Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have been left off the guest list for this year’s Trooping the Colour, marking the second consecutive year they’ve been brutally snubbed.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have not been invited to the annual event, which will be held in London on June 15.
The couple, who were also excluded from last year’s ceremony and a host of other significant royal events, will once again be absent.
People confirmed that their exclusion this year was intentional – and they won’t pop up on the Buckingham Palace balcony.
They did attend in 2018 and 2019 before the pair decided to step back from royal duties and embark on their own endeavours in the United States.
The 2020 and 2021 Trooping the Colour ceremonies were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meghan and Harry did make an appearance at the special 2022 Trooping the Colour in honour of the late Queen Elizabeth III, but they were noticeably distanced from the rest of the family with whom relations remain strained.
This year’s event promises to be a spectacular affair, featuring “over 1,400 officers and soldiers form the parade, together with two hundred horses; over four hundred musicians from ten bands and Corps of Drums march and play in unison.
Some 113 words of command are given by the Officer in Command of the Parade,” according to the Seven British Army Regiments serving His Majesty.
The dazzling procession will commence at Buckingham Palace and take a circular route through The Mall to Horse Guards Parade.
The King will be “greeted by a Royal Salute on Horse Guards Parade and a 41 Gun Salute fired by The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery from The Green Park.”, reports the Mirror.
In theory, the couple could attend as members of the public without an invitation if they chose to return to the UK.
However, given that Harry attended the Invictus Games in the UK but did not visit his father, it seems unlikely they would want to participate in this year’s celebrations.
Harry last met with his father in February following the announcement of the King’s cancer diagnosis during a relatively brief encounter.
