Harry and Meghan’s absence leaves glaring hole in the royal family

The absence of the Sussexes shows how "thin" the royal family has become. Photo / AP

On Friday night, the Princess of Wales slept in a London hospital bed, days into her recovery from abdominal surgery that will see her laid up for weeks. The King, at Sandringham, was awaiting corrective surgery of his own, no doubt suffering the inevitable worry that such diagnosis brings.

In Beverly Hills, the Duke of Sussex took to the stage to accept an award for being a “Legend of Aviation”.

Joining the ranks of his fellow “legends” – among them John Travolta, Harrison Ford, Elon Musk, Buzz Aldrin and Tom Cruise – he wore a black tie and a new ribbon around his neck for the glitzy showbiz ceremony, seen afterwards in Instagram photos with a minor German prince. The Duchess, who had been planning to go, stayed at home in Montecito.

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The gulf between the two families has never seemed wider.

On one side of the Atlantic, a Royal family which could have done with a bit of luck after a rough few years, but has instead seen three of its key members put out of action. On the other, the freedom-seeking Sussexes seemingly living their best lives.

The comparison is stark and, to royal watchers, irresistible. How different it could all have been.

A few short years ago, the King had two sons in Britain ready and able to pick up the slack. While the world now knows Harry perceived them as permanently “heir and spare”, royal watchers considered them brothers-in-arms.

In this parallel universe, this would have been the moment for Prince Harry to do what he did best: getting stuck into work, charming the public, raising the spirits.

Perhaps he would be sending his brother and sister-in-law WhatsApp messages to cheer them up; perhaps his children would be playing with his nephews and niece to keep them busy.

After all, he once described Kate Middleton as the “sister I’d never had and always wanted”.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have gone with no wish to come back. Photo / Getty Images

This is the stuff of pure fantasy at this point.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have gone with no wish to come back. They have expressed no regret about their decision to pursue financial freedom in California. The idea of playing an eternal supporting role in the Royal family was one of their frustrations.

“I was the shadow, the support, the Plan B,” Harry wrote in his memoir, Spare, with unconcealed bitterness. “I was brought into the world in case something happened to Willy. I was summoned to provide backup, distraction, diversion and, if necessary, a spare part. Kidney, perhaps.”

It barely needs to be repeated that those rooting for Princes William and Harry to reconcile any time soon will once again be sorely disappointed.

It is not even known whether the Sussexes were made aware of the King’s condition before the public, let alone the Princess’.

The King’s team reportedly made efforts to tell the wider family the news before issuing a press release, but it was made public at 7.25am California time.

Prince William has guarded his family’s privacy fiercely and currently has no contact with his brother.

Both are said in a new book about Charles III to have been wary of Harry using family information for his own ends, and wouldn’t risk him “taking notes for his forthcoming book” after the death of Elizabeth II.

It is not known whether the Sussexes were made aware of the King’s condition before the public. Photo / AP

Lack of practical support

Now, with the King preparing for an imminent operation and Prince William at his wife’s bedside as she heals from surgery to her abdomen, the lack of practical Royal support around them is palpable.

The King’s siblings, Princess Anne and Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, are already working with packed diaries. The generation above, the late Queen’s cousins, can no longer be expected to pick up the slack. The York sisters are not working royals; the Tindalls have no desire to be.

The departure of the Sussexes has left a hole which has now been mercilessly exposed.

As ever, the Princess Royal said it best. The “slimmed-down” monarchy, she ruled, “doesn’t sound like a good idea from where I’m standing.

“I think that ‘slimmed down’ was said in a day when there were a few more people to make that seem like a justifiable comment,” she has said, of her brother’s one-time policy for his reign.

“I’m not quite sure what else we can do.”

For Ingrid Seward, whose new book about the late Queen and King Charles, My Mother and I, is out next month, this week has highlighted the “vulnerability of those in the top job.

“This is not a constitutional crisis, far from it,” said Seward, who is editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine. “But it does leave the underbelly of the Royal family somewhat exposed.

“Before the Duke and Duchess of Sussex relinquished their royal duties, they could have stepped up providing the youth and glamour the Prince and Princess of Wales have lent to royal engagements.

“In a world obsessed with youth and beauty, the Royal family have relied on William and Catherine to lend a bit of royal stardust to events.

“Without the Sussexes — regardless of their unpopularity — it exposes the vulnerability of those in the top job.”

Phil Dampier, veteran royal reporter, points out that another pair of hands in the Firm would take the pressure off the King and Prince of Wales, who have much work behind the scenes as each gets to grips with new roles including the running of the Duchy of Cornwall.

“The late Queen was very much hoping Harry and Meghan would be her biggest ambassador in the Commonwealth, that they would be able to take up a lot of the overseas visits,” he said. “They would have gone down a storm everywhere from Canada to New Zealand and the Caribbean countries.

“They would have done a fantastic job and it would have taken a lot of pressure off William and Kate, who wouldn’t have to do all the heavy lifting, and Charles and Camilla who are still having to take these long haul flights at the ages of 75 and 76.

“Harry and Meghan could have taken up a lot of that slack, and now that’s gone.”

The past week, he said, has “highlighted how thin on the ground” the Royal family now are.

There was plenty of opportunity for all of the ‘Fab Four’ to have starring roles. Photo / AP

“I don’t understand why the Sussexes would have felt they were second best [to the Waleses],” he added. “There was plenty of opportunity for all of the ‘Fab Four’ to have starring roles, they didn’t need to be competing.”

For the palace, things remain under control. The King will carry on working, his heir will be back to the day job once the Princess is safely home and healing.

They fervently hope to be out of the rolling news cycle.

“They just want to get on with the job,” palace sources have repeated.

Flying, Prince Harry told his Hollywood aviation friends, helped him to “feel free”. There is a world in which he could hop on a plane to see his father and sister-in-law in a time of need.

No one is holding their breath.