One particular thing happens whenever the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are enjoying a successful moment: after days of scandalized tantrums from the British press, someone will say something along the lines of “man, I really wish Prince Harry and Meghan were still working royals.” There’s rarely an acknowledgement of why they left in the first place, nor has there ever been an acknowledgement that the British establishment stripped the Sussexes of their security in early 2020 specifically to harm them to the point of divorce or capitulation. But whenever Meg and Harry are having a good moment, you can see the wistfulness set in among royal commentators. What could have been, had those royalists not been stenographers to an abusive, racist, white-supremacist institution. Well, the Sussexes’ successful Jordanian trip has the Telegraph’s Rowan Pelling in her feelings. She wrote an eye-rolly column: “Harry and Meghan’s Jordan trip shows what an asset they could have been.” Six years later and they’re still crying about a situation they facilitated and cheered for. An excerpt:

Watching the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on their World Health Organization (WHO) arranged visit to Jordan this week, I found myself humming an homage to John Lennon: “Imagine there’s no Megxit, it’s easy if you try.”

As I looked at photos of the duo visiting refugees and a rehabilitation centre for addicts, I couldn’t help but be reminded of when the pre-bust-up couple radiated down-to-earth sympathy and cheer with a generous dose of Hollywood glamour. I was certainly part of the cohort who thought the unstuffy, ex-Army prince and his gorgeous, bright starlet wife were a breath of fresh air in a sometimes over-staid family.

And now I’m feeling a swell of nostalgia for that honeymoon period with the Sussexes. In the wake of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s disgrace and the inevitable tarnishing effect on his poor daughters, members of the family who are divorced from the scandal have never felt so welcome. However regrettable the tell-all memoir and Oprah interview, it’s hard to deny that when Harry and Meghan do a walkabout and chat to people who have suffered, they have the public touch.

My husband, who has little truck with the royals in general, feels great sympathy for Harry and not just because they’re both from uptight, armed services families and lost their mothers when they were little boys. A shared sense of suffering is certainly part of it, but what he really loves is the Duke’s sense of fun. Around five times a year my spouse says apropos of nothing, “a great loss” – then I find he’s reading a story about the Sussexes.

My sons, who are part of the TikTok generation, also feel warmly towards them while not giving a hoot (or even recognising) any other Windsor. It often feels to me that, like Heineken, Harry refreshes the parts other Windsors cannot reach. He has his mother’s easy charm and playfulness, which William – burdened by the Crown, worries over his wife’s and father’s health, and the pressure of raising a family in the public eye – can find hard to manifest.

You sense that the Sussexes are also deeply aware of what’s been forfeited in their impetuous departure. Why else the regular, dutiful, quasi-royal visits to Colombia, Nigeria, Canada and Jordan – often in the cause of the Invictus Games – that studiously emulate the kind of trips they took when still part of the Firm?

Whatever your view on the matter, it’s ironic that at the very moment when even loyal souls question the Royal family’s remit, funding, veil of secrecy and questionable advisers, the couple who most appeal to republicans and outsiders exist in what appears to be permanent exile. If they were still part of the Firm, this would be the moment to deploy them. Indeed, a canny courtier would pack the duo off to visit women’s shelters and charities that combat sex trafficking as a riposte to the cynics who think the Windsors don’t give a damn. And an epic family reconciliation could knock Andrew off the front pages. You may call me a dreamer, but… could the Palace blue-sky thinkers find a path back for Harry and Meghan?

[From The Telegraph]

This is a delusion: that Harry & Meghan secretly want to “come back” and the only thing that’s stopping them is King Charles and Prince William’s refusal. While it’s true that Charles and William would throw the biggest tantrums ever if the Sussexes “came back” to live in the UK, what everyone is missing is that the Sussexes have repeatedly said that they live in America now. They’re not moving. Harry wants protection… to VISIT. To visit his father and do charity work. Harry wants to bring his children over so they can spend time with their grandfather. That’s it. All of these convoluted, idiotic commentary pieces about “bring back the Sussexes” and “Harry will eventually have a rival royal court in England” miss the simple fact that Harry and Meghan do not want to live in that sh-tshow anymore. Besides which, they already have a rival royal court and it’s in Montecito. That’s what is driving all of these people crazy.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.