When King Charles III ascended to the throne, his coronation was among the biggest parties Britain had ever seen. But two important people supposedly weren't even invited: his grandchildren Archie and Lilibet. Why?
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00When King Charles III ascended to the throne, his coronation was among the biggest parties
00:05Britain had ever seen. But two important people supposedly weren't even invited, his grandchildren,
00:10Archie and Lilibet. Why?
00:13They may have quit the royal family, but Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's kids will still
00:17be in the line of succession when King Charles dies. Yet, following Princess Lilibet's birth
00:21in 2021, the line of succession on the royal family website wasn't immediately updated
00:26to include her, even though she was automatically given a place in the Order of Ascension at
00:30birth. In fact, at the time, the website didn't include a single mention of Lilibet.
00:35Accordingly, there was a backlash against the palace. Some argued that this omission
00:39was political, a deliberate snub of the Sussexes, and the likes of which would not have occurred
00:43with other royal children.
00:45Royal commenter Chris Shipp said on the Royal Rotor podcast,
00:47"'I can forgive them a week or two, but like a month? I honestly don't know what's taken
00:52them so long. Is this them being a little petulant? Is it them saying, well, we'll
00:56get round to it when we're ready? But it does, to me, feel like maybe they're making
01:00a point."
01:01When Princess Lilibet turned one in 2022, Prince Harry's brother and sister-in-law were
01:06nowhere to be seen. While visiting the U.K. for Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee
01:10celebrations, the Sussexes invited Prince William, Princess Catherine, and their three
01:14children to attend Lilibet's birthday at Frogmore Cottage. But William and Catherine declined
01:18the invite, apparently due to the former's distrust of his brother following his various
01:22tell-all media appearances.
01:24A source told Page Six,
01:26"'Things are still fraught. William is still wary of spending any time alone with Harry
01:30as you never quite know what may be reported back afterwards.'
01:33The snub was a difficult one for Harry and Meghan, as they hoped their children would
01:36befriend their cousins. Royal author Christopher Anderson told Us Weekly,
01:40"'William and Kate made no effort at all to introduce Prince George, Princess Charlotte,
01:45and Prince Louis to Lily. As far as I know, nobody believes they spoke to one another.'"
01:50Every summer, Queen Elizabeth would travel to Balmoral, her vacation home and favorite
01:54residence. In July 2022, signs of a reconciliation between the Sussexes and the working royals
02:00appeared underway, with Balmoral providing the perfect meeting ground for the family
02:04to squash their beef. According to a report by The Sun, Elizabeth added Harry, Meghan,
02:09and their two children to the guest list of her summer retreat in Balmoral, with an insider
02:13claiming,
02:14"'Staff have been told to expect the full list of royals including Harry, Meghan, and
02:18their children Archie and Lilibet. They're preparing for the Sussexes.'"
02:22The visit didn't happen, though, and several sources later alleged to Page Six that the
02:26Sussexes were not added to the guest list in the first place. It's unknown why Harry
02:30and Meghan were apparently omitted from the guest list, but it may have had something
02:33to do with worries over Harry's explosive memoir, Spare, which was published just a
02:37few short months later.
02:38"...I'm very excited to announce that Meghan and myself had a baby boy early this morning."
02:46Following the births of Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, there was considerable discussion
02:51around the children's eligibility for royal titles. Although Harry and Meghan made the
02:55decision to step away from royal duties, thereby relinquishing their HRH titles, they believed
03:00that their children should not be robbed of the opportunity to have the royal titles themselves.
03:05Since the Sussex kids are royals by birth, they were eligible for HRH designations at
03:10the discretion of the reigning monarch, as well as being referred to as prince and princess.
03:14But Queen Elizabeth declined to change her great-grandchildren's titles prior to her
03:19death, and when King Charles ascended the throne in September 2022, there was a significant
03:24delay in bestowing Archie and Lilibet prince and princess titles. Rather, when the line
03:28of succession was modified, they were merely referred to as master and miss.
03:33"...These are all things that Buckingham Palace are even scratching their heads over, and
03:36these are things that, down the line, I think it's pretty low on the king's to-do list."
03:41Charles eventually granted Archie and Lilibet prince and princess titles, as opposed to
03:45the HRH honorific, a decision which reportedly upset Harry and Meghan. An insider told The
03:51Sun,
03:52"...they have been left furious that Archie and Lilibet cannot take the title HRH."
03:56Moreover, Omid Scobie wrote in his book Endgame that according to a royal insider, Harry and
04:01Meghan were deeply hurt by the delay in giving their children their royal designations, which
04:05they deemed reflective of the palace treating them like second-class citizens.
04:09They see the way their children are treated differently, and that's hard to feel comfortable
04:13with.
04:14However fractured King Charles' relationship with Prince Harry may be, one wouldn't expect
04:18the monarch to extend this animosity towards his grandchildren. But Charles didn't attend
04:22Princess Lilibet's christening in March 2023. Along with Queen Camilla, Prince William,
04:27and Princess Catherine, Charles had been invited to fly to Los Angeles for the toddler's christening.
04:32Charles and William allegedly didn't attend the christening due to both their packed schedules
04:37an insider telling The Mirror,
04:38"...to have the two most senior royals and their wives fly to the States for Lilibet's
04:42christening would have been a massive operation both in terms of security and planning."
04:47Accordingly, Harry and Meghan were criticized for holding their daughters' christening in
04:51California in the first place, with some arguing that they could have waited to baptize Lilibet
04:55in the Church of England prior to the king's coronation. Royal author Phil Dampierre said,
05:00"...Harry and Meghan can try and claim the moral high ground by letting it be known that
05:04they invited the king, Queen Camilla, and the Prince and Princess of Wales to the christening,
05:08but they are just playing games. They know there wasn't a hope in hell of any of them
05:11going."
05:12Meghan's mother, Doria Ragland, was reportedly the only extended family there.
05:17In April 2023, Prince William and Princess Catherine paid tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth
05:22on what would have been her 97th birthday. In what some perceived as an overt snub, William
05:27and Catherine marked the occasion with an Instagram upload of the queen posing with her
05:31great-grandchildren, including Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis, as well
05:35as Zara and Mike Tindall's children, but Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet were nowhere to
05:39be seen.
05:40Poignantly, the photo was taken during the queen's Balmoral summer retreat in 2022, which
05:45the Sussex kids were reportedly not invited to. But while other royal great-grandchildren,
05:50such as Princess Beatrice's daughter Sienna Elizabeth Mapelli-Mozzi, were also absent
05:54from the snap, photographer Princess Catherine was able to subtly still make her feel included,
05:59seemingly including a framed photo of Mozzi in the background. The same could not be said
06:03for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's children.
06:06There was, initially, total silence from the firm when Princess Lilibet turned two in 2023.
06:11However, insiders insisted to Us Weekly that Lilibet was not snubbed, rather the royals
06:15were merely following protocol, or lack thereof, with a source saying,
06:19"...there is no and has never been protocol for wishing happy birthdays to non-working
06:23members of the royal family."
06:25The royal family had wished Lilibet a happy birthday the previous year, though, leading
06:28royal experts to argue that the palace's silence on Lilibet's special day reflected
06:33a shift in the internal atmosphere following the death of Queen Elizabeth. Royal commentator
06:37R.S. Locke told The Independent that the 2022 birthday tribute to Lilibet was likely the
06:42queen's idea, since she maintained a close relationship with Prince Harry and, by extension,
06:47his children.
06:48But in the wake of Her Majesty's death, King Charles had seemingly implemented stricter
06:51rules about birthday tributes. Locke said,
06:54King Charles' decision not to publicly acknowledge his granddaughter's birthday, nor Prince Archie's
06:59last month, is a reflection of their strained relationship and likely an indication of the
07:03social media practices going forward.
07:06King Charles' coronation, held in May 2023, was a family affair. But while Prince William
07:12and Princess Catherine's kids were present, the Sussex children were nowhere to be seen.
07:16Prince Harry was a solitary figure at the coronation, heading back on a plane to be
07:20with his family soon after the ceremony ended. According to The Daily Beast, sources claimed
07:24that Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet weren't invited to the coronation or any of the related
07:29events, as the king feared that the inevitable bad press would have overshadowed his special
07:33day. However, others claimed that Meghan Markle made the decision not to appear at the coronation
07:38with Archie and Lilibet, and Charles was saddened that his grandchildren would not be in attendance.
07:43In other words, nobody's really sure what actually happened. Royal author Christopher
07:47Anderson said,
07:48"[Charles has to be very relieved and pleased that his second son will be there, even if
07:52Meghan, Archie, and Lilibet won't. This doesn't mean Archie and Lilibet won't be welcomed
07:56into the royal fold at some future date. The king must feel a connection to Harry and Meghan's
08:00children. But first, all parties have to find a way to mend the torn relationship between
08:04the Sussexes and the rest of the clan."
08:07In May 2024, Prince Archie reportedly enjoyed a low-key fifth birthday party with Meghan
08:12Markle, Prince Harry, and his maternal grandmother. But he didn't receive a public birthday tribute
08:17from the royal family, which insiders again claimed was just protocol for non-working
08:22royals. Royal correspondent Danielle Stacey told Hello! magazine,
08:26Similarly, the palace doesn't typically share messages on the likes of Princess Beatrice,
08:30Princess Eugenie, and Zara Tindall's birthdays, nor their children's special days.
08:34Despite not publicly acknowledging his grandson's birthday, King Charles was reportedly still
08:38keen on sending Archie a heartfelt gift. Charles, who is an avid amateur painter, apparently
08:43wanted to send Archie one of his watercolors, but even this gesture wasn't drama-free.
08:48Royal expert Tom Quinn told The Mirror,
08:50"[King Charles and his team are desperately worried that whatever the king sends to his
08:54grandson may be misinterpreted by Harry and Meghan.]
08:56Charles famously gave Prince George a beautiful handmade swing engraved on the seat with George's
09:01name, but Harry has told him repeatedly that this sort of present is too grand for Archie.