President Donald Trump only met Queen Elizabeth II on Friday, in part because the next two heirs to the throne, Prince Charles and his son Prince William, had no desire to spend time with him, according to The Sunday Times.
A "well-placed" source told the outlet that “this business of Prince Charles and Prince William not being there for the Trump visit was a snub. They simply refused to attend. It’s a very, very unusual thing for the Queen to be there on her own. Usually she is accompanied by somebody. Prince Charles has been substituting for Philip a lot recently.”
The Queen’s husband Prince Philip, who’s retired, also didn’t have a strong desire to take part. “He goes to what he wants to go to, and if he had wanted to be there he could have been," the source continued.
Even Elizabeth wasn’t super keen on spending a lot of time with Trump. The visit was “kept to the bare minimum. The Queen will do her duty, but among the wider family, they were not as enthusiastic as they were when Obama came over.”
But two other sources, one affiliated with Buckingham Palace and one with the Prime Minister on Downing Street, emphasized this was not an official state visit, where matters would have been different. “This was always going to be just the Queen," the Downing Street source said.
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she's not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.
