Queen Elizabeth has invited the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to her Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
The 95-year-old monarch will mark 70 years on the throne in 2022 with a number of festivities and she’s said to have asked her grandson, Prince Harry, and his wife Meghan – who have son Archie, two, and three-week-old daughter Lili together – to attend the Trooping the Colour parade next June.
However, according to the Mail on Sunday newspaper, there is doubt as to whether the couple would join senior members of the royal family on the Buckingham Palace balcony to watch the military march after they stepped away from official duties last year.
A source told the publication: “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been invited and I’m sure the Queen is very much looking forward to seeing them there.
“The balcony moment will be decided much nearer the time but there’s a limit to how many family members should be on it, and I would have thought that working royals who contribute to the family would be higher on the list than the Sussexes.”
Traditionally, the royals travel in horse-drawn carriages for Trooping the Colour – which marks the queen’s official birthday – before gathering on the balcony to watch a flypast by the Red Arrows.
For a jubilee celebration, there is a second appearance to mark the finale of the celebrations and the balcony was packed out with members of the family during the 2002 Golden Jubilee event.
However, 10 years later, only Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and Harry – who was single at the time – joined the queen on the balcony for the Diamond Jubilee celebration.
Her husband Prince Philip – who passed away in April aged 99 – was absent due to ill health.
Events to mark the jubilee will be staged throughout 2022 but the extended bank holiday weekend of 2-5 June will be the main focus of the celebrations, when various theatre and music events, as well as street parties, will take place across the UK. Beacons will be lit in Britain, the Channel Islands, Isle of Man and other overseas territories, including every capital city in the Commonwealth.
In addition, the BBC will host ‘Platinum Party at the Palace’, a live concert featuring music from every decade the queen has been on the throne, while St. Paul’s Cathedral in London will hold a service of thanksgiving.