‘Meghan, you’re not fooling us!’: Social media users joke that Duchess of Sussex donned heavy disguise to get into Westminster Abbey (but in fact it was a noted composer whose work was played in the service)
- Twitter users joked that the Duchess of Sussex had snuck into the coronation
- Read more on the MailOnline royal live blog with minute-by-minute coverage
While Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, remained in Montecito with her two children, Lilibet and Archie, some eagle-eyed Twitter users were convinced she had made it to Westminster Abbey.
Speculating that the duchess might have snuck into today’s service in a large white wig and glasses, one tweet joked that she ‘wasn’t fooling’ anyone.
But it turns out the hairdo was not an elaborate disguise – instead, the man pictured was legendary composer Sir Karl Jenkins, whose ‘haunting, very Welsh’ work Tros y Garreg was played during the ceremony.
Others joked online about the misunderstanding, saying it was ‘Tilda Swinton deep in character’ or ‘Just wait until the polyjuice [a transforming potion from Harry Potter] wears off’.
Many agreed that the off-the-cuff remark was one of the best jokes made about the day, which saw King Charles III crowed at Westminster Abbey alongside his wife, Queen Camilla.
One Twitter user speculated that the pictured person was in fact the Duchess of Sussex in deep disguise – but it’s actually composer Sir Karl Jenkins
Sir Karl Jenkins, 79, whose ‘haunting, very Welsh’ work Tros y Garreg was played during the ceremony today (pictured in 2015 receiving his knighthood)
Composer Sir Karl Jenkins, 79, recently told BBC News that he remembered watching the last coronation in 1953 as an eight-year-old in Swansea.
Today his music formed part of Charles III’s coronation ceremony, to show the King’s love and appreciation for Welsh culture and music.
‘I am very honoured. It obviously sums up Welsh culture – the harp – and he [the King] has always supported Welsh music,’ said Sir Karl.
‘I don’t know whether he chose it, but he was happy to have it there. I know he likes it otherwise he wouldn’t have asked me.’
The piece was first composed for the then Prince of Wales two decades ago, when he was reinstating the role of royal harpist. Catrin Finch, the first person to win the reinvigorated role, played the piece.
‘It’s a slow movement based on old Welsh folk tune,’ said Sir Karl. ‘It’s haunting, it’s very Welsh and the story is redolent of a soldier returning home and crossing the stile.
Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex join the Prince and Princess of Wales to grieve the loss of the late Queen Elizabeth II
Social media users enjoyed the suggestion that the Duchess of Sussex would don a disguise to sneak in to the coronation. One said the image reminded him of Tony Clifton, the rude alter-ego of American comedian Andy Kaufam in Man In The Moon, who was memorably portrayed by Jim Carrey (pictured)
‘It starts very quietly, with the strings playing the melody of the folksong, then the harpist is doing this technique called bisbigliando, which means whispering in Italian,’ he added.
Sir Karl is perhaps best known for composing the song Adeimus, which was official released in 1995 and featured in Delta Air Lines in-flight adverts and as the opening music on Biblical series Testament: The Bible In Animation.
He studied music at Cardiff University and the Royal Academy of Music, where he is a fellow and an associate. He became the lead songwriter of jazz-rock bank Soft Machine in 1974, having joined the band two years earlier.
He collaborated with Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber on Jesus Christ Superstar and with Elton John on Tumbleweed Connection, released in 1970.
In 2008 Jenkins’s The Armed Nab was listed as No. 1 in Classic FM’s ‘Top 10 by living composers’.
He received an OBE in the 2005 New Year Honours and a CBE in 2010, before being knighted in 2015.
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