First lady Jill Biden will lead the American delegation at King Charles III’s coronation next month while President Biden will remain stateside, the White House confirmed Tuesday.
The 80-year-old commander-in-chief spoke with the British monarch by phone to let him know the first lady “looks forward to attending on behalf of the United States,” the administration said in a statement.
Charles, 74, will be formally crowned king of Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Commonwealth realms at Westminster Abbey on May 6, almost exactly seven months after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
First Lady Jill Biden will attend the coronation next month, while President Joe Biden will not. APBiden’s decision not to attend the coronation is not unprecedented.
Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower did not travel to Elizabeth’s crowning in June 1953, instead sending a delegation that included former Secretary of State George Marshall; Gen. Omar Bradley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and then-California Gov. Earl Warren.
The president is already scheduled to visit Belfast and Dublin later this month to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement that ended much of the decades-long violence between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.
The Bidens did travel to London together to attend Elizabeth II’s state funeral, which was held 11 days after her death on Sept. 8 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland at the age of 96.
King Charles III with be formally crowned on May 6. Hugo Burnand/Buckingham Palace via Getty ImagesMore than 2,000 guests, including many heads of state, are expected to be invited by the British government to attend the coronation.
