Kate Middleton told Meghan Markle she could only attend the Coronation if she sat at the back, a royal author has claimed. The decision for Prince Harry to attend the ceremony alone while his wife stayed in the US with their children was an “ugly compromise”, Tom Bower told GB News.
“I think that we must all be grateful that Kate, in the end, I think prevented Meghan coming and said she would not have her there under any circumstances and if she did come, she had to sit at the back,” he added.
The Sussexes have been accused of playing “transatlantic ping-pong” after allegedly keeping King Charles waiting over concerns about the Coronation’s seating plan.
A spokesman for the couple confirmed both had been invited to the Coronation but speculation over their attendance grew until the palace last week disclosed Harry would go alone.
The Duchess of Sussex’s friends have said parenting was the reason behind her remaining at home in California with their two children. Prince Archie’s fourth birthday falls on the same day as the ceremony.
Mr Bower, a former BBC journalist and author of Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War Between the Windsors, said: “I do think for the Royal Family, Harry’s presence is constitutionally important – after all if, God forbid, something happened to the Cambridges and all of them died we would have King Harry on the throne after Charles.”
Commenting on the Coronation in a January interview about his memoir Spare, Harry told ITV’s Tom Bradby: “There’s a lot can happen between now and then. But the door is always open.”
