DAN WOOTTON: Has Meghan swerved the Coronation because she can't stand the thought of being booed?

Release time：2024-05-21 14:35:29 Source：Culture Compass news portal

There has been only one phrase emanating from royal palaces today, in the words of the late great Queen: 'Thank goodness Meghan isn't coming.'

The Princess of Wales in particular is delighted she won't have to face her treacherous sister-in-law at the King's Coronation next month.

But it would be no surprise if her husband staged another necklace-ripping duel over the dog bowl at Kensington Palace such is the visceral anger that remains at the highest levels of the Royal Family.

And who could blame the Prince of Wales after the Duke of Delusion's Commonwealth-bashing Netflix reality show and tell-all bridge burning autobiography Spare?

At a time when the Windsor's needed to put on a united front to deal with the seismic death of our greatest ever monarch, they have instead spent the past seven months putting out fires purposely lit by the Sussexes.

'Harry and Meghan should be permanently banished just like the Nazi sympathising Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson'

'I've been clear I think Charles should have long ago ripped up Harry and Meghan's invitation'

It's reputation vandalism of the highest order – and it means Harry and Meghan should be permanently banished just like the Nazi sympathising Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson before them.

Personally, I've been clear I think Charles should have long ago ripped up Harry and Meghan's invitation. Their typically rude refusal to stick to the RSVP date gave him the perfect opportunity to do just that.

But the King remains a dedicated father first and foremost who has an almost naïve belief that one day his son will see sense and their relationship will be repaired.

Having reported on this story up close since Meghan entered the Royal Family, I'm certain that hope is misplaced, at least until Harry happens to find himself single at some point in the future.

For the moment, they're on a kamikaze mission to bring down the British monarchy and that's not going to change while they're still raking in millions by slagging off their own flesh and blood.

But, in the end, I have no doubt that Meghan's non-attendance comes down, as always, to her massive ego and obsession with being idolised, rather than trying to give the Royal Family a peaceful week.

After suffering the indignity of being booed while arriving at St Paul's Cathedral, Meghan couldn't take that risk, especially given she was considering having her children in tow.

Meghan's propagandist, that odd little bloke Omid Scobie, popped up within minutes of the official Buckingham Palace statement to suggest the absence is to do with Archie's birthday clashing with the Coronation date.

That spin seems nothing more than poppycock.

If there was any way Meghan could be at the Coronation without being booed, she would have called up Elton John and begged for his carbon spewing private jet to pick her up from Montecito without a moment of hesitation.

After all, the commercial viability of the Sussexes comes directly from their proximity to the Royal Family, an organisation they claim they want to overhaul.

Robert Jobson's new book Our King makes that abundantly clear with the typically understated former monarch's description of the couple's behaviour as 'quite mad'.

And when you think about it, their behaviour remains mad.

Why on earth would Harry put himself through the palaver of turning up to celebrate the father who he has publicly slagged off for the past two years?

His reception will be beyond frosty.

'Why on earth would Harry put himself through the palaver of turning up to celebrate the father who he has publicly slagged off for the past two years? His reception will be beyond frosty'

'The Princess of Wales (left) in particular is delighted she won't have to face her treacherous sister-in-law (right) at the King's Coronation next month'

'I am sure the King will feel a tinge of sadness that he will not have the chance to be with all his grandchildren on unquestionably the most important day of his life'

Outside of the highly forgiving princesses Eugenie and Beatrice, there is no longer a safe haven for Harry in the Royal Family, with members now almost universal in their condemnation of his actions these past few months.

That includes his former pals Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall, and even Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, who knows a thing or two about being on the outside.

It shows just how deep resentments run that senior royals will no longer countenance having conversations alone with Harry because they believe there is too great a risk an unfair version of events could be leaked to Meghan's CBS BFFs Oprah Winfrey or Gayle King.

Indeed, that's why, after Prince Phillip's funeral, grief-stricken Charles and shaken William agreed to a showdown with Harry as a duo.

Harry didn't care, still recounting details of that most intimate of conversations in his tawdry tabloid tell-all.

As a father, Charles remains devastated at how things have turned out with his youngest son and his daughter-in-law, who he proudly agreed to walk down the aisle.

It is not clear if Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet were ever invited to the ceremony itself, but I am sure the King will feel a tinge of sadness that he will not have the chance to be with all his grandchildren on unquestionably the most important day of his life as the family gathers afterwards.

I wonder too if, in the decades to come, they might object to being in California on such an important day, missing the opportunity to be part of royal history and celebrate their British heritage.

It seems particularly odd given Harry and Meghan's craven desire for their children to become a prince and princess, given it was their birthright.

But we're used to these contradictions about how the Sussexes see their royal role.

Today though is one of celebration.

Without any doubt, Meghan would have tried to upstage King Charles III during his own Coronation.

William had already privately expressed a fear that the Sussexes were planning some sort of PR stunt to show they remained in touch with the people over the course of the weekend, when the rest of the family have signed up to the idea that the focus must remain on the new monarch.

That risk is now gone.

Harry will fly in and out in a blink of an eye, looking a shell of a man and most likely feeling deeply ashamed about the appalling treatment he's dished out to his father the past three years, but unable to make amends in case it upsets the woman who calls the shots.

Related articles