Janine Henni is a Royals Staff Writer for PEOPLE Digital, covering modern monarchies and the world's most famous families. Like Queen Elizabeth, she loves horses and a great tiara moment.
Prince Harry‘s birthday will be somber this year.
The Duke of Sussex turns 38 Thursday, just one week after the death of his grandmother Queen Elizabeth. He and wife Meghan Markle are in the U.K. ahead of the funeral on Monday.
This is the second time in Harry’s life that his birthday has fallen near the funeral of a beloved family member. His mother, Princess Diana, died on August 31, 1997, and her funeral took place one week later — nine days before Harry’s 13th birthday.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrived in the U.K. from their California home for a series of charity visits earlier this month, and the prince was able to travel to Balmoral Castle on the day the monarch died at age 96.
The couple remained in the U.K. ahead of the Queen’s state funeral, which will be held at Westminster Abbey on Monday, September 19. Harry and Meghan, 41, stepped out alongside the royal family a few times in the past week, starting with a surprise walkabout with Prince William and Kate Middleton outside Windsor Castle on Saturday.
Dressed in black, the foursome greeted well-wishers who came to pay respects to the late monarch and toured the deluge of tributes.
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According to Kensington Palace, William invited Harry and Meghan to join him and Kate at the Windsor gates, while another source added that security didn't expect both couples at the walkabout. William, 40, thought the moment "was an important show of unity at an incredibly difficult time for the family," a royal source told PEOPLE.
On Tuesday night, Harry and Meghan joined King Charles III, Queen Camilla, the new Prince and Princess of Wales and other family members to receive Queen Elizabeth‘s coffin as it arrived at Buckingham Palace from Scotland, where she died. The family had a private evening after the coffin reached the palace, poignantly on English soil for the first time.
Stepping out again on Wednesday afternoon, Prince Harry participated in the coffin’s ceremonial procession from Buckingham Palace, where the Queen lived in London for 70 years, to the Palace of Westminster, the complex where her funeral will commence. While Prince Harry poignantly walked beside his brother, Meghan rode in a car with Sophie, Countess of Wessex to a short service.
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Inside Westminster Hall, where the Queen’s coffin will lie in state for the next five days, Harry and Meghan were visibly emotional during the short service lead by the Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Following a blessing from the clerical head of the Church of England and a quiet moment of reflection, the couple walked out of the medieval hall holding hands.
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