Trooping the Colour 2023: Have Prince Harry and Meghan Markle been invited to the King’s birthday parade?

Although Prince Harry has of course only been back in the UK recently when he appeared in the witness box for his high court battle against the Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), it was thought until recently that he and his wife Meghan Markle might return for Trooping the Colour on Saturday 17 June. However, it would seem that this is not the case.

According to reports, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle have not been invited to be a part of his father, the monarch’s official birthday celebrations at Trooping the Colour. The couple flew over for the proceedings last year, which became part of the late Queen Elizabeth’s platinum jubilee weekend.

Although Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were present at Trooping the Colour 2022 and reportedly watched the ceremony with other members of the royal family in offices overlooking Horse Guards Parade, they were not on the Buckingham Palace balcony official flypast later that day.

Prince Harry may have been present for his father, King Charles’s coronation in May, but if reports are to be believed, despite an invitation being extended to him to join the celebrations on the balcony after the ceremony, he instead took the decision to forgo the invitation to fly back to Montecito in order to make it back in time for Prince Archie’s fourth birthday celebrations. 

It is thought that South Park took their fashion inspiration for their episode on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle from the outfits they wore to Trooping the Colour in 2018. On that day, Meghan wore a baby pink off-the-shoulder dress by Carolina Herrera. Prince Harry was dressed in full uniform for the occasion.