Harry and Meghan’s very last official engagement alongside William and Kate took place at the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey in March 2020—the same event where their decision to step back as working royals was formally announced.
In interviews and in Harry’s memoir Spare, he recalls that the ceremony “not only looked cold but felt cold,” describing how he felt distant from the rest of the family. Body‑language experts later pointed out that William and Kate’s interactions with Harry and Meghan were notably stilted—Kate, in particular, offered Meghan almost no acknowledgment during the procession. After the service, palace staff rearranged seating so the Sussexes were invited to sit with the congregation rather than march with the other senior royals, which Harry and Meghan found deeply upsetting.
That single morning—in the midst of all the pomp and pageantry—laid bare the emotional and personal rift between the siblings. It was the final moment they all appeared together in their official capacities, and for Harry and Meghan it set the tone for what they called a “probation” period that soon led to their permanent departure from working royal duties.