Prince Harry has been snubbed in a BBC documentary about King Charles’s Coronation which aired on Boxing Day – as he did not feature in it once despite attending the event at the time.
The Duke of Sussex, who is fifth in line to the throne, was not mentioned during the 90-minute documentary despite the show featuring more minor royal members of the family who are way behind Harry in the Line of Succession – including Princess Eugenie, Princess Beatrice, Prince Edward and Lady Louise Windsor, who all took centre stage at different points throughout the programme.
The BBC special entitled Charles III: The Coronation Year, revealed never-before-seen footage of the Royal Family in the run-up to the King’s Coronation on May 6, 2023 – which took place just under eight months after Charles’s mother, the late Queen Elizabeth, died aged 96 at her Balmoral home after 70 years on the British throne.
Neither Prince William or Prince Harry took part in on-screen interviews for the documentary, which sparked backlash moments after it started broadcasting on December 26 – as some anti-monarchists claimed it was BBC ‘propaganda’. The reasons for neither of King Charles’s sons being involved in the program are likely rather different, as it’s understood the Wales’s household decided to let the focus be on the monarch after a tumultous year for the Firm.
Despite the deteriorating relationship between Prince Harry and King Charles since the Duke stepped back from his senior royal duties in 2020 to spend more time with his wife Meghan Markle, and their two young children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, Harry did in fact make the journey to London to see his father crowned at Westminster Abbey. But he flew home immediately afterwords, barely spending 24 hours on British soil.
Anne, the Princess Royal, was one royal who did feature heavily in the documentary. In one heartbreaking scene, she revealed that her late mother Queen Elizabeth, who was reportedly worried about dying at her Balmoral home as it would be “difficult” – but Princess Anne, who was by her mother’s bedside at the time of her death, encouraged her not to think about that.
Princess Anne, who was crowned by Daily Express readers this year as the hardest working member of the Royal Family, added: “I think there was a moment when she felt that it would be more difficult if she died at Balmoral. And I think we did try and persuade her that that shouldn’t be part of the decision-making process.” She concludes with a laugh: “So I hope she felt that that was right in the end because I think we did.”
