Royals ‘hope’ Harry & Meghan will be ‘seated in Iceland’ at Coronation

Royals 'plan to give Harry and Meghan the cold shoulder' at the Coronation and 'hope they are seated in Iceland': Duke and Duchess will have no place on balcony and family members 'don't want to socialise with them' say friends

Published: 22:09, 11 March 2023 | Updated: 22:41, 11 March 2023

Members of the Royal Family are hoping that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will be 'seated in Iceland' if they attend the Coronation service as expected.

Harry and Meghan have been invited and are expected to be at the event on May 6, but many family members are privately telling friends that they will give them the 'cold shoulder'.

The Sussexes' children are considered by palace officials to be too young to attend the ceremony at Westminster Abbey, but the couple are likely to spend part of the day with Archie, who turns four on May 6, and Lilibet, now styled Prince and Princess, as they celebrate their son's birthday.

Harry and Meghan will not be invited to take part in the official balcony appearance and many members of the family have no wish to socialise with the couple.

A friend of the family said: 'They will be given the cold shoulder by very many relatives. One said to me, "I hope they'll be seated in Iceland."

Harry and Meghan have been invited and are expected to be at the King's Coronation on May 6

Prince William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge pictured with the King and Queen Consort at the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey last year

'Many of the family just want nothing more to do with them. If they have to see them at the Coronation then so be it, but they do not want to socialise with them.'

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have waged a campaign against their own family in a series of media interviews since quitting their Royal duties three years ago.

Last week, Prince Harry appeared in a televised interview with controversial 'trauma therapist' Gabor Mate in which he said he had 'learned a new language of therapy' but found that 'my family didn't speak that language'.

Many in the Royal Family are now bracing themselves for the arrival of the Sussexes in less than two months as the countdown to the Coronation continues.

The couple are expected to stay at Frogmore Cottage during their visit.

The lease on their home on the Windsor estate runs out at the end of March but they have been allowed to keep it going for a few months while they sort out their belongings and arrange for them to be shipped to California.

Members of the Royal Family with the late Queen Elizabeth at the Platinum Jubilee Pageant last year

Last week Harry and Meghan revealed that their children would use the Prince and Princess titles when they announced that their daughter Lilibet had been baptised in Montecito.

As the grandchildren of a reigning monarch, the young Sussexes are entitled to the rank. After hearing that this was the Sussexes' wish, the official Royal website updated their titles accordingly. It is thought that Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet will also be able to use their 'HRH' status in future.

While Harry has agreed not to use his HRH title on account of leaving Royal duties, his children could still adopt theirs.

Similarly, Prince Andrew has said he will not use HRH but his daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, are entitled to.

Palace sources say that while the Sussexes will not appear on the balcony as part of the Coronation there was a discussion as to whether they would take part in other events surrounding the celebrations.