The procession and state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. Video / NZ Herald
OPINION:
Here's one particularly random thing that I have been wondering this week: What have they done with the Queen's mobile phone?
I know, I know, the image of the 96-year-old's fingers drafting across the screen of an iPhone 8 is hard to quite square away but, reportedly, Her Majesty did indeed have a smartphone of some variety.
(Although earlier this year she was photographed conducting her weekly audience with then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson using the sort of rotary phone that went out of fashion when Richard Nixon was still the hot new thing in Washington).
So, was it via her mobile or via, say, that chunky landline, that Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, used to call his grandmother in the early days post-Megxit?
Thanks to Richard Kay, writing in the Daily Mail, we now know that even after Harry and wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, hot-footed it off for greener pastures and bank accounts in 2020, he stayed in touch with Her Majesty … at least for a while.
Kay writes: "The Queen's staff have told me how, in the early days of Harry's exile in America, the Queen would excitedly take his phone calls. Over time this changed and she later became perplexed by Harry's complaints."
It's a fascinating and poignant insight into the Duke's evolving relationship with his family, but as the UK slowly returns to normal after the official mourning period has ended and the dust settles on the Sussexes' most consequential trip to the UK since their exit, the question is, where do things stand for the couple and his family?
Have the unexpected and deeply emotional events of the last 12 days redrawn the personal map here? Has the family's sadness and loss catalysed any smidgen of movement when it came to the Great Sussex-Windsor Divide?
King Charles III, Camilla, the Queen Consort, Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex watch as the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II is placed into the hearse. Photo / AP
Sadly, for any optimists out there, the events of this week have put grim paid to that.
Take the lack of a repeat of the sort of scene we saw in April 2021 after the funeral of Prince Philip when Princes William and Harry staged their own PR pas a deux, largely it appeared, for the cameras.
Still, they managed to make small talk as they made their way back up the hill from St George's Chapel to Windsor Castle without descending into hair pulling and managed to not scowl in one another's company.
No matter how genuine or not the moment might have been, the men clearly cared enough to put on a show.
Less than 18 months later, for their grandmother's funeral, the lack of any sort of repeat performance would seem to reflect the extent of the disintegration of the brothers' once tight bond.
The same holds for Kate and Meghan who, as far as I saw, did not exchange one single, solitary word to one another.
For both the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's images taken during the funeral would seem to show them often removed from the rest of the Windsors, standing off to the side or towards the back. You don't need to be one of the retinue of body language 'experts' who pop up at times like this to decipher how icicle-like things would seem to be.
With the Sussexes reportedly set to return to California on Wednesday, having been unexpectedly separated from their young children Archie, 3, and Lilibet, 1, for more than two weeks, what is clear is that even something so sudden and tragic as Her Majesty's death has not been enough to breach the divide that now exists between the couple and the House of Windsor.
Having the Duke and Duchess living back in their UK home Frogmore Cottage, which is only about 120 metres away from the Waleses' Adelaide Cottage, has sadly not magically triggered any sort of détente.
Prince William, Kate, Princess of Wales, Prince Harry, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Prince George and Princess Charlotte at the Westminster Abbey on the day of Queen Elizabeth II funeral. Photo / AP
The Telegraph's Camilla Tominey has reported that, behind-the-scenes, there has been "little interaction" between the Sussexes and his family, which hardly comes as any sort of surprise.
While there have been moments that might suggest a certain attempt at outreach, such as Harry and Meghan being included in a walkabout at Windsor with William and wife Kate, Princess of Wales, and the elder Prince removing the aiguillettes (the gold braid) from his uniform in what might have an attempt to pacify a "devastated" Harry who had his removed by the Palace, no ground seems to have been gained.
Sure, there is plenty of finger-pointing that can be directed at the loose-lipped Sussexes who have willingly and repeatedly blitzed the Palace in the press, The Firm deserves to come in for equal criticism here too because Buckingham Palace has made a hash of having the duo back on home soil.
The last 12 days have seen the royal house cock one thing up after another.
There was the confusion that reigned about whether Harry could or could not wear a uniform; his being left to make his own way to Scotland and how late he was told that his grandmother had passed away; and the embarrassing muddle of that State reception held on Sunday at the Palace.
On this last point, Tominey offers fascinating insight. According to her, on the previous Sunday, Harry and Meghan received an invitation to that State event, which would see 1000 leaders gather at the Palace the day before the funeral.
(They had erroneously been left on the guest list for the event because it had reportedly been drawn up when they were still working members of the royal family).
It was not until Thursday, four days after getting their invite, that questions were asked about why the Sussexes might be going given that these days they have the official standing of Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, i.e. none.
Prince Harry, and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, follow the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II as it is carried out of Westminster Abbey during her funeral. Photo / AP
"Such is the breakdown in communication between the Sussexes' people and the palace that they couldn't get a firm answer on whether they were in or out until Friday evening, when it emerged they had been invited 'in error'," Tominey writes.
However, the Montecito Two have not exactly helped the situation either.
Tina Brown, who was mates with Diana, Princess of Wales, and is the author of the recent Palace Papers, said during a TV interview yesterday that "there can be no trust" unless Harry "gives up his book and the tell-all documentaries and interviews".
"If Harry doesn't want to bin the book then I can't see a way forward," she said.
So much has happened it could be easy to forget too that it was only less than a month ago that Meghan was busy self-aggrandising telling the world via The Cut that "just by existing, we were upsetting the dynamic of the hierarchy" and issuing the ominous sounding line, "I've never had to sign anything that restricts me from talking."
The biggest takeaway today, after flags slowly return to full mast, is that sort of reconciliation now looks like it only lives firmly in the realm of fan-fiction.
With the Palace having lumped Harry and Meghan in the second row during Monday's service at Westminster Abbey and with no indication that Harry might shelve his memoir, no one seems willing to give an inch.
On balance, if possible, the events that followed the passing of the Queen might have just made the divides and the hurts that much more entrenched.
Her Majesty, famously not a woman given to public displays of emotion, twice – TWICE – referred to Harry and Meghan as "much-loved members" of the royal family in official Palace statements, a highly telling gesture about how deeply she cared about her grandson and his wife.
Somehow, somewhere that lesson, of family ties binding no matter what, has been forgotten over the last 12 days. With the Queen's death, we have not only lost a remarkable woman but it is increasingly looking like any chance that there might ever be any sort of happily-ever-after for the Sussexes and the royal family.
