Prince Harry, Andrew to have no formal role at coronation of King Charles

London: The Duke of Sussex and the Duke of York will not have any formal role at the coronation of King Charles on Saturday, Buckingham Palace has confirmed.

Harry and Andrew, who are no longer working royals, will attend the service but will not perform any duties, The Independent newspaper reported.

The two non-working members of the British Royal family will also be absent from the procession behind the Gold State Coach carrying the newly crowned King and Queen from Westminster Abbey back to Buckingham Palace after the ceremony.

All eyes will be on Harry as he faces his relatives in public for the first time since he criticised Charles, Camilla, and the Prince and Princess of Wales in his tell-all memoir "Spare".

The Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, will remain at home in California with their children, Archie and Lili, celebrating Archie’s fourth birthday which falls on the coronation day.

Harry has indicated that he has enough material to fill another book, which will likely make the royals wary of encountering him.

The Duke of Sussex will quickly exit, flying back to the US to mark Archie’s birthday, and is expected to attend only the abbey ceremony.

Andrew stepped down from public life after his disastrous Newsnight interview in November 2019 and the furore over his friendship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The late Queen’s disgraced second son went on to pay millions to settle a civil sexual assault case to a woman he claimed never to have met.

Virginia Giuffre sued him for allegedly sexually assaulting her when she was 17 after she was trafficked by Epstein.

Andrew has, however, denied the claims.

Ahead of his legal settlement, the late Queen Elizabeth stripped him of his honorary military roles, including Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, and he gave up his HRH style.

Charles will be crowned the King of the United Kingdom amid spectacular pomp and pageantry at Westminster Abbey in London on Saturday in a solemn religious ceremony that dates back almost a thousand years.

Westminster Abbey has been the site of every British Coronation since that of William The Conqueror in 1066 and King Charles III and his wife, Queen Camilla, will follow in the footsteps of this grand tradition in a service themed “Called to Serve”.