Getty Images/Jeremy Selwyn-WPA Pool
KEY POINTS
- Sarah Ferguson will be seated in the special, VIP section at the coronation concert on May 7
- The concert will be held on the East Lawn of Windsor Castle
- The star-studded concert will feature performers Lionel Richie, Katy Perry and Take That
Sarah Ferguson will still be part of King Charles III’s coronation celebration.
Ferguson did not get an invitation to King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla’s May 6 crowning ceremony at Westminster Abbey in London. But while she will miss out on the historic event, the Duchess of York was invited to the coronation concert on May 7 as part of the “VIP” royal group, Us Weekly and People reported.
Ferguson will be seated in the special, VIP section of the 20,000-strong crowd.
The star-studded concert will be held on the East Lawn of Windsor Castle, and the lineup includes Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, and the British band Take That.
The BBC is staging the celebration, which will also include performances by Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli, Welsh bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel and Freya Ridings.
The nature of the event is more casual than the formal, state occasion of the ceremony that will see King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla crowned.
Earlier this month, Ferguson said she wasn’t expecting an invitation to the coronation because she’s no longer part of the royal family following her divorce from the King’s brother, Prince Andrew.
“I personally will be having a little tearoom and coronation chicken sandwich and putting out the bunting, that’s what I’m going to be doing. Because that would make me very happy,” she said on ITV’s “Loose Women” on April 5 about how she will spend coronation day. “I also love to watch it on the telly because you hear a lot on the telly. The commentators are always good. And then all the family come back.”
“I don’t expect — you can’t have it both ways. You can’t be divorced and then say, ‘I want this.’ You’re in or you’re out,” the duchess added.
Meanwhile, former BBC journalist and investigative reporter Tom Bower recently criticized King Charles’ strategy for his coronation, saying he felt that the monarch was “losing sight of the plot.”
“He is losing sight of the coronation, [which] is all about the glory of the monarchy and of Britain, and he’s reducing it to the squabbles in his family,” the “Revenge” author told host Dan Wootton on GB News.
Bower disapproved of the King’s decision to have his wife crowned alongside him and to extend an olive branch to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle by including them in his official coronation souvenir program.
“He’s lost sight of what actually this ceremony and what his reign is meant to embrace. He’s not establishing himself as the key to a future era. He’s now all just worried about whether people love Camilla and what will they think about Harry and the olive branch. I mean, this is just nonsense,” Bower claimed.
