Prince Harry and Meghan have not been invited to the Princess of Wales’s Christmas carol service at Westminster Abbey, despite the event’s focus on love, kindness and caring for others.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are absent from the guest list for Catherine’s Together at Christmas concert on 11 December. More than 1,600 people are expected to attend the service, held at the Abbey where the Prince and Princess of Wales married in 2011.
Harry and Meghan returned to Britain in August after six years in California. Their omission comes as the service has become one of Catherine’s signature royal events.
Extended members of the Royal Family, celebrities and people recognised for supporting their communities are usually among those invited. The King and Queen rarely attend, allowing William and Catherine to take the leading roles.
Last year, Prince William joined Catherine at the service with their three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, Zara and Mike Tindall, and Prince Michael of Kent were also present.
Other members of the wider family who attended included Lady Marina Windsor, the granddaughter of the Duke of Kent, along with her aunt Lady Helen Taylor and cousin Lady Estella Taylor.
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie were invited but declined. Catherine’s parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, also attended with her brother James and his wife, Alizee.
The guest list last year included celebrities such as Kate Winslet, Katie Melua and Dame Mary Berry.
Harry and Meghan are reportedly planning to bring the duchess’s mother, Doria Ragland, to Britain for Christmas.
Representatives for the Waleses and the Sussexes did not comment.
