The tribute ceremony for Prince Philip will finally take place without his grandson Prince Harry … Friday March 11, 2022, a spokesperson for Sussex has indeed announced that the Briton will not return to the United Kingdom to attend the event, scheduled for March 29 at Westminster Abbey in London. An absence which is not likely to fix his already delicate relations with the rest of the royal family, since he left the British monarchy to go and live in California with his wife Meghan Markle.
Even the presence of the queen for this highly anticipated ceremony is uncertain, since she has just canceled at the last moment her attendance at the Commonwealth Day mass, scheduled for Monday… Probably concerned about the fragile health of her grandmother. mother, Prince Harry would still have the idea of visiting her “as soon as possible“, according to his spokesperson. But what is the reason for his absence? Especially since Prince Harry plans to go to the Netherlands in mid-April for the Invictus Games…
According to his lawyers, he would not feel safe enough to return to his country of origin. Unsurprisingly, this decision earned him a new round of criticism: “He has it all wrong. If he comes for a royal event, he has police protectionnotably commented on the biographer Angela Levin with the DailyMail. What they won’t do is ensure his safety if he goes out with his friends..”
A problem without solution?
In mid-January, Charles and Diana’s son launched legal action across the Channel to have his police protection by Scotland Yard restored for him and his family when they return to the UK. Protection which was lifted shortly after their departure from the monarchy at the start of 2020. If the Sussexes pay for their own security in the United States, their bodyguards have no authority in the United Kingdom. The problem seems hopeless since last month a representative of Prince Harry – quoted by Page Six – clarified that the Briton had twice offered the UK government to pay for his own security, including with a request for judicial review in September 2021, to no avail. Both requests were denied.
The meeting between Lilibet and the royal family is therefore not for now … Born last June, the daughter of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, little sister of Archie (2 years old), has still not not met his paternal family. Since the Sussexes began their new life on the West Coast, only Prince Harry has returned: a first time in April 2021, to attend the funeral of his grandfather Prince Philip, a second in July, to inaugurate a statue tribute to Diana with her brother William in Kensington. Will the Sussexes bother to make the trip in early June to take part in the great festivities planned for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee? Nothing is less sure.