After Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had lunch with the queen and senior royals behind closed doors as part of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, the Queen met her great-granddaughter Lilibet for the first time.
After visiting a private Royal Family lunch at Buckingham Palace following Trooping the Colour, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex introduced their little girl to the Queen, who was nicknamed Lilibet as a kid.
Over the four-day Jubilee weekend, Harry and Meghan are expected to keep a low profile, with no indication of the Netflix camera systems that accompanied 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 joint royal engagement in two years.
After being forced to withdraw from the service last night, Prince Charles will officially represent the Queen at the service in London today, and Prince Andrew will not attend after testing positive for coronavirus. The service will be broadcast on BBC One, and the Queen will be watching it on television from Windsor Castle.
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 watched the proceedings from Horse Guards Parade.
Today’s service, 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 stepped down as senior royals.
After experiencing ‘discomfort’ during the Trooping The Colour events, the 96-year-old Queen will miss today’s service at St Paul’s, according to a last-minute decision announced by the Palace at 7.30pm last night.
The Queen is said to have had episodic mobility issues yesterday, and the Palace said in a statement that she ‘enjoyed’ her birthday parade and flypast but ‘did experience some discomfort.’
‘Taking into account the journey and activity required to attend tomorrow’s National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral, Her Majesty has decided, with great reluctance, that she will not attend,’ the statement said.
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 journey and time involved, as well as the physical demands 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 extended royal family.