Are Prince Harry, Meghan Markle ‘Too Minor’ To Attend State Banquet?

Are Prince Harry and Meghan Markle “minor” royals compared to Prince William and Kate Middleton?

One netizen took to Quora and asked if the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are minor royals compared to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge because they do no attend state banquets. The question received several responses from other online users.

According to Marian Clarke, Middleton didn’t attend her first state banquet until after full four and half years following her wedding to Prince William. And so it’s quite likely that this will be the similar length of time before Markle could attend one. She added that using this as a reason to say that Markle is treated “less favorably” than Middleton is simply not true.

Chris Hawkes, a supporter of constitutional monarchy, is confident that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will eventually attend state banquets. However, this event doesn’t happen often. In fact, it only happened three times since 2017.

Prince Harry attended his first banquet in 2017 when he was not yet married to Markle. He and Markle missed the second one in October 2018 because they were doing their Commonwealth tour and were visiting Australia and New Zealand. For the third one, which the Queen hosted for Donald Trump, Markle didn’t make it because she was on maternity leave, but Prince Harry was there.

One onlooker even slammed him for looking “grumpy.”

“Harry did look grumpy and as if he didn’t want to be there,” royal commentator Ingrid Seward said of the new dad following Trump’s state banquet.

The royal expert felt that Prince Harry was being immature and was letting his personal animosity with Trump took over his natural good manners. The U.S. president made headlines earlier for allegedly calling Prince Harry’s wife, Markle, “nasty.”

“Whatever his personal feelings, it’s his duty to support the Queen regardless and take a tip from his grandmother who has never allowed her personal feelings to interfere with her duty. It’s bad manners and rude,” Seward added.

Another user said that just like Prince William and Middleton, Prince Harry and Markle will definitely attend a state banquet together. The same netizen added that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are “not minor royals” because when Prince Charles becomes king, Prince Harry’s status will also go up and he will be attending state banquets with the king.