According to one royal family observer, a new official photograph of the British royal family omits Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, both literally and symbolically.

King Charles, Queen Consort Camilla, William, Prince of Wales, and his wife, Kate, Princess of Wales, are seen in the photograph that was published on Saturday. The photograph was shot the evening before Queen Elizabeth II’s final burial services.

📸 Their Majesties The King and The Queen Consort with Their Royal Highnesses The Prince and Princess of Wales.

Taken at Buckingham Palace on 18th September by @ChrisJack_Getty . pic.twitter.com/heUi1C5E15

— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) October 1, 2022

Richard Kay asserted in a Daily Mail op-ed that “every royal picture tells a story” and that this image says volumes about the future of Harry and Meghan.

“The unspoken elephant in the room is the absence of the King’s younger son,” Kay wrote.

“So it is not difficult to imagine how this picture will be viewed in sunny California, where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are based. Might it deepen their feelings of exclusion and exile, or will it merely serve to remind them why they chose to break from the family in the first place?” he wrote.

Noting that the photo was shot when Harry and Meghan were still in the United Kingdom, Kay commented, “It must, therefore, be yet another signal that they will never again return to their central role in royal life.”

“One reason that they chose to walk away in the first place was because they did not wish to share the spotlight,” he wrote, adding, “In America, they are at the [center] of their own production. But in Britain, there is a new royal order – and it revolves around four people, not six.”

Pondering whether the image is, for Harry and Meghan a “dagger to their hearts,” Kay said the picture is not just a snapshot.

“There is a finality about this photo that suggests there is no way back for a couple who could have been at the [epicenter] of royalty, but are now at its margins,” he wrote.

More on this story via The Western Journal:

Katie Nicholl, author of the book “The New Royals,” told Page Six that the days of the funeral ceremonies were a missed chance to heal old wounds.

“I think it’s very sad. In the days Harry was here, there was an opportunity, given they were just a couple of hundred yards away from each other for a meeting or dinner or gathering of some sort where they could actually just try to thrash things out,” she said. CONTINUE READING…