Painfully distant at St Paul’s, the couples who are STILL... SO FAR APART
WILLIAM and Harry were finally reunited at St Paul’s Cathedral yesterday – but the estranged brothers were still worlds apart.
The Duke of Cambridge and his wife Kate sat on the front row alongside Prince Charles and Camilla, who were representing the absent Queen at the Service of Thanksgiving for her 70-year reign.
But Harry and Meghan were placed on the opposite side of the aisle, halfway down a second
row of seats, along with other lower-ranking, non-working royals.
There was no chance for the once-close siblings to talk. William, 39, and Kate, 40, were part of the main party and arrived well after Harry, 37, and Meghan, 40, were seated. They then left before them to attend a post-service reception at the nearby Guildhall. Notably, the Californiabased Sussexes were the only members of the extensive royal party who were absent from the second event.
Harry and Meghan arrived at St Paul’s at 11.04am and took their seats at 11.08am. William and Kate got to the cathedral at 11.15am and sat down at 11.27am.
After the service, the Cambridges stood up at 12.20pm and left at 12.25pm, while the Sussexes left their seats at 12.21pm and exited St Paul’s at 12.27pm.
The Sussexes’ ‘second-row’ status emphasised the couple’s fall from grace since they acrimoniously quit the Royal Family two years ago, despite the Queen extending an olive branch by inviting them to attend some of her Platinum Jubilee festivities.
It is believed William and Kate – who was seen at one point glancing over her shoulder as if to catch a glimpse of her estranged brother-in-law – have not yet met the Sussexes as a couple during their visit.
One well-placed source said they detected the ‘legendary royal soft diplomacy at play’ in terms of Harry and Meghan’s seating at the service to ‘minimise’ distraction at such a key event. In other developments:
■ The Queen met the Sussexes’ baby daughter Lilibet for the first time, along with their son Archie, whom she hasn’t seen since he was baby, in a private reunion at Windsor earlier this week;
■ The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall met Harry and Meghan at Clarence House before yesterday’s service, although they are not believed to have seen their grandchildren yet;
■ The Sussexes were not invited to a pri
‘Prince Harry looked pensive’
vate lunch at Buckingham Palace with the Queen and senior royals following Trooping the Colour on Thursday;
■ There are no plans for Harry and Meghan to attend any further events this weekend and they are unlikely to be seen in public again before they leave Britain;
■ The Queen has cancelled plans to attend today’s Epsom Derby due to her increasingly frailty but there are still hopes she may make a brief appearance at tomorrow’s Platinum Jubilee pageant finale;
■ Both Charles and William will pay moving tributes to the monarch on stage at tonight’s Party at the Palace concert.
Yesterday’s Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral heard tributes to the Queen’s ‘70 years of faithful and dedicated service’ as more than 2,000 people packed into the cathedral.
The guests included royals and dignitaries such as Boris Johnson, but public service was at the heart of the event, with the congregation featuring 400 NHS staff and other key workers recognised for their work during the pandemic.
Harry looked pensive at times as he and Meghan disembarked from their royal Range Rover – complete with police outriders – in front of the cathedral. The couple attracted cheers, but also a smattering of ‘boos’, from the crowds outside. Former actress Meghan flashed a permanent smile and constantly rubbed her husband’s back when she wasn’t holding his hand.
Harry seemed cheered by the sight of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, to whom he and Meghan are still close. The prince smiled and chatted warmly with his cousins after they stood up to allow him and his wife to take their seats. Eugenie wore her hair swept back, which showed off a small circular tattoo behind her ear.
Meghan was seen talking to Lady Sarah Chatto, Princess Margaret’s daughter and a great favourite of the Queen, on her left. The seating of the couple, well away from the main royal party, was intriguing.
While royal aides pointed out that the royal grandchildren who were not members of the processional party were grouped together near other immediate family members, it did not explain why, in that case, Harry and Meghan were not seated behind Prince Charles.
It was thought that seating Harry and Meghan behind the Queen – when she had been due to attend – as well as Charles, Camilla and the Cambridges, would have been too much of a ‘distraction’ given the solemnity of the occasion. The seating arrangements were personally signed off by the Queen.
Another source said they had ‘got no impression’ there was any hostility to the seating plan from the Sussexes, adding: ‘Let’s face it, [they] are not backwards in coming forwards if they are unhappy about anything.’
Sources also flatly dismissed suggestions that the seating plan was an attempt to keep William and Harry away from each other.
Kate would have seen Harry and Meghan at Thursday’s Trooping the Colour in private, but they were surrounded by dozens of people, while William was on parade on horseback. The Cambridges are due to travel to Wales today to conduct an engagement on behalf of the Queen, followed by this evening’s Party at the Palace – raising questions as to whether William will choose to meet his brother at all while he is in the UK.
The future king has been hurt by Harry’s behaviour and repeated attacks on the Royal Family, with one close friend saying it was akin to a ‘sort of grief’. Prince Charles, although deeply distressed as well, has done his best to try to keep lines of communications with his younger son open.
Clarence House said it would not comment on private family meetings but the Daily Mail understands that Charles and Camilla did meet Harry and Meghan before yesterday’s service and are sure to get a chance to meet their grandchildren before they go.
After the service, Harry and Meghan spent time speaking to his cousin Zara Tindall and her husband, Mike, at the top of the steps
to the cathedral, before setting off to their own car, hand in hand again, and driving back to Windsor.
The Tindalls led the way back to the royal bus, which carried a crown emblem for extra Jubilee festivity.
Noticeably, almost the entire family – including minor royals such as Lord Frederick Windsor, who is 53rd in line to the throne – were at the official post-ceremony reception at the nearby Guildhall. It is understood that Harry and Meghan may have decided to miss it in ‘mutual agreement’ with the Palace.