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London: It was quite possibly the Duke of Sussex’s last royal hurrah, a few brief strides down the Westminster Abbey aisle before the dash to Heathrow and a flight back to his home in effective exile in California.
Prince Harry was in such a rush to get home, he was still wearing his medals and morning suit when he reached the airport for the 3.45pm British Airways flight to Los Angeles. As he was flying out of London, the King and Queen were still to have their official photographs taken to mark the Coronation. Prince Harry will not appear in any of them.
Prince Harry speaks with Anne, the Princess Royal in Westminster Abbey, ahead of the coronation.Credit: AP
In all, Harry spent just 28 hours in the UK for the briefest of appearances on the royal stage. It’s not obvious that he will do that again any time soon.
His father’s funeral – whenever that is and King Charles is a fit and healthy 74 – might just be the next time he rubs shoulders in public with his immediate family. No other royal event of such a magnitude that could tempt him (or force him) to attend is on the horizon.
Having written a devastating critique of his own family in his autobiography, the Duke could not have been surprised by the reception he received. No longer a working royal, he was barred from wearing a military uniform and banished from the Buckingham Palace balcony for the traditional wave to the crowds.
Inside the Abbey he was given a seat three rows back on the end of a pew, a bright red feather in the hat of the Princess Royal seemingly obscuring his view. At the other end of the pew sat his disgraced uncle the Duke of York, another outcast.
Prince Harry had left his home in Montecito on Thursday afternoon, driven the 100 miles by his private security detail to Los Angeles airport for the American Airlines overnight flight to London.
The Boeing 777 jet touched down on Friday morning at just after 11.20am and Harry whisked from Heathrow to his once family home at Frogmore Cottage in Home Park in Windsor Park, a brief drive of no more than 20 minutes. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who spent millions renovating the cottage, will soon have to give it up after the King ordered their eviction. The Prince will, in all likelihood, never stay there again.
Prince Harry spent the night in Windsor but did not see his brother the Prince of Wales nor speak with his father or stepmother. While other royals were engaged in eve-of-coronation duties, the Duke must have spent the hours wondering what he was doing in the UK, trying to keep jetlag at bay and speaking to his wife and children via video link.
He had been caught between a rock and hard place, unable to turn down the invitation to his father’s coronation.
Prince Harry leaves after the coronation – he would still be wearing his medals when he arrived at the airport.Credit: Getty Images
Back in Montecito, the Duchess of Sussex was preparing for their son Prince Archie’s fourth birthday. Harry – if the coronation flying visit went to plan – would make it back home in time for a goodnight kiss.
On Saturday morning, a black BMW collected him from Frogmore Cottage at just before 9.30am for the journey to Westminster Abbey. It is understood that while in the UK and attending an official royal event, the Duke is assigned a Scotland Yard protection squad to ensure his safety.
A little over an hour later, he arrived on time and 10 minutes before his father at 10.38am, walking into the Abbey alongside his cousin Princess Beatrice and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi. An expert lip reader caught the Duke telling Mapelli Mozzi “about a quarter to four”, a reference it would later emerge to the time of his flight home.
Harry was notably missing as the working royals gathered on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.Credit: Marija Ercegovac
A few steps inside the Abbey, Harry walked past the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby. “Good luck,” the Duke said to the archbishop, who had married him and the then actress Meghan Markle in Windsor five years ago in what must now seem like a different world. The archbishop replied: “Thank you.”
It is suggested the two men remain in contact and that the archbishop had been instrumental in brokering a deal which had ensured Harry attended the coronation.
Prince Harry then strode down the Abbey aisle, the cameras following him to his seat next to Jack Brooksbank, husband of Princess Eugenie, and behind Princess Anne, the Princess Royal in her full military regalia. In perhaps the one moment where he might have felt at ease, Anee turned to her nephew and exchanged a joke. The Prince grinned at that from ear to ear.
During the service, as the congregation paid homage to the King, Prince Harry was seen speaking the words: “God save King Charles. Long live King Charles. May the King live forever.”
But tabloid newspapers also detected him glaring at his brother two rows in front. The pair never exchanged a word. The Prince of Wales enjoyed a walk-on part in the coronation, in one of the most poignant moments, he pledged allegiance to the King and then planted a tender kiss on his father’s cheek. Prince Harry, in contrast, just sat. And sat.
At the end of the service, as the royal family filtered out of the Abbey and into the London rain, they went their separate ways. Almost the entire Royal family went their way to Buckingham Palace and the Duke of Sussex to Heathrow. It is understood that en route to the airport, the Duke switched cars, his official police protection having ended once the Coronation was deemed over for him.
He was chauffeur driven to the Windsor Suite at Terminal Five at Heathrow Airport, a collection of lounges used by VIPs. The Duke was photographed at the airport still in his morning suit and sporting his medals.
The British Airways flight to LAX took off on time at 3.45pm. “Prince Harry was on my flight back to LA this evening!” posted a fellow passenger surprised to see the King’s son already heading back to the US.
Just before 6.30pm local time, his flight landed at Los Angeles where a black Range Rover picked him up from the VIP area for the two-hour drive back to Montecito.
Prince Harry had missed his son’s birthday party but was home in time to give Prince Archie a goodnight kiss. He had spent just 28 hours on UK soil and now he was home in California. Dreaming, no doubt, of his new life away from the royal household he was born into.
The Telegraph, London
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