Prince Harry and Meghan Markleare reportedly divided over how to handle his deepening royal rift, as the Duke of Sussex is said to have been left off the guest list for cousin Peter Phillips' wedding in the Cotswolds on 6 June, while Meghan focuses on building her lifestyle brand, As Ever.
The reports came after a fresh round of claims from royal commentators that Harry has been trying, with limited success, to repair relations with King Charles ahead of next year's Invictus Games. His decision to step back as a working royal and the subsequent fallout with his family have left him on the margins of major royal events.
Now, the prospect of a family wedding bringing together the King, Queen Camilla and the Prince and Princess of Wales has once again highlighted Harry's absence and the question of where he and Meghan fit into the wider royal picture.
According to a royal insider quoted byTheMirror, Meghan Markle wants to 'steer clear' of what she reportedly calls Harry's family 'chaos,' choosing instead to concentrate on her own business projects in the US. That characterisation, if accurate, is stark but not unbelievable. The Sussexes' marriage has, from the outside at least, been lived in the slipstream of a long and very public family conflict.
Peter Phillips, the son of Princess Anne, is due to marry NHS nurse Harriet Sperling at a ceremony expected to draw senior royals, including Charles, Camilla, Prince William and the Princess of Wales. Palace sources cited in the reports suggest Prince Harry, 41, has not been invited, reflecting how far his decision to leave royal duties in 2020 still reverberates.
Royal author Duncan Larcombe, speaking to theMirror, suggested that even if an invitation had gone out, Harry would almost certainly have declined because of his strained relationship with Prince William.
'The sticking point is William's attendance,' he said. 'Harry's not going to agree to go to an event where he's going to be forced to come face to face with his brother, who is absolutely still livid with him.'
That may be Larcombe's reading rather than a hard fact, but it chimes with the broader pattern. The brothers, once inseparable, now appear to orbit the same events only on separate days, if at all.
Former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond added another layer of calculation. She argued that inviting Harry and Meghan would risk eclipsing the bride and groom. In her words, it would be 'the biggest no-no' for the Sussexes to dominate coverage of what is meant to be Peter and Harriet's day.
She said leaving them off the guest list was 'the most sensible course,' grouping them with Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, who are also said not to be attending.
Source: International Business Times UK
