Princes Harry, Andrew benched on third row at King Charles III coronation ceremony

AFP | London

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com    

Princes Harry and Andrew attended the coronation of King Charles III yesterday but were relegated to the third row of the royal family seating, with no formal role in proceedings.

Charles’s younger son Harry and his American wife Meghan quit royal duties in 2020 and have since unleashed a string of barbed attacks on the monarchy.

Andrew, the king’s eldest brother, has been frozen out over his past association with the disgraced late US financier Jeffrey Epstein and a related sexual abuse allegation which was settled out of court.

Driven in a state car from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey in London, part of the crowd in a grandstand in front of the palace booed as Andrew went past.

Harry, 38, the Duke of Sussex, and 63-year-old Andrew, the Duke of York, arrived at the abbey with other members of the royal family.

It is the first time Harry has joined his family since subjecting them to a torrent of stinging criticism in his recent memoir “Spare” and in a series of television interviews.

Meghan has remained in California with the couple’s young children, thereby avoiding potentially awkward interactions with her in-laws.

Former British Army captain Harry, who served in Afghanistan, was wearing a morning suit with his medals, while Andrew -- who flew Royal Navy helicopters in the 1982 Falklands War -- wore his robes as a knight of the garter.

Harry was seen chatting with Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, husband of his cousin Princess Beatrice, Andrew’s elder daughter.