Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, and their two children will attend Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June, a spokesperson for the couple has announced.
The family’s attendance at the monarch’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations next month will be the first visit to the UK for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s daughter, Lilibet “Lili” Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, 11 months. The trip will also be the first opportunity for the Queen and other members of the royal family to meet the couple’s daughter, who was born in June 2021.
The visit will also mark the first time that the couple’s son, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, three, has returned to the UK since the couple stepped down from their roles as senior royals and relocated to the US in 2020.
While Prince Harry, Meghan, and their children will attend the weekend of celebrations, they will not be appearing on the Buckingham Palace balcony during Trooping the Colour, as the Queen has limited the balcony appearance during her official birthday celebration to working members of the royal family only.
The decision also means that Prince Andrew, who stepped down from public duties in 2019, will also not be present on the balcony during the Thursday 2 June celebration.
“After careful consideration, the Queen has decided that this year’s traditional Trooping the Colour balcony appearance on Thursday 2nd of June will be limited to Her Majesty and those members of the Royal Family who are currently undertaking official public duties on behalf of the Queen,” a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said.
The Queen will be joined on the balcony for Trooping by the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, the Princess Royal, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent, Princess Alexandra, and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence.
Prince William and Kate Middleton’s children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, will also appear on the balcony, as will the Wessexes’ children Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn.
The confirmation of the duke and duchess’s attendance at the celebrations along with their children comes amid Prince Harry’s case against the Home Office over police protection in the UK.
Harry brought a claim against the Home Office earlier this year to challenge the February 2020 decision of the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec), which told him he would no longer be given the “same degree” of personal protective security when visiting from the US.
However, the duke and duchess recently returned to the UK together for the first time last month, when they made a surprise visit to the Queen at Windsor Castle before making their way to The Hague, Netherlands, for the Invictus Games.
While reflecting on the opportunity to visit his grandmother, and about whether he planned to attend the Platinum Jubilee celebrations during a 20 April interview with Today’s Hoda Kotb from The Netherlands, the duke said that he didn’t know “yet” if his family would make the trip due to “lots of things, security issues, and everything else”.
However, he added: “This is what I’m trying to do, trying to make it possible to get my kids to meet her.”
Although the Sussexes will not be present on the balcony during the monarch’s birthday parade, they are likely to make appearances during other celebrations over the weekend commemorating the Queen’s 70 years on the throne.
“Other family members will be invited to events. We’ve always made that clear and they are likely to be public events,” a palace source said.
