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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry didn’t interact with Prince William and Kate Middleton during their brief time together across the pond. And there’s a reason.
“It was meant to be all about the queen, and it didn’t give people the chance to speculate about their relationship,” a royal insider told People magazine in this week’s issue.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex made their first family trip to the U.K. since they stepped back as senior members of the British royal family and moved to the U.S. in 2020. The couple returned for Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee, which marked her 70 years on the throne.
Last Friday, the royals attended a service of thanksgiving to honor the reigning monarch, 96, at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Harry, 37, and Markle, 40, arrived ahead of William, 39, and Middleton, 40. It was the first time they appeared together in public in more than two years.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex (left) and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge kept their distance from each other during Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee.
(Getty Images)
Royal watchers noted that as William and Middleton made their way to their seats in the front row, there was no eye contact between the couples. Even Prince Charles was seen looking away as he passed by the row where Harry and Markle were seated. The couples were also seated separately from each other.
While many members of the royal family headed to the reception at The Guildhall after the service, Markle and Harry didn’t attend the lunch. On Saturday, they also skipped the star-studded “Platinum Party At the Palace” and chose to quietly celebrate their daughter Lilibet’s first birthday at Frogmore Cottage instead.
Not long after, Harry and Markle, along with their two children, headed promptly back to their home in California.
On June 2, the pair viewed the Trooping the Color from the Major General’s Office. Since they are no longer senior working royals, they were not invited to appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with William and Middleton. They also didn’t take part in a carriage procession.
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Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, attend a national service of thanksgiving to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II at St Paul’s Cathedral June 3, 2022, in London.
(Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images)
Markle, a former American actress, became the Duchess of Sussex when she married the British prince in May 2018 at Windsor Castle. The couple welcomed a son named Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor in 2019.
The departures of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex from royal duties began over what they described as the British media’s intrusions and racist attitudes toward the former “Suits” star. The family now lives in the coastal city of Montecito, California.
In the wake of quitting royal duties, they gave an explosive TV interview to Oprah Winfrey in March 2021, in which the couple described painful comments made by an unidentified royal about how dark Archie’s skin might be before his birth. The duchess talked about the intense isolation she felt inside the royal family that led her to contemplate suicide. At one point, Harry said that his father Charles, 73, stopped taking his calls.
Buckingham Palace said the allegations of racism made by the couple were “concerning” and would be addressed privately.
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Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, attend the national service of thanksgiving at St. Paul’s Cathedral June 3, 2022, in London.
(Karwai Tang/WireImage)
In June of that year, the couple welcomed their second child, a daughter named Lilibet “Lili” Diana Mountbatten-Windsor.
The name pays tribute to both Harry’s grandmother, the queen whose family nickname is Lilibet, and his late mother, Princess Diana.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
