IF Harry had stayed in the UK for his 40th year he may have got exactly what he has always wanted.
He would no longer be the spare — he would have become the main man in so many ways.
Together he and Meghan would have been an absolute asset in what has been a true annus horribilis for the entire Royal Family.
Had he stayed in the royal fold, today, on his 40th birthday, there would undoubtedly be delightful photographs of a royal get-together.
Charles with his two sons William and Harry laughing and smiling together with the grandchildren, Archie and Lilibet, whom the King has tragically hardly met.
With Charles and the Princess of Wales being ill from the beginning of the year, Harry would have taken centre stage.
He would have slipped perfectly into Charles’s shoes.
And Meghan would have done the same for her sister-in-law Kate.
Taking the reins temporarily — as true acts of kindness.
Harry would have shouldered the burden which has been left for William to deal with.
Imagine how he could have helped when Kate was at her most vulnerable — that day in February when William and Kate discovered she had cancer.
William immediately pulled out of attending a memorial service for his godfather, the late King Constantine.
He was due to give a reading, but Constantine had been close to both boys throughout their lives and Harry could have done it.
Charles was also absent because of his own cancer diagnosis.
As the next adult down the line of succession after William, Harry could have accompanied Queen Camilla.
Instead, she had to formally lead the line-up of British and foreign royals on her own.
The sad truth is that Harry and Meghan’s presence would have been invaluable this year.
Seeing their kids in the royal fold as well as their cousins all up at Balmoral during the annual Scottish sojourn.
It would have been the perfect antidote for their exhausted grandfather.
It would have given him the golden opportunity of getting to know them when they are at their cheekiest and chattiest, discovering the wonders of the natural world, as Charles did at that age.
At the age of 40, Harry’s confidence would have received an enormous boost if he had been able to be useful to the Royal Family
Harry was always close to his father, especially as a young boy, when they would go around the Highgrove gardens together.
“Harry loves animals and plants,” Charles said at the time. When Harry pulled the leaves off plants, Charles would tell him not to, saying: “Plants have feelings too and mustn’t be hurt.”
Later, they would go off on long walks, looking at trees and shrubs, and before his fourth birthday, Harry was competent enough a rider to control his little pony without the necessity of a leading rein.
At the age of 40, Harry’s confidence would have received an enormous boost if he had been able to be useful to the Royal Family — in the way imagined in the images we have created here.
Who would have been better to travel the country in the wake of the recent riots but Meghan and Harry, a multi- racial couple?
And Meghan, who has spoken of how the riots in America affected her so greatly, would have been a great asset.
Imagine them at the Olympics alongside the Princess Royal and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence.
Together they would have represented everything positive about the royals: Age and youth, naval and military (Tim and Harry) glamour and practicality (Meghan and Anne).
Imagine the man who set up the Invictus Games being part of the Paralympics.
Instead of the brief visit to the UK for the tenth anniversary of Invictus in May, he would have been right in the thick of it in Paris in September.
They would have been a perfect fit.
Smiling alongside Meghan, applauding the winners, consoling the losers, they could have worked supporting the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh.
It could have been the best working year of Harry’s life.
Both William and Catherine — whom Harry once called “the sister I never had” — could have done with the Sussexes’ support, had things been different.
So could Queen Camilla, who had to assume much of the responsibility for keeping the Royal Family on the road and taking on as many of her husband’s non-constitutional duties as she was able.
She also had to keep a firm hand on King Charles to prevent him overdoing it.
He was used to working through the day and late into the night, which he could no longer manage.
Like his late mother, Harry’s charm and ability to connect with others is second to none if he chooses to use it
Harry could have stepped in as support on many occasions, especially at events on either side of the Channel to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day in June.
Imagine the former Apache pilot heading to see President Zelensky.
Dubious connections
He would have been brilliant — he would have spoken later of their common bond, how both knew loved ones who had been at war.
Instead, he was in LA, surely gutted that he wasn’t achieving what he knew he could.
Like his late mother, Harry’s charm and ability to connect with others is second to none if he chooses to use it.
Faux royal trips with dubious connections to Nigeria and Colombia would not have been on the agenda.
Instead, he and Meghan would have gone to Canada in place of the King and Queen when his father was diagnosed with cancer.
He could have been at next month’s Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting to support the King.
The late Queen appointed him a Commonwealth Youth Ambassador, which was her way of asking him to look after it while William and Catherine look after the UK.
As President and Vice President of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust, Meghan and Harry pledged themselves to a lifetime of work with the global family of 54 nations.
Harry said at the time: “Both of us have passions for wanting to make change, change for good, and with lots of young people running around the Commonwealth, that’s where we’re going to spend most of our time — hopefully.”
It wasn’t to be, and when they left the country in 2020 Harry had to give up the role.
If he had never left, he would have been a major part of his grandmother’s funeral in his role as Lieutenant Commander of the Royal Navy, Major of the British Army and Squadron Leader of the Royal Air Force.
He would have had his father’s ear instead of being last to know what was going on and would have spent time at Balmoral with his grandmother before she died.
The Royal Family all have their own parts that make up the whole.
Sadly, now he is 40, Harry is no longer even a spoke in the wheel. But he continues determinedly.
“I was anxious about 30, I’m excited about 40,” he announced in a birthday statement. “Whatever my age, my mission is to continue showing up and doing good in the world.”
He then added: “Being a dad is one of the greatest joys and has only made me more driven and more committed to making this world a better place.”
HARRY ‘HIRING PR TO BOOST IMAGE’
PRINCE Harry is looking to hire an image consultant to help boost his failing reputation in Britain, magazine Vanity Fair claimed yesterday.
The Duke of Sussex was liked by only 30 per cent of the public and 60 per cent disliked him in a poll last month. Before Megxit he was liked by 71 per cent and loathed by 22 per cent.
PR expert Mark Borkowski said Harry needed to eat “a huge chunk of humble pie” if he wanted to improve his image.
He said: “He needs to listen to some hard truths. It will be a very long journey.”
But one friend said Harry was “really happy”.
Harry would have had so much more influence to achieve this ambition if he had stayed where he was.
No “phoney royal” foreign visits.
No more collecting awards instead of handing them out.
No more court cases or aggression against parts of society.
No more writing books, making documentaries about your life when all you profess to want is to be private.
No more dissing your own family for financial gain.
Financial freedom to have a home anywhere in the Commonwealth instead of California.
A family for your children of similar-age cousins, uncles and aunts, and true friends you have known all your life.
It is said his best friend is now security guard David Langdown, known as “Langers”.
Harry has chosen the Californian highway for his self-imposed exile.
No one knows what will happen to him in the future, but I hope on his 40th birthday today, Harry can look back at his life so far and say: “I did the right thing.”
- Ingrid Seward is Editor in Chief of Majesty magazine. Her latest book, My Mother & I, is the story of the late Queen and her relationship with King Charles.
Andy's Netflix film 'call girl'
A NETFLIX drama is set to anger the Royal Family with a scene suggesting Prince Andrew dated a French prostitute.
His name is dragged into The Perfect Couple, starring Nicole Kidman, even though there is no reference to it in the book which the newly- released US miniseries is adapted from.
As cops quiz the sex worker in the show’s murder mystery plot, the character — played by Isabelle Adjani, 69 — says: “I dated Prince Andrew…”
It follows Netflix film Scoop, a dramatisation of Andrew’s notorious 2019 Newsnight interview.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment.