Why Meghan Markle isn’t going to the coronation with Harry

After months of drawing out the suspense, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry finally announced their decision yesterday on whether or not they'll attend King Charles’ coronation.

The answer? Harry will be there, but Meghan (and the kids) are sitting this one out.

“The Duke of Sussex will attend the Coronation service at Westminster Abbey on May 6th. The Duchess of Sussex will remain in California with Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet," said a spokesperson for Meghan and Harry, confirming what the palace had announced earlier in the day.

That dryly factual statement — the royal equivalent of ticking a “yes” box on an RSVP card and mailing it back without comment — underplays the complicated, likely emotional, behind-the-scenes negotiation and discussion that went into it.

On a surface level, of course, there’s a very practical reason for Meghan’s absence.

Coronation Day also happens to be Archie’s birthday. (Although what better way to celebrate turning four than with a giant parade, especially if nobody mentions that maybe it’s not entirely solely for your benefit?)

But! As astute royal watchers will remember, a major royal occasion — in this case, Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee — doesn’t necessarily mean the Sussexes can’t plan a children’s party at the same time. After all, Lilbet’s first birthday party, a backyard picnic complete with face painter and party games, was held at Frogmore Cottage in between official appearances by her parents at various big royal events celebrating Elizabeth’s 70 years on the throne.

That experience at the Platinum Jubilee, however, may be a key to understanding why Meghan Markle isn’t going to the Coronation.

Just like the Coronation, the Platinum Jubilee was a chance for Meghan and Harry to attend a big royal party purely as members of a family getting together to celebrate, not as working royals. The event was supposed to allow for a low-key way for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to pay their respects to an important person in their lives, honour the institution whose prestige they benefit from, and maybe, just maybe, put all the past drama behind them.

And how did that go? Well, bring us a stack of tabloids (or the comments section of certain corners of social media) from that weekend and you’ll see fairly quickly that it backfired, spectacularly.

When people weren’t accusing Meghan of attempting to steal the spotlight — by wearing a big hat, or laughing with kids in the extended royal family, or simply by attending — they were delighting in spotting any signs of a frosty reception by other members of the royal family, like Meghan and Harry entering and exiting events alone, or the fact that they were excluded from the big balcony moments that would have been theirs if they hadn’t quit working for The Firm.

In a post-”Spare,” post-Netflix doc world, this kind of intense scrutiny isn’t going anywhere. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that Meghan is choosing to do everything she can to remove herself from it.

Having said her piece multiple times — in that Oprah interview, in the “Harry and Meghan” documentary — it feels like Meghan is making a deliberate attempt to close a chapter in her life. It can’t be a coincidence, after all, that we’re hearing rumblings of The Tig, the lifestyle website she ran before she met Harry, making a return, or that the most recent pap snaps we have of her show her strolling in the California sunshine after leaving an International Women’s Day event, wearing slip-on mules that would have had the Protocol Police in conniptions.

Attending the Coronation, which would put her firmly back in the middle of the tabloid sights and the social media chatter whatever real-life human tension is or isn’t there between her and the rest of the royals — just seems like something a person who’s trying to leaving the past behind wouldn’t do.

Or, say, somehow who's putting distance between herself and an institution she doesn't particularly support anymore. After all, if Harry Styles, the Spice Girls and Elton John have all (allegedly) turned down invites to perform at the King's big day, are we surprised that Meghan would also tick “can’t attend” on her RSVP?

By not attending, Meghan is also taking heat, accused of “snubbing” the royals and maliciously depriving Charles of the eyeballs that would be tuning in to see her. It's the definition of a “no win” situation.

The fact that Harry is confirmed to be attending the coronation has implications too. It's a move that combats the accusations that Meghan is a controlling narcissist who is isolating poor hapless Haz from his family. It also makes sense from a Brand Sussex standpoint. It's a power move for Harry to publish a book like Spare, in all of its unflattering gory detail, and stand strong in his belief in the righteousness of what he’s done, confident enough to show face among all the people he wrote about both in private and in front of long-range camera lenses and body language experts.

It also gives the royals, in particular the newly minted King Charles, an opportunity to take the high road, to send a message that they're extending an olive branch to the prodigal son, playing happy(ish) families as they move beyond their painful past and start a more progressive, forward-looking reign that they hope will sustain the monarchy well into the future.

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