad and it feels like Harry is just stringing it out to try and be difficult, frankly.”

The Daily Mail reported on Thursday that palace insiders are still “none the wiser” as to Harry and Meghan’s attendance. One source told the outlet: “Everything is still up in the air and there’s only a month to go. All people have been told is that ‘it should hopefully be resolved soon.’ But in the meantime the teams are trying to finalize plans for 2,000 guests, many of whom are international heads of state and VIPs. It’s a headache.”

However, the London Times said the couple are likely to announce their intentions “soon,” and suggested they had been spurred into action by President Biden having let the king know that he could not attend.

Asked if William thought his brother would ultimately attend, The Daily Beast’s source said, “Everyone thinks he will.”

The king, meanwhile, is “working on the assumption that Harry and Meghan will come,” having not heard anything to the contrary, a friend of the king said, adding that the family and institution as a whole was determined not to be “distracted” by the will-they-won’t-they around Harry and Meghan.

One question likely to be asked in royal circles this weekend—especially if the couple do not make an announcement soon—is how Harry has reacted to the publication of the official coronation invitation, which unambiguously identified Charles’ wife as “Queen Camilla.”

Harry said in his memoir that Camilla was “dangerous” and when pressed on the issue in an interview with Anderson Cooper, Harry replied, “Because of the connections that she was forging within the British press. And there was open willingness on both sides to trade information. And with a family built on hierarchy, and with her on the way to being Queen Consort, there were going to be people or bodies left in the street because of that.”

He characterized her supposed willingness to be ruthless as a price she was prepared to pay to be “accepted as monarch by the British public.”

Asked how William was reacting to Camilla being declared queen, the friend said he “will be enormously supportive.” They said Prince Harry’s description of how he and William had begged their dad not to marry Camilla was “ancient history and completely irrelevant,” and that William was totally focused on supporting his father.

They said that while the change in her status from would-be Princess Consort to Queen Consort to Queen Camilla might have appeared rapid to outsiders, it was “no secret” within the family that she “was always going to be queen” and would not likely have come as a surprise to Harry, saying: “This has been on the cards for at least a decade.”

The offices of William and the king declined to respond to requests for comment about whether Harry was expected to attend the coronation, and what personal contact was still being made between the individuals.

Of course, knowledge of Charles’ ambitions for Camilla were not just confined to the family: The Daily Beast was told by a source as far back as 2017 that Charles would make Camilla queen upon accession, even though at that time Charles’s website publicly stated that Camilla would be known as HRH The Princess Consort when Charles acceded. Charles and Camilla carried on a long affair while he was married to Princess Diana which contributed to the breakdown of the marriage.

However, there is no doubt that seeing Queen Camilla on the grand, official invite will have brought the new reality of Camilla’s status into sharp focus. So will a series of moves designed to elevate her family, with her grandchildren reportedly being given central roles in the coronation service, including that of holding a golden canopy over Camilla as she is anointed.

This detail has not been confirmed but four members of her family—three grandchildren and her great-nephew—will be pages, alongside Prince George, the palace said this week. By contrast there will be no formal role for Prince Harry, despite the fact he is fifth in line to the throne. Harry’s children (sixth and seventh in line) have been deemed too young to attend.

A friend of the couple previously told The Daily Beast that the inclusion of her children represented a “victory lap” for Camilla and Charles, saying: “Camilla never asked for any of this. But Charles always wanted her to be queen. Lots of people doubted he could pull it off but he has, and including her family in the coronation is something of a victory lap for both of them.”

Harry doubtless has a very clear idea of what the inclusion of the Parker Bowles family in the coronation means.

But the palace will have been proved to have played a clever game if he decides to turn up—and applaud politely like everyone else.