‘We’re looking forward to celebrating and seeing how you’re joining us in honouring this #PlatinumJubilee weekend,’ the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge wrote in a tweet today.
‘We’re looking forward to celebrating and seeing how you’re joining us in honouring this #PlatinumJubilee weekend,’ the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge announced in a tweet on their official account this morning.
It comes ahead of a tense – and extremely public – family reunion in front of millions of viewers, with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, three-year-old Archie, and Lilibet, nearly one, scheduled to attend.
The children are likely to meet their cousins Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis at long last. Lilibet has never been introduced to her royal relatives, while Archie has not been in the UK since he was six months old.
But there is no invitation for the shamed Duke of York even in a private capacity, showing just how far the Queen’s son has fallen from grace. The Queen’s Birthday Parade at Horse Guards in London is the first official Platinum Jubilee event of the bank holiday weekend, and the most widely attended by the Windsors.
Many had thought Her Majesty’s appearance on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the traditional post-parade flypast would be the most keenly anticipated moment of the day. But it is likely all eyes will, in fact, be on the family reunion playing out 50 yards down the road instead.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been invited by the Queen to join family members watching the spectacular military event from the Major General’s Office overlooking the Whitehall parade ground. The room – once used by the Duke of Wellington – spreads out over the entrance to Horse Guards. It is where dignitaries traditionally watch from if they are not involved in the parade proceedings.
The group will not include the Queen, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge or the Princess Royal. Her Majesty will remain at Buckingham Palace where she will take the returning cavalry’s salute from the balcony there.
Charles will be taking the salute as the Colour of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards is trooped and inspect the Troops of the Household Division on the monarch’s behalf. He will be joined by his elder son and sister, with all three on horseback.
The Duchess of Cornwall, the Duchess of Cambridge, the Earl and Countess of Wessex and many other royals will travel to Horse Guards Parade from the palace in carriages. They will then disembark and watch the rest of the event from the Major General’s Office alongside Harry and Meghan, who will arrive by car.
The large royal party will also include all grandchildren of the Queen and their spouses. As well as the Sussexes there will be Princess Beatrice and her husband Edo, Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack and Anne’s children, Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, and their families.
Meghan will not have seen any of the family since she and her husband acrimoniously quit as working royals and moved to North America in early 2020, while the prince only saw them very briefly at the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral last year.
The last public occasion the Sussexes attended together in the UK was the annual Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey in March 2020 when the atmosphere could not have been more awkward. William and Kate virtually blanked Harry and Meghan that day, leaving Prince Edward and Sophie to try to keep the peace.
Fortunately William, who has been most deeply affected by his brother’s actions and has struggled to hide his hurt, will not be forced to greet the couple in public. And Kate proved to be an admirable peacemaker when she made a point of breaking the ice and speaking to Harry after the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral.
Harry and Meghan are staying with their children at their Windsor home, Frogmore Cottage. They had always been expected to join the congregation for tomorrow’s service of thanksgiving for the Queen’s 70-year reign at St Paul’s Cathedral, but their participation with Trooping is seen as an additional olive branch from Her Majesty.
As Britain prepares for the Platinum Jubilee weekend:
- Plucky Brits vow to celebrate Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with street parties, four days of celebrations and miles of bunting despite councils, a gloomy forecast and advice to party indoors threatening to dampen the mood;
- Security experts said Harry and Meghan may hold up inside Frogmore Cottage over the bank holiday and only leave to attend two Jubilee events because they are being denied VIP 24/7 armed protection from UK police;
- The Queen was caught in mid-air drama as a thunderstorm forced her private jet to abort its landing in London and circle over the capital for 15 minutes on Tuesday;
- Princess Eugenie paid a moving personal tribute to her ‘grannie’ the Queen on the eve of the monarch’s historic Platinum Jubilee celebrations;
Yesterday, the Queen sent a car and a security detail to collect Harry, Meghan, Archie and Lilibet after their private jet landed in the UK from California, ahead of her celebrations.
In the latest sign that hostilities between The Firm and the Sussexes are thawing, Her Majesty’s Land Rover greeted the family and their children at Farnborough Airport in Hampshire before taking them to Frogmore Cottage.
For Lilibet – who turns one on Saturday – it will be the first time she has met her great-grandmother. Their arrival comes just months after Harry claimed he was ‘unable to return home’ because is too dangerous.
An insider told The Sun that ‘the Queen believed it was the right thing to do’ to send her car to meet her grandson and his family. The couple’s Embraer private jet landing at Farnborough, and the Queen’s black Land Rover – escorted by a Volkswagen people carrier – driving onto the tarmac.
The Sun reported that the family were believed to have got into the blacked-out VW car, and that they travelled without their customary entourage or senior staff working for their Archewell charity. It also said Netflix camera crews – who have been following the couple for an £11million documentary – stayed behind.
Harry, Meghan and their two children were not given a police escort for the 40-minutes drive from Farnborough to Windsor, pictures in The Sun suggested.
On Saturday, their daughter Lilibet will be marking her first birthday. The Queen is likely to miss her favourite sporting event, the Derby horse races at Epsom, for the little one’s celebrations, as she meets her for the first time.
While the couple are expected to attend Trooping the Colour as spectators today, Prince Andrew will not, a military source told MailOnline. As colonel of the Grenadier Guards, Andrew has previously played a key role in the ceremony, riding out by the Queen’s side as the regiment’s representative.
Since being stripped of the title earlier this year the Duke of York was not expected to play an active part in the event, but the possibility of him appearing with other royals on Horse Guards Parade as a spectator had previously been left open.
Both Andrew and the Sussexes have already been barred from appearing on the Buckingham Palace to watch the RAF Red Arrows’ flypast.
It came as security experts predicted the Sussexes may hold up inside Frogmore Cottage over the bank holiday and only leave to attend two Platinum Jubilee events because they are being denied VIP 24/7 armed protection from British police.
After a secret visit to see the Queen at Windsor Castle in late April, the sixth in the line to the 
throne ha