So, I don’t know how long it takes to drive from Westminster Abbey to Heathrow, but I imagine the journey would be a lot quicker if you were being driven by a professional driver/security guard and most of the streets had been cleared because of a coronation. All I know is that the British media tracked Prince Harry’s every move in the UK for all “28 hours,” and that man left the Abbey quickly and made it to Heathrow in time to catch a 3:45 pm flight. According to the Telegraph, Harry did not go straight to the Heathrow though – their sources claim that Harry made a brief stop at Buckingham Palace in between the Abbey and Heathrow, but that he didn’t spend any time with his family. The Telegraph reports: “It is understood that the visit was for logistical reasons. It allowed him to take a moment out of the public gaze following the two-hour Abbey service. He did not join the Royal family for official Coronation portraits and is not known to have seen or spoken to his relatives.” Something tells me we’ll find out later that he did have a reason to stop at the Palace. Meanwhile, Katie Nicholl’s royal sources claim that… the family doesn’t even know why Harry came. Because his father invited him?

It was the briefest of appearances but after much deliberation and creating a headache for organizers over whether he would attend, Prince Harry flew to Britain for King Charles’s coronation after all. On Monday, the Telegraph reported that Harry even visited Buckingham Palace during his time in London, “slipping in and out of the monarchy’s headquarters briefly without seeing the royal family.” However, there was no meeting with his father, and he didn’t exchange a single word with his brother Prince William during the fleeting trip.

According to one family friend, Harry’s 28 hours in the country has left his family “wondering why Harry bothered to come at all.”

“One makes one’s choices,” said a source close to the royal family. “To be honest there wasn’t much talk of Harry at all. The focus was very much on the occasion.”

His fleeting visit has left the family underwhelmed, according to the family friend, and his father “saddened.”

“Beatrice and Eugenie are the only ones who really speak to Harry. He’s actually very close to Eugenie and Jack, but there’s very little if any contact with the rest of his family who are still reeling from what he has said and done,” according to the source.

Harry was literally left out in the cold and was seen waiting on the pavement outside the Abbey while he waited for his official car to take him to the palace. “All the other royals and VIPs were taken off in official cars, but Harry was left on his own, waiting for his car. It was actually really sad to see him all by himself,’ an eye-witness told Vanity Fair.

[From Vanity Fair]

“To be honest there wasn’t much talk of Harry at all” except for this VF article and the five hundred articles in the Express, the three hundred articles in the Mail, the dozens of post-Chubbly analysis pieces in the Telegraph all focused on Harry, and the entire coronation broadcast moving off King Charles to cover Harry’s arrival at the Abbey, as well as British and American commentators focusing on Harry’s presence at the Abbey. Other than all of that wall-to-wall hysteria and obsession, sure, there wasn’t much talk of Harry.

It’s so particularly British, this gaslighting bullsh-t of “why did he even come” and “the king is so sad that Harry didn’t stick around, even though the king didn’t invite Harry to take part in anything other than the crowning.” Charles got exactly what he wanted: his younger son at the Abbey, Meghan and the kids staying in Montecito, whites-only coronation portraits and an all-white balcony. The king also wanted to pull focus from his mixed-race grandson’s birthday, don’t forget that.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.