The White House said this week that first lady Jill Biden will attend King Charles III’s coronation “on behalf of the United States,” indicating that the president will not attend.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that President Joe Biden has accepted an invitation to make a state visit to the U.K. at a later date. She declined to say when that might happen.
“They have a very good relationship,” she said. “There are many things that they both care about — key shared values, key shared issues that they want to continue to discuss, like climate change. And that conversation will continue. And there will be a visit in the near future.”
Jean-Pierre said Biden and Charles had a 30-minute conversation earlier this week.
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“(Biden) talked about how he enjoyed visiting the Queen back in 2021 — he and the First Lady at Windsor. And he hoped to visit again soon,” she said.
Charles and Queen Consort Camilla are expected to be crowned on May 6, some eight months following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. It marks the first coronation of a British monarch in nearly 70 years.
Jill Biden won’t be the first first lady to ever attend a British coronation. Although it was eight years before President John F. Kennedy became president, Jacqueline Bouvier (later Kennedy) attended Elizabeth’s coronation as a journalist for the Washington Times-Herald.
The Royal Family announced earlier this week that 2,000 invitations had been sent.
