It was more than obvious to anyone who watched King Charles’ coronation on Saturday, May 6th that Prince Andrew, 63, and his nephew, Prince Harry, 38, were not like the other senior members of the royal family, due to their seating positions in Westminster Abbey and the roles they played in the ceremony. Or lack thereof.
Prince Andrew was seated a few rows behind his siblings and other royal family members, while Prince Harry sat two rows behind his brother, and immediately between Jack Brooksbank, 37, (his cousin Princess Eugenie’s husband) and Princess Alexandra, 86, the late Queen Elizabeth II’s first cousin. So therefore it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to learn that, as non-working, non senior royals, they were excluded from the official coronation photographs that took place at Buckingham Palace following the ceremony at Westminster Abbey too.
If you’ll recall, Prince Andrew and Prince Harry are no longer senior members of the royal family for very different reasons. The Duke of York was fired as a working royal following the sexual assault lawsuit against him by Virginia Giuffre, which also saw the late Queen Elizabeth II strip him of his royal patronages and affiliations.
And of course, Prince Harry willingly stepped down as a senior royal with his wife Meghan Markle, 41, in January 2020. Not being a working royal means losing certain privileges, including using the His/Her Royal Highness title, and more recently, standing on the Buckingham Palace balcony, as the late Queen Elizabeth II reserved that right for working members only to avoid it becoming too crowded. Being a senior royal also dictates what can and can’t be worn to official events.
What Did Prince Andrew And Prince Harry Wear To The Coronation?
There has been a lot of talk about what the two non-working members of the royal family would wear to the coronation. Although Prince Andrew wasn’t permitted to wear his military uniform to his mother's funeral in September 2022, due to no longer being a working member of the royal family, he was still able to wear his regalia for the coronation.
The disgraced royal wore his Order of the Garter robes (on top of a morning suit) to the coronation as he is technically still able to wear his robes because he is one of the Garter Knights, which has extremely limited membership.
Prince Harry, on the other hand, didn’t wear any regalia. Instead, he wore a dark Christian Dior suit along with his Afghanistan and Jubilee medals pinned to his suit jacket, and a Royal Victorian Order star and neck decoration. The Mirror reports that he was still wearing the outfit when he was driven to Heathrow airport to board a British Airways flight to Los Angeles, to get back to Montecito, California for his son's fourth birthday.
Prince Harry And Prince Andrew Left Out Of Official Coronation Photographs
As expected, neither Prince Harry nor Prince Andrew were shown on the Buckingham Palace balcony. Although Prince Harry reportedly made a 30-minute visit to Buckingham Palace after leaving Westminster Abbey, it doesn’t appear to have been to have a heart-to-heart with his father or brother, as he once requested, and it also wasn’t to take part in any of the official photographs either. (What was he there for, we wonder?!)
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The new official photographs following the ceremony at Westminster Abbey were taken by Hugo Burnand – the same photographer who shot Charles and Camilla's wedding in 2005 – at Buckingham Palace. In one picture, the new monarch can be seen posing in full regalia in the Throne Room at Buckingham Palace, wearing the Robe of Estate and the Imperial State Crown while holding the Sovereign’s Orb and Sovereign’s Sceptre with Cross.
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Another sees him posing with Queen Camilla, and then posing with select members of the royal family in some others. In one picture, from left to right, the picture sees: The Duke of Kent, the Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Gloucester, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, the Princess Royal, the King and Queen, the Prince of Wales, the Princess of Wales, the Duchess of Edinburgh, Princess Alexandra, and the Duke of Edinburgh. Of course, both Prince Andrew and Prince Harry were nowhere to be seen.
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