This week, King Charles III's coronation date was set for May 6, 2023, which is also his grandson Archie's birthday.
This, for royal fans, seemed like too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence at all, and many rallied behind Prince Harry and his son Archie, whom they felt had been slighted by this decision—which was made amid a clear rift between the Sussexes and the rest of the Royal Family.
But royal expert Duncan Larcombe doesn't think Charles is trying to deliberately exclude Harry—he simply thinks it was a question of difficult scheduling.
"The people that are seeing this as some kind of deliberate snub to both Harry and Archie are barking up the wrong tree," Larcombe told OK!.
"Anyone who has ever organized a major event—whether that be a wedding or an anniversary—knows that you'll never be able to please everyone on the guest list. Someone will always take offence."
Larcombe then remarked, "In all honesty, King Charles would have likely been in hotter water with the public if he hadn't checked that his coronation wouldn't clash with the FA Cup Final." (That's soccer, for the uninitiated.)
"It will have been one of those situations where those in charge will have thrown multiple diaries together—that of the King, of religious leaders and of government officials—and decided on this date," Larcombe continued.
As far as he's concerned, the planning team did the best they could with the information they had.
"We're in relatively unchartered territory in that there is no one still in office that can remember what happened during the last coronation of 1953, but at the same time, there will have been historical processes to follow," Larcombe said.
"I'm afraid that those reading into the date and implying it was a swipe at Harry are highly jumping onto the recent 'reunion' speculation and hoping to add fuel to the alleged fire, but I think they'll find that they've got the wrong end of the stick."
I'm absolutely willing to believe that Charles' team couldn't find a date that worked better, but I still feel like they should address the fact that it's also Archie's birthday, because quite frankly, it looks bad given the circumstances.
Royal expert Christine Ross agrees: "I think the choice to hold the coronation on Archie’s birthday is bizarre, only because it lends to so much speculation and commentary given the current climate of the relationship between King Charles and Prince Harry," Ross told Marie Claire on Oct. 12.
