Are Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Invited to Trooping the Colour? King Charles III Has Made a Decision

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were also left off the invite list in 2023, which marked the first Trooping the Colour of King Charles III's reign.

By Allison Schonter

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been snubbed from the 2024 Trooping the Colour invite list. For the second year in a row, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who stepped down as working royals in 2020, have not been invited to the annual event, which celebrates the official birthday of the British Sovereign, in this case King Charles III, PEOPLE confirmed Tuesday as the June 15 date fast approaches.

Although the couple regularly attended the annual event in the years immediately following their May 19, 2018 wedding, including in 2018 and 2019, things notably shifted in 2022. By that time, the couple were residing in America following their retirement as working royals, and while they traveled back to the UK for the event, a special version that overlapped with Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee celebrations, for the first time, they didn't join the royal family on the Buckingham Palace balcony. Harry and Meghan instead watched the events with other nonworking royals from a room above Horse Guards Parade. They were not present for the 2023 Trooping the Colour, which marked the first since the Queen's death and the first of Charles' reign.

The Trooping the Colour is a spectacle that has taken place for over 260 years, per the official website for the British royal family. This year's parade will feature "over 1400 parading soldiers, 200 horses and 400 musicians... in a great display of military precision, horsemanship and fanfare to mark the Sovereign's official birthday." The parade will move from Buckingham Palace and down The Mall to Horse Guard's Parade." Once there, the King will be "greeted by a Royal Salute on Horse Guards Parade and a 41 Gun Salute fired by The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery from The Green Park."

Related:

While the parade brings out members of the royal family in a show of support for the sovereign, it seems that Harry and Meghan may not be the only ones missing. Kate Middleton's attendance remains in limbo amid her ongoing cancer treatment. The Princess of Wales is the honorary colonel of the Irish Guards, which are trooping its flag at the parade this year, but Kensington Palace confirmed last month that Kate will not take the salute at the traditional Colonel's Review on June 8, with Lieutenant General James Bucknall, a former Commander of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps and Colonel of the Coldstream Guards, taking on the important role instead.

The palace did not specify if she would attend the parade the following week. Although Kate has attended the Trooping the Colour every year since marrying Prince William in 2011, Kinsey Schofield, host of the To Di For Daily podcast, told Fox News Digital that Kate likely not attend the parade, noting that "King Charles and Prince William have repeatedly stressed to the Princess of Wales that she should feel no pressure to return to public duty until she is ready."

Trending Now: