According to reports, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had lunch with the Queen and senior royals behind closed doors yesterday following Trooping The Colour as part of the Royal Family’s special Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
Over the four-day weekend, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are expected to keep a low profile, with no sight of the Netflix cameras that trailed them around at the Invictus Games in the Netherlands in April. They will, however, attend today’s Thanksgiving Service at St Paul’s Cathedral, which will be their first combined royal engagement in two years.
After being forced to withdraw from the funeral last night, Prince Charles will officially represent the Queen at the service in London this morning, and Prince Andrew will not attend after testing positive for coronavirus.
The Sussexes, who are visiting from California and staying at Frogmore Cottage in Windsor, were not allowed on the Buckingham Palace balcony yesterday and instead observed the ceremonies from Horse Guards Parade.
Today’s ceremony, however, will be Harry and Meghan’s first with The Firm since the tense Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey in March 2020, just before they officially stood down as senior royals.
After experiencing ‘discomfort’ during the Trooping The Colour activities, the 96-year-old Queen will miss today’s ceremony at St Paul’s, according to a last-minute decision announced by the Palace at 7.30pm yesterday night.
The Queen is said to have had episodic mobility concerns yesterday, and the Palace said in a statement that she ‘enjoyed’ her birthday parade and flypast but ‘did experience some discomfort.’
It said: ‘Taking into account the journey and activity required to participate in tomorrow’s National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral, Her Majesty, with great reluctance, has concluded that she will not attend.’
The decision, which is set to begin at 11.30 a.m. today, is said to be regrettable but reasonable given the length of the voyage and time required, as well as the physical strain the service would entail.
The Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and the Sussexes will be among the senior members of the monarchy at St Paul’s this morning, who will be joined by the wider royal family.