Prince Harry Allegedly Won’t Attend Prince Charles’ Coronation If It’s at Westminster Abbey

Reports say it’s out of respect for his late mother, Princess Diana.

Prince Charles Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall Prince Harry
(Image credit: Getty Images)

At the moment, the pressing question of “will he, or won’t he?” lies in Prince Harry’s decision to attend this June’s Platinum Jubilee or not, which will honor the Queen’s 70 years on the throne.

But, down the line in the (we hope) far distant future, will the Duke of Sussex attend his father, Prince Charles’, and his stepmother Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall’s coronation? (As Marie Claire previously reported, the two will supposedly be crowned side-by-side after the Queen’s groundbreaking announcement earlier this year that it was her wish for Camilla to be Queen Consort.) According to OK!, not if it is at a certain location.

According to Private Eye, per OK!, Harry won’t attend the coronation of his father and stepmother if it is held at Westminster Abbey, out of respect for his late mother, Princess Diana, whose funeral was held there in 1997. (She is buried on an island on a lake on the grounds of the Spencer family home, Althorp.) For context, Queen Elizabeth’s 1953 coronation was held at Westminster Abbey.

“He doesn’t want Camilla to be queen; he’s very angry that it’s happening,” says Tina Brown, author of the recently released The Palace Papers, on Harry’s reaction to the Queen’s announcement about Camilla. “He has not made his peace with it, and he probably never will.”

(For those new to the royal party and not fastidious watchers of The Crown, Charles and Camilla carried on an extramarital affair throughout the course of Charles and Diana’s marriage, which spanned from 1981 to their separation in 1992 and later divorce in 1996. After Diana’s death in 1997, Charles and Camilla eventually married in 2005.)

“After the reports she was involved in his parents’ marriage and then stepped into Diana’s shoes as Charles’ wife, I suspect Camilla will be in his sights [for Harry’s upcoming memoir], so I’d say Harry’s set to reveal any Camilla secrets,” Diana’s former butler Paul Burrell told Closer. “He’s already said he enjoys The Crown, which painted Camilla as the ‘wicked stepmother’ in a way.”

One insider claimed Harry has always held a grudge against Camilla, quoting the prince as having told a friend “She got her claws into my dad and never let go for an instant. That’s why my mom died—because she fled to Paris instead of being safe with her family.”

Of Camilla and Harry’s relationship, another source says “He didn’t take kindly to Camilla. This was the woman who had stepped into his late mother’s shoes and Harry was not about to welcome her as a future stepmother. He was often overpolite and generally cool towards Camilla. And the more he learned about his dad’s affair with her, the more distant he became. It took Harry years to accept her but, like William, as he grew up, he realized that his father’s happiness must come before his own feelings.”

No wonder seeing her crowned Queen Consort in the same location where his beloved mother’s funeral took place might just be too much.

Rachel Burchfield
Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor

Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.