No pacification in the Windsor house, not even on the occasion of the day that will seal the last longevity record of Elizabeth II next month: her 70th anniversary on the throne, almost a swan song. In fact, there will be neither Prince Andrew, the queen’s third son, nor the rebellious nephews Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, among the royals who at the beginning of June will look out from the balcony of Buckingham Palace for the key celebrations of the Platinum Jubilee.
The decision was communicated today urbi et orbi by a source of the palace, who explained how “after careful consideration” the 96-year-old sovereign herself decided that to appear on 2 June with her on the occasion of the special parade of ‘trooping the color ‘2022 there can only be members of the dynasty in official “working” representation service of the crown. A strictly protocol choice, behind which there is, however, the need to exclude – for reasons of embarrassment or opportunity – three very specific targets: Andrea, excluded from any position or title within the family following his involvement in the suspects of abject sex scandal linked to the figure of the late American fixer Jeffrey Epstein; as well as Harry and Meghan, who spontaneously escaped their status as senior members of the Royal Family in the wake of the traumatic tear in 2020 and the permanent move to the United States. Returning together for the first time since then together in London last month, the Dukes of Sussex appear to have been initially invited to actually attend the June 2 ceremony from the balcony, according to several media outlets. But they hadn’t even confirmed their intention to be there.
And in any case, today’s indication cuts the bull’s head: as a clear signal that there was no real mending. Much less after Harry, fresh from the April meeting with his grandmother (and from a subsequent face to face with an uncertain outcome with his father Carlo), did not hesitate to throw a dig at the court, saying that he wanted to make sure that the queen was fine after having overcome with some difficulty a recent contagion from Covid, but also that she was adequately “protected” (who knows by whom). All in a climate in which the relationship between the second son of Charles and Diana and his older brother William remains marked by that absolute cold that according to the gossip collected in yet another book, signed by Tina Brown, would have started to take shape well. before Meghan entered the scene. Be that as it may, the parterre of June 2 will be reserved on the balcony for His Majesty, with his heir Charles at his side, his wife Camilla and – to climb – the Dukes of Cambridge, William and Kate with their three children, and princes Anna and Edoardo, second and fourth child of the queen, with husband and wife respectively.
Always assuming that Elisabetta – forced to forfeit external appointments in series in recent months, after having been put on almost total rest by the doctors since October and having recently admitted opentis verbis to have mobility problems – she herself confirms the his presence. As it seems determined to confirm, except for the official last minute, the imminent visit to Parliament on 10 May for the reading of the annual Queen’s Speech in Chambers: an institutional appointment that she has never missed in living memory .