Final Abbey snub

TWENTY-THREE years earlier, William and Harry had stepped out together — so bravely — side by side down the main aisle of Westminster Abbey, in the wake of their mother’s coffin.

On Monday, March 9, 2020, they were due back at the Abbey with their wives for a celebration of Commonwealth Day — but this time Harry was furious.

For the first time, he’d been relegated to the position of ‘junior’ royal, along with Edward and Sophie Wessex. Neither he nor Meghan had been invited to process down the aisle behind the Queen, who would be accompanied by Charles and Camilla, as well as William and Kate. In 2018 and 2019, Harry and Meghan had walked down the aisle in the main procession. But, in 2020, they were being shunted aside on their final appearance as working royals in Britain.

As now glaringly ‘junior’ members of the family, the Sussexes would simply have to shuffle their way to their seats and take their place on the sidelines. The subservience of a ‘spare’ could not

have been more strikingly illustrated. Fortunately, however, Prince William had more sense than those responsible for the humiliating new protocol.

The weekend before, he’d decided that he and Kate would be quite happy to skip the procession and take their places without ceremony in the congregation alongside Harry and Uncle Edward. It was a small but sensitive gesture of peace. Within minutes of each other, the two princes and their wives slipped quietly into their seats, then sat waiting for the Queen and Prince Charles to process in senior splendour down the aisle.

The only problem was that 2,000 orders of service had already been distributed round the Abbey, explaining that William and Kate would enter and process with the main royal party — and making no mention at all of Harry and Meghan. So there was the snub in black and white — set out for all to see.

Observers also noted that Harry’s face was ‘quite tense and unsmiling’ — and that when William sat down close to him, he barely greeted his brother.

Throughout the service, Meghan megawatted away with her best TV smile but, as the ceremony progressed, Harry appeared to grow gloomier. According to one observer, ‘his accelerated blinking even suggested he might have been fighting back tears’.