The couple did not attend a lunch reception following Friday’s church service
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry traveled from California to the U.K. for Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, but they did not publicly spend time with Harry’s immediate family members.
On Friday, the royal family continued the Platinum Jubilee celebrations with a service of thanksgiving honoring Queen Elizabeth at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Harry and Meghan — who shared the strain they’d experienced within the family in a 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey — arrived ahead of Prince Charles, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Prince William and Kate Middleton. It was the first time the three couples have appeared together in public in more than two years.
As William and Kate made their way to their seats in the front row, there was no eye contact between the couple and Meghan and Harry, who were seated in the second row alongside Princess Eugenie, Princess Beatrice and their husbands. When Prince Charles passed by the row with Meghan and Harry, he was photographed looking away.
In contrast, Charles, 73, was seen warmly greeting Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, 40, with a wide smile at the service and at one point blew her a kiss.
There was also no interaction between the Sussexes and Cambridges as they left the service. Harry and Meghan chatted with Harry’s cousins Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips on the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral before leaving.
Following the service, many members of the royal family headed to the Lord Mayor’s reception at The Guildhall — however, Meghan and Harry did not attend the lunch on Friday, nor a small family lunch following the Trooping parade on Thursday.
At Friday’s reception, Prince Charles and Camilla were first to arrive, followed by Kate and Prince William. Others who attended both the service and the lunch included Princess Beatrice and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank, Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex with their two children, Zara and Mike Tindall and Lord Frederick Windsor and his wife Sophie Winkleman.
On Thursday, Meghan and Harry joined extended members of the royal family for Trooping the Colour. Since they are no longer senior working royals, they were not invited to appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace or to take part in a carriage procession during the parade. Instead, they viewed the event alongside other extended members of the royal family from the Major General’s Office, which overlooks the Horse Guards Parade.
The couple were spotted a few times through the office’s windows, playfully entertaining various young royals — and also holding a finger over their mouth to encourage them to quiet down at points.
Meanwhile, Prince Harry’s father Prince Charles and brother Prince William participated in the parade on horseback before heading to the balcony appearance to watch a Royal Air Force flypast. Kate and Camilla, however, did spent a short time at the Major General’s Office to watch the Horse Guards Parade before making their carriage ride to Buckingham Palace to join the Queen and other senior royals on the balcony.
In a March 2021 interview with Winfrey that highlighted the rift between Meghan and Harry and the royal family, Meghan said that within the family, there were “concerns and conversations about how dark [their son Archie’s] skin might be when he’s born.” (The couple later clarified that the comments were not made by Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, or late grandfather, Prince Philip.) In the same interview, Harry also said that his father, Prince Charles, had “stopped taking my calls.”
The complex dynamic between William, 39, and Harry, 37, has had a ripple effect across the wider family — including, of course, Meghan and Harry’s decision to step back from senior royal duty and relocate with their family to California.
Some who know the brothers feel there were several issues that built upon one another, while one well-placed source previously told PEOPLE that the rift can’t be easily put down to one thing. But insiders have repeatedly noted that Harry’s special bond with his grandmother Queen Elizabeth, 96, remains intact.
“Being with her, it was great. It was just so nice to see her . . . She’s on great form,” Harry told Today’s Hoda Kotb in April of the visit he and Meghan shared with the Queen en route to Harry’s Invictus Games in the Netherlands.
“I’m just making sure that she’s, you know, protected and got the right people around her,” he added. “You know, home — home for me, now, is you know, for the time being, is in the States.”
Tomorrow, Meghan and Prince Harry will celebrate the first birthday of their daughter Lilibet Diana, who was named after the Queen’s childhood nickname. Both Lili, as the couple call her, and their 3-year-old son Archie are believed to have made the trip to the U.K. with them.
Also on Saturday, members of the royal family will attend the Derby at Epsom, followed by the Platinum Party at the Palace in the evening, with performances by Queen + Adam Lambert, Diana Ross and more.
The four-day celebration will wrap with the Platinum Jubilee Pageant on Sunday, featuring a parade down The Mall to Buckingham Palace in London.
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