The royal family gathered at Buckingham’s balcony to close the 2024 edition of Trooping the Color, which each year celebrates the British monarch’s birthday.
Annual family photo. As tradition dictates, the members of the British Crown gathered this Saturday, June 15 on the balcony of Buckingham, in front of a compact crowd gathered in front of the palaces, on the occasion of the Trooping the Color festivities. “).
This annual celebration, which takes place each year in June, serves as the official birthday of the monarch, regardless of their date of birth. It takes the form of a military parade on land and in the air and always ends with a salute from the royal family on the balcony.
Charles III, who will celebrate his 76th birthday on November 14, stood in the middle of the group alongside his wife, Queen Camilla.
To his right was his son William and Kate Middleton, the latter’s wife, who made her first public appearance in 6 months. The Princess of Wales, who revealed she had cancer last March, withdrew from her public engagements to undergo preventative chemotherapy. She announced Friday evening June 14 that she would participate in Trooping the Color, while specifying that she was “not out of the woods”.
The couple was surrounded by their three children, princes and princesses George (10 years old), Charlotte (9 years old) and Louis (6 years old). To the left of Charles and Camilla was the monarch’s younger brother, Prince Edward, with his wife Sophie. Lady Louise Windsor and Princess Anne were also present.
Persona non grata
The big absentees, unsurprisingly, were Prince Harry, Charles’ youngest son, and his wife Meghan Markle. They announced in early 2020 the abandonment of their leading role within the British monarchy. Their move, first to Canada before settling in California, marked a first break between the Duke of Sussex and his family.
Their relationship with the royal family has only become cooler since then. Particularly with the shattering revelations about the monarchy made by Harry and Meghan in a shock interview given to Oprah Winfrey (2021), in a Netflix documentary series (2022) and finally in the Memoirs of Prince Harry, The Substitute (2023).
