King Charles has been joined by his wife Queen Camilla, son Prince William and daughter-in-law Princess Kate for his official birthday celebrations, Trooping the Colour 2023.
Royal fans may have spotted that two key people missing are Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who are thought to have remained in Montecito, California where they live with their two children Archie and Lilibet.
The event will likely bring back memories for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who have attended the birthday parade on several occasions in the past for the late Queen Elizabeth II.
However, not all of the memories will be fond ones, according to Harry, who revealed Meghan suffered an awkward encounter with Kate during her first Trooping appearance alongside the royal family back in 2018, days after they returned to the UK from their honeymoon.
It was one of his many confessions in his book Spare, which was released in January. He admitted Duchess Meghan tried to make a private joke with the Princess of Wales, but it was met with a “yawning silence.”
Discussing the incident, which marked one of Harry and Meghan’s first public appearances as newlyweds, he recalled: “Everyone present was in a good mood, upbeat. But then: Kate asked Meg what she thought of her first Trooping the Color. And Meg joked: Colorful. And a yawning silence threatened to swallow us all whole.”
In 2022, the Duke and Duchess flew over to the UK for the late Queen Elizabeth II’s last Trooping the Colour, which coincided with Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
The royals did not make an appearance on the Buckingham Palace balcony to watch the flypast, but the Duchess was spotted enjoying a sweet interaction with Peter Phillips’ daughters, Savannah and Isla, and Zara Tindall’s children, Mia and Lena at the windows.
Trooping the Colour falls on the third Saturday of June and marks the monarch’s official birthday – the King’s actual birthday on 14 November.
