Prince Harry will be in attendance at the Westminster Abbey ceremony next month.
Meghan Markle not attending King Charles III's coronation ceremony next month has brought a senes of "relief" to Prince William and Kate Middleton, according to royal expert Eloise Parker.
"I think there's bound to be some relief from William and Kate that Meghan won't be attending the coronation simply because less emphasis is going to be on them, who's looking where, who's lip reading, what's going on between them," Parker tells ET. "There's such a fever of interest in these relationships and the truth is we're never going to see a Real Housewives moment between these women. Everything is going to be kept firmly under wraps and I think for Kate, the fact that Meghan isn't attending, helps her keep it that way."
Buckingham Palace confirmed to ET that Prince Harry will be attending the coronation ceremony at Westminster Abbey in London on May 6. But Meghan is reportedly not joining him, and instead is staying at the couple's Montecito, California, home with their two children, son Archie, who is turning four on the day of the coronation, and daughter Lilibet, 1.
That Harry, who received the invitation last month, is attending the ceremony is also bringing a sense of relief.
"My first reaction is relief that Harry is going to be at his father's coronation," Parker says. "It would have been an incredibly sad time if he hadn't attended at all. It's, of course, not ideal that only half of his family is going -- with Meghan staying home -- but I think it's a safe solution given all the drama that we've seen over the past year or two."
There's been palpable tension since Harry and Meghan officially exited their roles as senior members of the royal family in 2020. The tension culminated upon the release of Harry and Meghan's Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan, in December, and the Duke of Sussex's bestselling memoir, Spare, which was released in January. Both projects were critical of the royal family and shared intimate details from the couple's perspective.
Nevertheless, a source close to the royal family told ET that King Charles still wanted Harry and the grandchildren at his coronation. Parker says "it's extraordinary" that just five years ago, Charles walked Meghan down the aisle at her royal wedding. And now? She'll be a no-show for Charles' biggest event of his life.
"It was an incredibly intimate act and an incredibly public event," Parker says of Charles walking Meghan down the aisle. "But this amount of fracture in just five years -- to go from walking your daughter-in-law down the aisle to not having her attend the biggest event of your life -- we're seeing an extraordinary fracture in that relationship. Harry even wrote in his book how well Meghan and Charles got along, so it's extraordinary to see there's a sense of real sadness. That she's not going to be at this event, that things have gotten so bad that she would rather not set foot on British soil. I think, unfortunately, this is a testament not just to Meghan's fractured relationship with her family, but to her fractured relationship with Britain as a whole."
As for Harry, Parker says don't expect his visit for the coronation ceremony to lend the time to repair his own fractured relationship with Charles and William.
"This event really is like a giant wedding. It's everyone you've ever met plus plenty of people you haven't, so Charles and William, they're gonna be pulled in a million different directions," Parker says. "It would be extraordinary to think they would have even a minute with Harry to even say hello, let alone heal the royal rift. So I think this is not going to be that time. Let's hope Harry or Charles or William can carve out some time once the dust has settled to really start making some inroads of their personal relationships."
How to Watch Coronation
Although the actual anointment during the coronation ceremony is not broadcast publicly, plenty of special programming and live footage from the coronation ceremony will be available to watch live on May 6 starting at 5 a.m. ET. Cable viewers will be able to watch coverage on ABC News and
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