The British monarchy has been a mess since King Charles took the throne. Here's a timeline of the royal drama.

When Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8, 2022, her eldest son, Charles, automatically ascended the throne.

The Accession Council officially proclaimed him monarch at a traditional ceremony in London on September 10. But for Charles, the main event since he became monarch is his coronation, which will be held at Westminster Abbey on May 6.

In the months between Charles' accession and his coronation, the royal family has faced allegations of racism, anti-monarchy protesters, and rumors surrounding the rift between the king and Prince Harry following the release of the Duke of Sussex's memoir, "Spare."

Charles and Camilla, Queen Consort, toured the UK and accepted condolences from members of the public mourning Queen Elizabeth II just a few days after she died.

At a signing ceremony at Northern Ireland's Royal Hillsborough Castle and Gardens on September 13, footage of Charles complaining over a leaky pen was shared online.

After signing a book with the wrong date, Charles handed the pen he was using to Camilla, saying: "Oh god, I hate this."

"Oh look, it's going everywhere," she responded.

"I can't bear this bloody thing!" Charles said. "What they do, every stinking time." 

Camilla then signed the book with a new pen because Charles left the room.

The video quickly went viral and made headlines across the world. While some social-media users seemed surprised at the monarch's outburst, others expressed compassion for him, noting that the incident took place not long after his mother's death.

Also on September 13, Harry and Meghan Markle were with Charles at Buckingham Palace as they waited for the Queen's coffin to arrive from Edinburgh, where the public could pay their respects. 

Jeremy Selwyn, a photographer, captured Charles, Harry, and Meghan from outside the palace as they attended a private family event, which Prince William and Kate Middleton also attended, Yahoo reported.

It marked the first time Charles and Harry had been photographed together since Prince Philip's funeral in April 2021. Previously, Harry spoke about his and his father's fractured relationship in his interview with Oprah Winfrey back in March 2021, saying that Charles stopped taking his phone calls shortly before Harry announced he was stepping back from royal duties in January 2020.

Harry joined William and the Queen's other six grandchildren for a vigil around her casket on September 17 ahead of the funeral service on September 19.

Originally, Harry was supposed to wear a morning suit to the vigil, as only working members of the royal family were permitted to wear military attire. The decision sparked backlash online because many people pointed out that Harry spent a decade in the British Army and served two tours of Afghanistan.

Rebecca English, the Daily Mail's royal editor, later reported that the palace had reversed its decision at King Charles' request. Harry and William both wore military uniforms at the vigil; but, as Insider previously reported, Harry's was noticeably missing the Queen's initials. 

The Sunday Times reported at the time that Harry was "devastated" to see that the "ER" initials — which stand for "Elizabeth Regina," or Queen Elizabeth in Latin — had been removed from the shoulder of the uniform. According to the same Sunday Times report, an unnamed friend of Harry's said he was "heartbroken" over the missing initials, and almost didn't wear it out of "humiliation," adding that the decision seemed to be "intentional."

Harry announced details about his memoir on October 27, including the title and cover art. 

The title, "Spare," references Harry's former position growing up as a spare heir to the British throne. Harry's brother, William, is the eldest son of King Charles and the first in line to be king.

Like many royal siblings born to a monarch or future monarch, the two were referred to as "heir and the spare" during their upbringing, as Harry wrote in his memoir.

Season five of Netflix's historical-drama series "The Crown" portrayed several famous events that happened to the royal family in the 1990s, including the end of Charles and Princess Diana's relationship and Diana's iconic "revenge dress."

Though the show is fictional, it was based on true events and reignited the interest surrounding Charles and Camilla's controversial affair. 

Charles and Camilla narrowly missed getting egged by protesters during a public walkabout in York, England, on November 9.

The incident, which videos and photos shared online showed, involved a 23-year-old man who threw eggs at the couple before police arrested him under suspicion of a public-order offense, Insider previously reported. The eggs didn't actually hit the couple, as the footage shows. 

People in the crowd screamed "shame on you" at the protester and "God save the king" in support of Charles, English wrote on Twitter.

A month later, on December 6, a similar incident reportedly occurred during the king's visit to Luton. As the Associated Press reported at the time, Bedfordshire police arrested a man on suspicion of assault after he apparently threw an egg in Charles' direction.

While the king and queen consort have enjoyed fanfare from royal admirers at other engagements, these incidents could reflect young people's dissatisfaction with the monarchy; recent polls indicate the royals are not as popular as they have been in the past. 

Just under 40% of responding UK citizens between the ages of 18 and 24 would prefer an elected head of state rather than a monarch, an April 2023 YouGov poll of 4,592 adults for the BBC showed.

While the overall results showed support for the monarchy, with 58% of all people polled preferring the institution to an elected head of state, the support among Gen Z remained significantly lower, with just 32% of responding people aged between 18 and 24 saying they support the monarchy, the YouGov poll showed.

A palace staff member, later identified as Susan Hussey, a lady of the household, resigned from her honorary role on November 30 after a guest alleged that she made racist comments toward a visitor at Buckingham Palace.

Ngozi Fulani, the founder of the charity Sistah Space, wrote on Twitter that she had been asked "where she really came from" by a staff member named "Lady S" at a reception that Camilla, Queen Consort, hosted. 

In an interview with Insider on December 1, Fulani said the experience made her "so uncomfortable" and that she felt violated.

At the time, a palace spokesperson said that "unacceptable and deeply regrettable comments have been made" and that the staff member "would like to express her profound apologies for the hurt caused" and had resigned.

Later in December, the palace issued a press release stating that Hussey and Fulani had met in person to discuss the incident, and a photo of the pair smiling together was also released. Hussey apologized to Fulani during the meeting and Fulani accepted the apology, according to the palace.

As of May 2023, it's unclear whether the royals had reinstated Hussey in her honorary role. 

The first batch of episodes from "Harry & Meghan," an intimate docuseries that detailed the couple's love story, aired on December 8 on Netflix. The second half of the six-episode series dropped a week later. 

During the series, the couple shared several new claims regarding their experiences with the royal family and touched on speculations they'd never publicly addressed before. Some of these surprising moments included Harry saying that his brother screamed at him at a royal-family crisis meeting in 2020, calling the experience "terrifying," and Meghan saying she discovered British people weren't "huggers" after she met Prince William and Kate Middleton for the first time. 

Another bombshell moment was Harry's claim that Kensington Palace was "happy to lie to protect" William when it put Harry's name on a joint statement following a report that William had bullied him and Meghan — a statement Harry said he wasn't aware of. Harry added that the palace was "never willing to tell the truth to protect us," referring to himself and Meghan.

On December 14, 2022, Camilla hosted a glamorous Christmas lunch that several high-profile British celebrities attended, The Independent reported. Piers Morgan and Jeremy Clarkson — two longtime outspoken critics of Meghan — were among those on the guest list, the publication reported. 

The controversy surrounding the event ensued in the days after when British tabloid The Sun published a now-deleted online column Clarkson wrote that centered on his hatred of the Duchess of Sussex. As Insider previously reported, Clarkson wrote that he hated Meghan on a "cellular level."

"At night, I'm unable to sleep as I lie there, grinding my teeth and dreaming of the day when she is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant, 'Shame!' and throw lumps of excrement at her," Clarkson wrote.

The column received a wave of backlash, leading both Clarkson and The Sun to issue apologies. Buckingham Palace did not respond to Insider's request for comment at the time.

In the third episode of "Harry & Meghan," the Duchess of Sussex said it was against royal protocol to wear the same color as more senior members of the monarchy. 

However, just a week after the episode aired, the royal family appeared to send a subtle message by wearing similarly-colored clothing at a holiday event. Many members of the royal family, including Kate, Princess Charlotte, Zara Philips, and Pippa Middleton all arrived in maroon. 

Camilla and Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, wore coordinating ensembles as well. The Queen Consort arrived in a long, white jacket, which looked similar to Sophie's off-white coat. 

As Insider previously reported, in episode three of the Netflix series, Meghan said she intentionally wore neutral tones when she was living in the UK to avoid wearing the same color as other royals.

"To my understanding, you can't ever wear the same color as Her Majesty, if there's a group event," she said. "But then you also should never be wearing the same color as one of the other more senior members of the family."

Following his Netflix docuseries, Harry's memoir hit bookstores on January 10. The book cast even more of a light on the rift between him, William, and his father, Charles, and how long their relationship had been strained. 

Regarding Charles, Harry claimed in his memoir that he and William "pleaded" with their father not to marry Camilla, that Charles and Camilla made William feel "trapped and unfairly persecuted," and that William had previously confronted Charles about a member of their father's staff planting negative stories in the press. 

But Harry was more revealing about his relationship with William. In "Spare," Harry recounted a 2019 fight between himself and William in which he alleged William attacked him. The confrontation started after William started complaining about Meghan, calling her "abrasive," "rude," and "difficult," Harry wrote. 

Harry also wrote that William and Kate encouraged him to wear a Nazi uniform to a 2005 Halloween party, which he later called one of the biggest mistakes of his life. And he wrote that Meghan and Kate fell out after his wife told his sister-in-law she had "baby brain" during a confrontation prior to their 2018 wedding. 

Kensington Palace did not respond to Insider's request for comment on these claims at the time.

In 2019, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex moved from a property on the grounds of Kensington Palace into Frogmore Cottage at Windsor Castle shortly before the birth of their son, Archie.

Since moving to the US in 2020, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have returned several times — including in June 2022, when they attended Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee celebrations — and stayed at the cottage during their visits to the UK.

However, on March 2, 2023, a representative for the couple confirmed to Insider that they'd been asked to vacate the property, following a report by Omid Scobie, Yahoo's royal executive editor.

Scobie reported that the couple would need to vacate the cottage by early summer. Charles made the decision to evict Harry and Meghan shortly after his son released his memoir in January, Scobie reported, though it's not clear whether the memoir played a part in the decision. 

According to Scobie, Charles had offered the cottage to Prince Andrew, who Queen Elizabeth had stripped of his military titles and royal patronages in January 2022, months after Virginia Giuffre filed a lawsuit against him accusing him of sexual assault. Andrew has repeatedly denied Giuffre's allegations and settled Giuffre's lawsuit against him in March 2022 for around $16 million, as The Telegraph reported at the time.

Scobie reported that the king had recently informed Andrew he needed to move out of his home at the Royal Lodge in Windsor and into a smaller home.

Charles' move to evict Harry and Meghan was part of his plan to eradicate subsidized rent for royals, including William and Kate, The Evening Standard reported at the time.

In a statement to Insider on March 8, a spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex confirmed "that Princess Lilibet Diana was christened on Friday, March 3, by the Archbishop of Los Angeles, the Rev. John Taylor." No members of the royal family were present at the ceremony despite receiving invitations, People reported at the time.

The statement marked the first time that Lilibet had been publicly referred to as a princess. After the christening, Buckingham Palace finally updated its website to reflect the titles Harry and Meghan's children inherited when Charles became king.

On March 9, the line of succession on the royal website was updated to reflect the official titles of the young royals. Archie, who turns 4 on May 6 — the same day as the king's coronation — and Lilibet, 1, went from being referred to as "Master" and "Miss" to "Prince" and "Princess," respectively.

Following Lilibet's christening, a representative for Harry and Meghan confirmed to the BBC that they had been invited to the coronation. 

However, at the time, the spokesperson added that the Sussexes would not disclose whether they would attend.

The decision likely was a complicated one for both Harry and Meghan. Insider's Samantha Grindell previously spoke to experts including Eric Schiffer, the chair of Reputation Management Consultants, and Kristen Meinzer, a royal watcher, who said attendance would be beneficial — both personally and professionally — for Harry and Meghan. 

Putting an end to months of speculation, the palace confirmed in a statement to Insider on April 12 that only Harry would go to the coronation — without Meghan or their children.

The statement did not elaborate on why Meghan wouldn't be accompanying Harry to the UK, but Kristen Meinzer, a royal expert, told Insider she believed it was a "brilliant" strategy, given that the coronation takes place the same day as Archie's fourth birthday. 

"I think the decision for Harry to go, and for Meghan to stay home with the children on Archie's birthday is a brilliant way to split the difference," Meinzer said. The Sussexes choosing to divide familial and royal responsibilities reflects how they work as a united couple when faced with tough choices, according to Meinzer.

"I've always maintained that the Sussexes must also do what's best for their own little family and their own mental health," she added. "It sounds like that's what they'll be doing."

This story is part of "Charles in Charge," our package of stories all about King Charles' coronation. Read the rest here.