Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and still contemplating their decision to attend the Charles’ Coronation
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle do not have to rush their decision to attend the Coronation of King Charles.
According to an expert, Dr George Gross, visiting research fellow in Theology at King’s College London, explained that unless the official invitations had a RSVP deadline, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex still have time.
He told Express.co.uk, “In a bygone era, if we’re going back to the Tudors and the Stewards, if you received a summons to the Coronation, attendance wasn’t optional, you couldn’t say ‘I’m not free’, you’d attend. But obviously in the 20th and 21st century, things have been different.”
Gross added that since it is unknown if all the invitations have been sent out, the ex-royals have “plenty of time.” He said, “Given that they’ve got the royal box, in a sense, there’s flexibility on this one.”
The royal box is where members of the Royal Family will sit during the service as it happened in past coronations, and will likely always have some space available for relatives of the King.
“The other reason that there’s always a little bit of flexibility is people never know for sure if they will attend with things like health and so on,” he explained.
“They’re always last minute [cancellations], it’s the same as planning any great event or even, if we take it back to the ordinary person, if you try planning a party and somebody changes their mind last minute, there’s always some flexibility, and there are always cancellations, and they’re always last minute attendees.”
He surmised, “So, there’s always a little bit of room. Because of the royal box, I think you’ve got more flexibility.”
A spokesperson for the Sussexes confirmed they received the invitation for the ceremony but haven’t RSVP-ed yet.