Prince Harry confirms he will miss Duke of Edinburgh’s memorial service

THE Duke of Sussex is to miss his grandfather the Duke of Edinburgh’s memorial service, it has been confirmed.

Prince Harry will not return to the UK from America to join the royal family at the occasion in Westminster Abbey on March 29, a spokesman for the duke confirmed.

He hopes to visit his grandmother the Queen soon, the spokesman added.

The Queen, 95, who contracted Covid just over two weeks ago, has just pulled out of attending the Commonwealth Day service at the abbey on Monday.

She spent more than three months from October last year carrying out only light duties under doctors’ orders to rest after undergoing preliminary tests during a one-night hospital stay.

The monarch, who has just reached her Platinum Jubilee, now regularly uses a walking stick and has been pictured looking frailer recently, remarking during a Windsor Castle audience last month: “Well, as you can see, I can’t move.”

Harry’s spokesman declined to comment yesterday as to the reason for the prince’s decision.

The duke has pursued a legal challenge against the Home Office after being told he would no longer be given the “same degree” of personal protective security when visiting from the US, despite offering to pay for it himself.

He was last in London in the summer of 2021, when it is understood his security was compromised after his car was chased by paparazzi photographers as he left a charity event.

The duke wants to bring his son Archie and baby daughter Lilibet to visit from the US, but he and his family are “unable to return to his home” because it is too dangerous, a legal representative previously said.