Inside the ‘Awkward Scene’ When Kate Middleton and Prince William Arrived Late to King Charles’ Coronation

In his book The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy, royal biographer Robert Hardman writes that King Charles and Queen Camilla inadvertently arrived early for their crowning at Westminster Abbey. The royal couple reportedly got there before pages like Prince George — and there was another snag in the schedule.

Unbeknown to them, the Prince and Princess of Wales and their two younger children are running a minute and a half late. The Waleses are supposed to be there eight minutes ahead of the King and Queen. Yet they will now arrive after them,” Hardman writes in The Making of a King, published in January.

“Although the congregation inside the abbey don’t know it, there is an awkward scene unfolding outside as the King and Queen are in their coach. It is an added layer of stress that the couple really do not want or need on a day like this,” he writes. Recapping a lipreader’s translation of what King Charles said footage caught on a Sky News camera, Hardman writes that the monarch said, ” ’We can never be on time…There’s always something…This is boring.’ ”