Why Prince Harry must go to the coronation, according to a royal expert

With just over a month to go until King Charles III's historic coronation on 6 May, we still don't know whether his youngest son Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle will be in attendance.

A rep for the Sussexes confirmed a few weeks ago that the couple had indeed been invited to attend, but they refused to say whether they would be accepting.

Since then, there have been reports that the royal couple are attempting to negotiate the terms of their attendance — for example requesting that Prince Archie be included in the proceedings in some way, since the event falls on his fourth birthday.

But for one royal expert, it's at least quite clear that Prince Harry will have to be there.

"There's been a lot of discussion, a lot of speculation, as to will Harry and Meghan go to the coronation?" Alexander Larman, author of The Windsors at War, told Us Weekly.

"Now, I don't know at the time of speaking to you what's going to happen — I'd be amazed if at least Harry doesn't. Because if he didn't go to the coronation, he's essentially saying: 'I am not going to have any relationship with my family ever again.'"

For the author, if Harry were to make this move, it would have difficult repercussions for his career.

"The trouble is that when you stop being a member of the Royal Family ... then what do you have going for you instead?" he said.

"I mean, you're a celebrity, which is great, but you're a celebrity based on something that used to be, and that's quite a difficult long-term means of sustaining your fame."

Prince Harry has also expressed many times throughout his various media projects and interviews that he would like to reconcile with his family. Sadly, he doesn't feel able to do that at the moment, and they don't seem to really be approaching him, either. We hope this whole situation improves somehow, and sooner rather than later.