Prince Harry 'discussing coronation attendance with king's office'

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are in 'email correspondence' with the king's representatives

Prince Harry and his wife Meghan at St Paul's Cathedral in London, in June 2022. AP
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Prince Harry and Meghan have been in “email correspondence” with the office of King Charles over whether they will attend his coronation.

It has been unclear whether he and Meghan would be invited to the ceremony on May 6 after the publication of his controversial memoir Spare.

Conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the coronation of the King and Queen Consort will take place at Westminster Abbey on the Saturday morning.

Tens of thousands of street parties are expected to be staged during the weekend, with people urged to come together across the nation for the Coronation Big Lunch on May 7.

According to reports, Prince Harry has been in contact with the king's representatives concerning their attendance.

But the duke has said that he would not yet be disclosing whether a decision had been made on his and Meghan’s attendance.

King Charles and Prince William make first appearances since Prince Harry's memoir - in pictures

“I can confirm the Duke has recently received email correspondence from His Majesty’s office regarding the coronation," a Sussex representative told The Times.

“An immediate decision on whether the Duke and Duchess will attend will not be disclosed by us at this time.”

Many soldiers neither agreed nor disagreed with Afghan war

Prince Harry at the weekend spoke about his time in the British military, saying “a lot of us” in the Army “didn't necessarily agree or disagree” with the war in Afghanistan.

In his memoir Spare, Prince Harry wrote about his royal life and his military service, including the number of people he killed in Afghanistan.

Prince Harry's book is released - in pictures

On Saturday, he spoke to Dr Gabor Mate, author of The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture, and told of how he had always felt different to rest of his family

He also talked about military service and how his book had been received.

“One of the reasons why so many people in the United Kingdom were not supportive of our troops was because they assumed that everybody that was serving was for the war,” he said

“But no, once you sign up, you do what you’re told to do.

“So there was a lot of us that didn’t necessarily agree or disagree, but you were doing what you were trained to do, you were doing what you were sent to do.”

Prince Harry and Meghan Duchess of Sussex through the years - in pictures

He told Dr Mate of the concerns he had before beginning therapy sessions and of how he had worried he would lose memories of his mother Princess Diana.

“I certainly have felt throughout my life, my younger years, I felt slightly different to the rest of my family,” the prince said.

“I felt strange being in this container and I know that my mum felt the same, so it makes sense to me.

“It didn't make sense at the time. I felt as though my body was in there but my head was out and sometimes it was vice versa.

“One of the things I was most scared about was losing the feelings that I had of my mum.”

“I thought that if I went to therapy it would kill me and that I would lose whatever I had left, whatever I managed to hold on to of my mother, and it turns out that wasn't the case.

"I didn't lose that. It was the opposite.

“I turned what I thought was supposed to be sadness to try to prove to her that I missed her into realising she just really wanted me to be happy, and that was a huge weight of my chest.”

Readers rush to scoop first UK hardback copies of Prince Harry's memoir - video

Readers rush to scoop first UK hardback copies of Prince Harry's memoir

The first copies of Prince Harry's new book SPARE get unpacked during a midnight sale at a book shop in London, Britain, 10 January 2023.  Prince Harry's controversial new memoir SPARE goes on sale across Britain on 10 January.   EPA / ANDY RAIN

The ghostwritten Spare laid bare his frustrations with his family.

Prince Harry said his father, now King Charles III, had put his own interests above his youngest son's and was jealous of Meghan and Kate, Princess of Wales, and that Queen Consort Camilla sacrificed him on “her personal PR altar”.

Speaking about negative reaction to the book, Prince Harry said: “Sometimes I'm surprised and sometimes I'm not.

“It is the same group of people who react the same way when someone in a position like myself talks about their trauma.

“As we've already discussed, I'm not a victim in this, but there's almost a balancing act. The more they criticise, the more they comment, the more I feel the need to share.

“I found a way to be able to look around, and firstly ignore, the criticisms and the abuse.”

The duke, who lives in California after moving to the US in 2020, has revealed he has enough material for two books but held back because he does not think his father and brother would “ever forgive” him.

Updated: March 05, 2023, 8:42 PM