Peter Phillips, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Zara Tindall leave after the National Service of Thanksgiving on June 3, 2022 in London. Photo / Getty Images
OPINION:
Of all the photos of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Extraordinaire, of all the HRHs; the superstars like Sir Elton John and Ed Sheeran who took to the stage in front of Buckingham Palace for the $25 million concert; 71 jets and 200 horses, the absolute and utter best images are of the Windsors featuring a gaggle of cheeky kids who will likely never see a throne, ribbon-cutting ceremony or anything more than a middling tiara.
I'm talking about, of course, the heart-melting, quantifiably adorable images of Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte and their cousins Mia Tindall, Lena Tindall, Savannah Phillips and Isla Phillips eating sweets, dancing, and generally getting up to as much mischief as is possible while stuck in a plastic chair during the Jubilee Pageant.
Not only was this far more of the tots than the public normally sees but what really set the images apart was just how abundant and natural the joy, warmth and friendship was between the little ones.
The same used to be true of their parents' generation. Trawl photo archives (what? You don't?) and you will find plenty of shots of Peter Phillips and his sister Zara, Princes William and Harry and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie in various combinations at Balmoral and Sandringham, in exclusive ski resorts, being forcibly dragged to church, at horsey events and on board the family's official yacht Britannia. You know, normal royal kid stuff.
But a new report has laid out to what extent the once close bonds that connected the Queen's grandchildren have frayed with a fault line now dividing the younger members of the house of Windsor into two clear blocs.
At the heart of this sorry situation? Why, Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and the fact that they have spent more of their time since Megxit becoming professional malcontents.
Now, the disintegration of relations between Harry and his big brother Prince William, the follicularly-challenged future king, is the rift that has launched a 1,000,001 news stories (conservatively). Ditto the Ice Age-worthy froideur that reportedly exists between their wives, Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, and Meghan.
But Harry and William are only two of Her Majesty's six grown-up grand-sprogs.
I'm talking about Princess Anne's son and daughter, Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, and Prince Andrew's duo, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.
(Okay, Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex's daughter Lady Louise Windsor is now 18 and off to university later this year but given the most sensational news that has come out about her was Friday's revelation she has a $13.80-an-hour job in a garden centre, I think we can leave her off the list.)
This week it was announced that Harry and Meghan are set to return to UK soil in September for a round of charity outings and on Friday, the Daily Mail's Dan Wootton (who in 2020 broke the news that the Sussexes were planning on moving to North America thus setting into motion the events that lead to a hard Megxit) put out a column about the feeling on the ground in London.
With Harry's memoir reported to be hitting shelves in coming months (some reports have mooted October as the date), emotions are allegedly running high and according to Wootton, "many lower ranked royals are now in open revolt about the couple – and prepared to make their feelings clear behind palace walls".
"Marking that shift of tone, even Harry's former allies Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall are said to have been highly critical of the couple's stand-offish, haughty and arrogant attitude during their last visit for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee."
While it was Zara who was seen keeping Harry and Meghan company outside St Paul's after the service of thanksgiving during the Jubilee, Wootton's account follows a series of reports that hardly paint a rosy picture of the cousins' relations.
In June, The Express reported that Tindall had allegedly branded Harry a "b***ard" during a conversation with a fellow guest at a reception after the Platinum Jubilee Pageant.
The week after the Jubilee, Tindall revealed on his podcast that "a highlight" of the event had been "a good cousins' lunch" after Trooping the Colour. The Mail has reported that: "It is not known if [the Sussexes] were invited."
However, The Telegraph's Camilla Tominey later reported of that event that the royal cousins who were at the get-together "had planned to pay Harry and Meghan a visit at Frogmore later that day, but the 'celebratory' lunch went on much longer than planned."
"It was quite boozy and went on well into the early evening, by which point there was no time to get to Windsor to see the Sussexes," one insider told Tominey.
Interesting, no?
Then there are Beatrice and Eugenie who deserve some degree of credit for having managed to buck the example set by the perennially scandal-making parents and somehow the princesses have managed to avoid befriending child sex offenders, looming financial disasters, and legal scrapes over multimillion-dollar real estate deals.
Back in the days when Harry was busy making a name for himself in Chelsea's better pubs as a lager-quaffing dynamo, he and Eugenie used to pal around. (In fact, the Princess knew Meghan before the Suits star met the Prince, according to said former Suits star.)
That closeness has clearly endured, despite reports that "it did not go down well" with Eugenie after the Sussexes told his family that she was pregnant at the younger woman's 2018 wedding. Anyhoo, in February, Harry and Eugenie went to the Super Bowl a deux and then later the two couples were photographed by the paparazzi dining at an upscale restaurant in Santa Barbara.
It was likely no coincidence that during the Duke and Duchess' only outing during the Jubilee at which they appeared with the full brace of the royal family, they were wedged in row with Eugenie and her husband Jack.
(It was, of course, the second row, a detail that would seem to carry with it a universe of pointed, freighted meaning. So too that the Sussexes, no longer first string players, had to wait 20 minutes along with hundreds of other guests in the cathedral for the arrival of Charles, William and Kate. Ouch.)
Wootton reports that the York gals "have made an extra effort to stay close to Harry and Meghan" however, aside from the Top Lady herself, the Sussexes' "allies in the family are now non-existent".
What is so sad here is that it seems, based on Wootton's account, there are two distinct factions forming: The Cambridge/Tindall alliance, lots of horsey outings and Hunter gumboots, and the Sussex/York axis, two families united by how much face they have lost in recent years.
So, what sort of reception might the Sussexes get from the royal house when they pitch up in Britain?
Emotions sound, per Wootton, like they are running high and he writes that there is "fury, outrage and disgust at the highest levels of the monarchy" which "is only growing" over the Duke of Sussex's decision to release his forthcoming autobiography while his grandmother was in the midst of her current health crisis.
The book, he reports, has also caused his father Prince Charles "months of torment, as he tried to grieve the passing of his father Prince Philip".
The question that has not been answered about the Montecito Two's grand return to the UK charity beat is – why? Or at least why now?
While the couple has retained ties with a number of the British groups they have long supported, including Meghan's relationship with the Hubb Community Kitchen, run by survivors of the Grenfell disaster, and Harry's with WellChild, their efforts and attention on the humanitarian front have for years now been largely focused on the US.
One possible answer might lie in the "at home" docu series they are reportedly filming for Netflix and which Page Six has claimed streaming bosses want to hit screens later this year. The combination of Harry and Meghan and an extra adoring audience or two would surely warm any TV producer's heart.
Or the answer might lie in that, with pandemic restrictions blessedly a thing of the past, the Sussexes are finally ready to fulfil their initial promise "to balance our time between the United Kingdom and North America, continuing to honour our duty to the Queen, the Commonwealth, and our patronages".
What will be fascinating to see is if this renewed proximity will either help or inflame tensions and feelings between the Sussexes and the wider royal family.
Up until now, there has been nearly 5000km of Atlantic Ocean between the House of Windsor and the Californian insurrectionists however, with William and Kate set to hit the US' east coast later this year for the Earthshot Prize and Harry and Meghan returning to the land of warm beer and Nigel Farage, are all bets off?
One thing is for sure: Remember all those cute pics of the Tindall and Phillips girls and Louis and Charlotte? What is a shame is that in their midst was not the Sussexes' son Archie.
While most of the very youngest generation of the royal family are clearly set to grow up playing, gambolling, joshing, and joking all together, on the other side of the world, there are two of the Queen's great-grandchildren who may never know the joy of sneaking forbidden jelly snakes behind a Louis Quatorze sofa while hiding from their royal parents and a tsk-tsking footman.
- Daniela Elser is a royal expert and a writer with more than 15 years' experience working with a number of Australia's leading media titles.