On March 29, Westminster Abbey will host a service of thanksgiving to honor the life of Prince Philip, who died last April at age 99. COVID restrictions at the time limited his funeral to just 30 people. The service will allow people outside of Philip's family to honor and pay tribute to him, including representatives of the many charities and organizations that the Duke of Edinburgh worked with throughout his long life.

Prince Harry attended Philip's funeral but will not return to the UK for the upcoming memorial service, according to a spokesman for the Duke of Sussex. Also, according to PEOPLE magazine, Harry hopes to meet his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, "as soon as possible."

Harry's decision not to return to the U.K. appears to stem from the loss of taxpayer-funded police protection as he and wife Meghan Markle have stepped back as members of the royal family Marie Claire magazine previously reported that Harry "would not feel safe" back in his home country with the current security arrangements and reported.

This week it was also announced that Her Majesty the Queen will not attend the Commonwealth Day service scheduled for this coming Monday, also at Westminster Abbey, and will instead send her son, Prince Charles, as her representative.

"After discussing the arrangements with the Royal Family, the Queen has requested that the Prince of Wales attend the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey on Monday as Her Majesty's representative," Buckingham Palace said in a statement. The Queen will continue with other scheduled events over the coming week, including a direct audience," Buckingham Palace said in a statement.

Commonwealth Day ceremonies are usually a marker in the annual royal calendar, and the Queen is rarely absent. (The last time the Queen missed the event was in 2013, and 2021 was cancelled due to the pandemic.) PEOPLE reports that the Queen's absence is not COVID-related (she recently recovered from the virus after testing positive on February 20), but is more likely related to travel issues The report states. Her Majesty the Queen has been on a cane since October, missed the Remembrance Day ceremony in November due to a sprained back, and last month admitted to a military official visiting Windsor Castle, "As you can see, I cannot move."

Ingrid Sward, a royal expert and editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine, said Her Majesty is "determined" to attend a ceremony honoring her late husband Philip later this month and has chosen her schedule wisely so as not to miss that event.

"It would be a great blow to miss the Commonwealth Day service, but Her Majesty has recently faced the dilemma of having to choose her schedule wisely," Sward told the Mirror. 'The Duke of Edinburgh's Thanksgiving service at the end of this month will be very important to her, given that the funeral has been greatly curtailed. I think Her Majesty is much like her mother, who was reluctant to use a wheelchair, so in her old age she will project herself as much as possible on important occasions."

Prince William and Kate Middleton will also miss tomorrow's BAFTA, an event they attend annually. Since Prince William has been the president of the BAFTAs since 2010, it has become a recent royal tradition for the Cambridges to attend the BAFTAs (like the Academy Awards in the U.S.) According to PEOPLE magazine, the couple's inability to attend the awards ceremony is due to the fact that Kristen Stewart stars According to PEOPLE, the couple's inability to attend the ceremony was not due to their schedule, but because of a film, "Spencer," a biopic of Princess Diana, starring Kristen Stewart.