The Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey is a significant royal event attended by many senior royals.
However, this year, notable absences included King Charles and the Princess of Wales, as they were engaged in other duties.
Queen Camilla led the ceremony, with Prince William present, but Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were also missing. This event marked the couple’s last royal engagement in 2020 before their departure to North America.
Tensions were noted among family members, and sources indicated that Harry appeared to be “fighting back tears” due to feeling snubbed during the service.
Prior to the ceremony, 2,000 orders of service were distributed indicating that William and Kate would enter Westminster Abbey with the main royal party.
However, Harry and Meghan were not listed in the procession, leading the Daily Mail to report that the couple felt “quite sensitive and emotional” about this oversight.
This prompted William and Kate to forgo their planned entrance in an effort to ease the situation, despite the official documents stating otherwise. According to royal author Robert Lacey in his book Battle of Brothers, while Meghan maintained a “megawatt” smile, Harry appeared more somber.
He writes: “Observers also noted that Harry’s face was ‘quite tense and unsmiling’ – and that when William sat down close to him, he barely greeted his brother. Throughout the service, Meghan megawatted away with her best TV smile but, as the ceremony progressed, Harry appeared to grow gloomier.
According to one observer, ‘his accelerated blinking even suggested he might have been fighting back tears.'”
Harry later told how he felt at the service. The service was the first time he and Meghan had seen many family members since an extended Christmas stay in Canada – and the news broke about them quitting the Firm.
Harry explained: “The first time that we saw the other members of the family was in Westminster Abbey. We were nervous seeing the family because all the TV cameras and everybody watching at home and everybody watching in the audience. It’s like living through a soap opera where everybody else views you as entertainment.
“I felt really distant from the rest of my family, which was interesting because so much of how they operate is about what it looks like, rather than what it feels like. And it looked cold. But it also felt cold.”
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped down as senior royals in January 2020
