The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have not been invited to the event since King Charles became monarch, reflecting ongoing family tensions.
As the royal family gathered to celebrate King Charles at this year's Trooping the Colour, a longstanding tradition marking the monarch's official birthday, two of his grandchildren, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, remained notably absent from the festivities.
Trooping the Colour is a grand military parade held each summer in London, a tradition meant to honor the sovereign's official public birthday, which falls in November in King Charles' case. This year marks Charles' third Trooping since acceding to the throne in 2022 following Queen Elizabeth's death.
While royals like Kate Middleton, Prince William and their three children -- Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 10, and Prince Louis, 7 -- were front and center at the 2025 event, their cousins, Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4, have never taken part in the annual tradition.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle appeared together at Trooping in 2018 and 2019, but their son Archie, born just five weeks before the 2019 parade, was too young to join the festivities. The COVID-19 pandemic led to a scaled-back event in 2020 and 2021. Although Harry and Meghan returned for the 2022 Trooping -- part of Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee celebrations -- they watched separately from the working members of the royal family.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex did not join the Buckingham Palace balcony appearance as they were no longer senior working royals. When Charles became King, he discontinued the practice of inviting both working and non-working royals to the balcony.
Princess Lilibet was born in 2021, after Harry and Meghan stepped back from royal duties and relocated to Montecito, California. Since then, the Sussex family has not been invited to Trooping the Colour. They missed the 2023 event, King Charles' first as monarch, and again were absent from the 2024 and 2025 celebrations.
In a recent BBC interview after his legal appeal was unsuccessful against a government decision that stripped him of automatic police protection in the U.K., Prince Harry expressed doubts about ever bringing his wife and children back to his home country.
"I can't see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back to the U.K. at this point," he said, lamenting that his children will miss out on experiencing their British heritage firsthand.
"The things that they're going to miss is, well, everything," Harry continued. "I love my country. I always have done. Despite what some people in that country have done."
He added, "I miss the U.K., I miss parts of the U.K., of course I do. I think that it's really quite sad that I won't be able to show my children my homeland."
Though Prince Harry has made several brief visits to the U.K. without his family since stepping back from royal duties in 2020, his relationship with King Charles remains strained. The Duke of Sussex has publicly expressed a desire for reconciliation with his father and brother, Prince William, but noted the ongoing security dispute has made communication difficult.
"There's no point in continuing to fight anymore," he said. "Life is precious. I don't know how much longer my father has. He won't speak to me because of this security stuff. But it would be nice to reconcile."