The Queen Reportedly ‘Shut Down’ Meghan Markle’s Seating Request At The Jubilee

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry‘s sole Platinum Jubilee appearance made plenty of headlines, and two months later, new updates on what allegedly happened behind-the-scenes have emerged. As written by Express UK, while planning seating arrangements for the Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral, Queen Elizabeth II, 95, reportedly shut down a request from Markle, 40, that would have moved her and Harry, 37, closer to Prince Charles and William.

Royal biographer Tom Bower appeared on an episode of The Mirror‘s Pod Save the Queen podcast and said that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex attempted to sit closer to senior royals at the event. Reportedly, he went on, the couple saw the seating arrangement and took the plan, (which sat them next to Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank, fellow non-working royals) as a “snub.”

Bower, who recently published the book, Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War Between the Windsors, said on the podcast, “I was told, unfortunately too late for the book, they were meant to turn up at Wellington Barracks to get on the coach which was set up for the minor royals to go to St Paul’s for the Jubilee service.” He continued, “They arrived deliberately late so the bus had gone and they could make a grand entrance from a car so they could be seen on the steps, which Netflix obviously needed.”

The author went on,”And then as they walked down the aisle, they get to the seats in the row they are assigned and I’m told they then asked six other people sitting this side of the aisle could they move down so they could sit on the aisle itself.” He added, “And the usher apparently said to them ‘you can’t, you’re sitting in seats eight or nine’ or whatever it was and Harry said ‘why?’ and the usher said ‘that’s what your grandmother ordered’. I’m told that from a military man.”

At the event, Harry did not speak to his brother William, 40, at all, and the Sussexes were also noticeably absent from a special lunch after the service. The event included guests who were prominent officials at the Guildhall. Ultimately, Harry and Markle’s appearance at St. Paul’s was their only public Jubilee one as they did not attend the party at the Palace that Saturday or the pageant the following day.

Bower’s claims about seating arrangement drama are similar to those of Vanity Fair royal editor Katie Nicholl, who recently said she believed the Sussexes’ decision to not appear at more events was because of a demoted status. On True Royalty TV’s The Royal Beat show, she said, “I honestly think it’s because they knew that they wouldn’t be in that front row[…] and why did they leave the Royal Family? They left because they weren’t in the front row. I believe that’s why they weren’t at the other celebrations as they did not have center stage seats.”