When it comes to high-profile royal events, the officials at Buckingham Palace are famous for meticulous planning. It is their job to ens…
When it comes to high-profile royal events, the officials at Buckingham Palace are famous for meticulous planning.
It is their job to ensure the millions watching ceremonial spectacles see them go off without a hitch, which means thinking through every eventuality.
And perhaps at no time was their role more important than for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June 2022.
The ginger elephant in the room causing a headache for the planners was Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, as tensions were high following their decision to attack the Royal Family in their Oprah interview in March 2021.
Therefore, to avoid any awkward moments within the estranged family, seating arrangements for the service to honour Queen Elizabeth II’s 70 years on the throne at St Paul’s Cathedral had to be carefully designed.
Things were especially torturous between William and Harry, and officials took great care to avoid repeating the frosty scenes when they sat near each other at their last joint event in March 2020 at Westminster Abbey.
They did manage to avoid a bust-up by ensuring they arrived and left at different times and sat on separate sides of the aisle in a carefully orchestrated plan.
However, even the best-laid plans cannot account for one thing – the behaviour of the public.
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As when Harry and Meghan walked down the steps at St Paul’s Cathedral, they were met by the unmistakable sound of the crowd outside booing them.
In fairness, there were some cheers as well but their appearance caused a noticeable stir within the crowd, as the audio from the two live video feeds at the service picked up the din.
The crowd’s reaction was a significant moment for the couple as it was their first joint official royal engagement since they quit the Royal Family – and the first time the public had greeted them.
It proved that their behaviour had left the public with a profound dislike of them.
And, although they would have known it had they seen their plummeting approval ratings in opinion polls, it was the first time they had to face up to the new reality.
It must have been especially difficult for Harry, who was used to being the very essence of a popular 21st-century prince.
He was what every romantic expected a dutiful young royal to be – not only good-looking and a brave soldier, but someone who could laugh easily at himself.
Indeed, the sound of laughter accompanied him everywhere he went.
Royal Family leave St Paul’s Cathedral after Jubilee Service
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But now it was the sound of booing which seemed to surround him.
The Sussexes didn’t let the noise get to them, on the surface at least, and, as they walked, they held hands and smiled.
They were greeted by the Lord Mayor and spent a few minutes chatting before they entered the place of worship and proceeded to greet the long line of clergy.
Sky’s Kay Burley said at the time she wasn’t sure if there were ‘more cheers or more jeers’ while MailOnline’s man on the ground reported both cheers and whistles.
An AFP video of the couple leaving the service carried some audible boos alongside more supportive noises.
Others said that the cheering for Prince William and Kate was ‘the biggest of the day by some margin’.
Royal correspondent Richard Palmer noted: ‘There was a loud reaction from the crowd to the arrival of Harry and Meghan: a mix of boos and cheers.
‘Our correspondent outside says what sounded like a mixed reaction had turned into a clear cheer by the time the Sussexes had reached the top of the steps.’
Sky News commentator Rhiannon Mills, also present, said: ‘We were debating how many boos, how many cheers but I think also when you compared it to later arrivals there was a mixed reaction to them.
‘Despite the fact they have stressed they have a huge amount of respect for the Queen, they are still in contact with her, the Queen has constantly stressed they are much-loved members of the family, the assembled crowd clearly had mixed feelings about them being here.’
The moment would have proved an interesting one for the Queen, who was watching the events unfold at home on television as she was too frail to attend.
When Harry and Meghan began to walk down the long central aisle, all eyes turned on them.
Guests began to crane their necks to watch the couple look for their seats, but they found them not in the front row but in the second.
Their newfound position away from the seats of importance underscored their lesser roles as non-working members of the Royal Family.
On the other hand, Prince Charles, who was representing the Queen, and Camilla had special chairs in the front row on the other side of the aisle.
Prince William and his wife Catherine were seated next to them.
The long distance between Harry and the rest of his immediate family meant the service in front of 2,000 special guests passed without any negative ‘optics’, given the attempts to ensure the day was about the Queen and her 70-year reign.
Kate and William chatted to Charles and Camilla inside the cathedral, but there was no sign of the same rapport with Harry and Meghan who sat in between Lady Chatto and Princess Eugenie’s husband Jack Brooksbank.
A source said at the time: ‘It’s a typically elegant solution as you would expect. The Queen wants her family there and they are still part of it. But in a carefully controlled fashion.’
Watching the family drama unfold at the event were 400 key workers, charity volunteers and members of the armed forces who had been invited in recognition of their contribution to public life during the pandemic.
Harry’s long-standing feud with his family had plunged to fresh depths after he accused his father of cutting him off financially and Meghan claimed an unnamed royal made a comment about Archie’s skin tone before he was born.
Their move to California and the signing of lucrative media contracts had prompted dismay within royal circles.
But at least there were no signs of the Netflix cameras in St Paul’s that had followed them around at the Invictus Games in the Netherlands a few months prior in April.
Meghan and Kate had not been together properly since the Duchess of Sussex accused her sister-in-law in her TV interview with Oprah Winfrey of making her cry over bridesmaids’ dresses.
It is impossible to know how the Royal Family felt about having to share the event with Harry and Meghan, but one could imagine the service would have been tense.
One royal insider said they believed the couple had taken their ‘low-key’ cue from the Queen, who had made clear that she didn’t want the Jubilee celebrations to be about herself but a means to bring the nation together after a difficult few years.
‘Her Majesty has made clear that this shouldn’t even be about herself, let alone family dramas. Even the Sussexes respect that,’ they said.
The day before the ceremony, the Sussexes introduced their little girl Lilibet to the Queen.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex wanted a private photographer to capture the moment their daughter met her namesake, The Sun reported at the time.
However, they were allegedly told ‘no chance’ because it was a ‘private family meeting’.
Trust was so low between the Sussexes and the rest of the family at this point that Palace insiders may have worried any photos taken by Harry and Meghan would be shared with US TV networks.
At 2.28pm, Harry and Meghan arrived at their home of Frogmore Cottage, leaving the rest of the Royal Family to attend a reception without them.
For Harry the whole day must be the hardest of homecomings to royal life, because he had been reduced to little more than a spectator.
As someone who had always made his dislike of the ‘Spare’ identity known, he might have preferred the obscurity of being among the cousins who reside far down the royal line of succession.
On the occasion of the last two Jubilees in 2012 and 2002, the prince had enjoyed favoured status and a prominent role alongside William and Prince Charles, basking in the affection of the public.
The 2022 occasion revealed the affection no longer existed from the public who had been wearied by his endless sniping at the royals and at the country.
The tragedy is that before Meghan came along, Harry was beloved by the public – even managing to beat every other royal, including the beloved Queen, to finish first place in a national poll of the public’s favourite royal in November 2018.
Meghan’s arrival in his life changed so much of that. But was this her fault, or was it down to Harry’s uncertainty over how to bring a fragrant Hollywood figure into the restrictive and highly controlled world of royal life?
Rather than stay and use her undoubted talents as a force for change, they chose to abandon his heritage and his birthright for the riches of celebrity and life in California, according to royal expert Richard Kay.
It is tempting to wonder if the diminished role he had and the booing crowd gave him pause for thought on the steps of St Paul’s.
But since that day there has been no lasting sign of family rapprochement, nor warmth from the public.
Instead, Harry remains in self-imposed exile in California, although at least he can’t hear the boos from there.
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