Harry and Meghan to be banned from coronation if he trashes Camilla in memoir: report

What Prince Harry and Meghan Markle say and do in the next couple months in their hotly anticipated Netflix docu-series or in Harry’s memoir will determine whether they get invited to King Charles’ coronation as well as shaping their relationship with the royal family “for the rest of their lives,” a royal expert says.

Duncan Larcombe, a royal author and former royal editor at the Sun, told the Daily Beast that Charles won’t make any decision about inviting his son and daughter-in-law to his coronation in June, and he probably won’t decide whether to grant their children, Archie and Lilibet, prince and princess titles until he sees whether the couple is going to make good on Meghan’s veiled threat to reveal more secrets about the royal family.

Charles is particularly sensitive to Harry’s potential for publicly attacking his wife, Camilla, the Queen Consort, in his forthcoming book, a friend of the new queen has told The Daily Beast.

“Almost everything Charles has done over the past 20 years has, in one way or another, been about getting Camilla accepted by the public,” the friend told the Daily Beast. “He loves her. He is incredibly protective of her and he couldn’t do it without her. Even (Queen Elizabeth II) finally accepted that. It is one thing for Harry to attack Charles, he can take it on the chin, but if Harry forces him to choose, by laying into Camilla in his book, I have no doubt he will choose Camilla.”

It’s hard to imagine that Camilla’s reputation won’t take a hit in Harry’s book. From his new home in California, the Duke of Sussex has promised that his memoir will be an “entirely honest” account of his life. The book therefore would need to include the collapse of his parents’ marriage. As Princess Diana herself revealed in a BBC interview and to author Andrew Morton, her marriage to Charles was doomed early on because of his ongoing infatuation with Camilla.

Harry has yet to publicly criticize Camilla in the way that he has attacked his father — he told Oprah Winfrey that Charles cut him off financially and refused to take his phone calls — but the Daily Beast reported there is “tremendous nervousness in Charles’ circle” about what Harry’s book might say about Camilla “because an attack on her would be devastating to Charles.”

“There is no doubt that Charles would like Harry and Meghan to be at his coronation,” Katie Nicholl, author of “The New Royals” and Vanity Fair’s royal correspondent, told The Daily Beast. “And to be fair to Charles, he has been magnanimous in terms of extending, very publicly, olive branches to the Sussexes, not only in his televised accession address but also putting them front and center at the funeral events.

“But he does expect respect in return, and a problem is going to arise if, between now and then, Harry repays him by attacking him, Camilla or the institution,” Nicholl said. “He is not going to put up with inaccurate and unfair attacks.”

For his part, Harry potentially has a lot to lose if he goes up against father, who, upon succeeding Elizabeth II, has become one of the most powerful people in the world, according to the Daily Beast. It would be an “extraordinary snub” to Harry and Meghan’s global standing to not be invited to the coronation, Larcombe told the Daily Beast, but it’s hard to imagine how Charles would want them there if Harry is “sticking machetes in the backs of him and Camilla while promoting in his book.”

For reasons that have not been made clear, Harry and Meghan reportedly are keen on their children having British royal titles, even if the couple has chosen to leave royal life. Legally and by precedent, Archie and Lilibet are entitled to be prince and princess, Larcombe said, but Charles reportedly can change the rules.

“That’s a carrot that could be left out there for years to come,” Larcombe added. “Charles is certainly not rushing to make a declaration one way or another, and he may be taking some comfort from the reports that Harry is desperately trying to rewrite the parts of the book that are most critical about his father.”