Prince Harry ‘fought back tears’ after being ‘ignored’ during his ‘cold and distant’ final appearance as a royal.

It’s one of the main events in the royal calendar where many of the senior royals join together for a grand service at Westminster Abbey.

But this year’s Commonwealth Day service missed several key figures. With King Charles and the Princess of Wales away from public-facing duties, they were be forced to miss out on the ceremony, which was instead led by Queen Camilla, with Prince William also in attendance. However, two family members who were also on the missing list was Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. In fact, the event in 2020 marked their last royal engagement before quitting as senior royals to carve out new lives for themselves in North America.

They attended the service alongside other members of the Firm – and many remarked on the tension between the family members. And according to a book, Harry appeared to be “fighting back the tears” following what they perceived to be a “snub”. Before the ceremony, 2,000 orders of service had been distributed detailing that William and Kate would enter the Abbey with the main royal party. However, there was no mention of Harry and Meghan being in the procession, with the Daily Mail reporting the couple was “quite sensitive and emotional about it”.

This reportedly led to William and Kate not walking in the procession in an attempt to resolve the issue – despite the orders of service stating otherwise. And in his book Battle of Brothers, royal author and historian Robert Lacey says even though Meghan had a “megawatt” smile, Harry was more gloomy.

He writes: “Observers also noted that Harry’s face was ‘quite tense and unsmiling’ – and that when William sat down close to him, he barely greeted his brother. Throughout the service, Meghan megawatted away with her best TV smile but, as the ceremony progressed, Harry appeared to grow gloomier. According to one observer, ‘his accelerated blinking even suggested he might have been fighting back tears.'”