Prince Harry photo sums up everything he’s lost

Prince Harry cut a lonely figure during King Charles’ coronation and he was caught in one particularly sad moment.

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Oh Harry. Oh Harry, Harry, Harry. You foolish, impetuous, impulsive man.

The world has just watched the first coronation of a British monarchy in 70 years, the longest that Blighty has gone since having a good crowning. It was a ceremony that was full of spine-tingling moments of awe and wonder and enough trumpet fanfares to sate the monarchy-curious masses.

But, long before King Charles and Queen Camilla had entered Westminster Abbey, Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex was making his way inside making small talk with Jack Brooksbank, a man whose greatest professional achievement is earning the title tequila ambassador and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, a successful London property developer.

Prince Harry made small talk with Princess Beatrice and Eugenie’s husbands before entering alone. Picture: Aaron Chown / POOL / AFP

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And then, two by two, like a Noah’s ark of HRHs and their other halves, the couples – Mike and Zara Tindall, Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi and Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank – they made their way down the Abbey’s aisle leaving Harry to make the lengthy journey alone.

Totally and utterly alone.

A poignant photo captured Prince Harry as a lonely figure on his father’s big day. Picture: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images

If ever there was a moment that truly captured the grievous wound Harry has dealt himself in the last three years it was this one moment: The King’s son left to make his way to his seat, a solitary, sad figure.

But what came next might have been an even sadder sight.

Harry, stuck in between Jack ‘Tequila’ Brooksbank’ and 56th in line to the throne Princess Alexandra, and with plenty of pre-game waiting time to talk to Jack about his latest job selling Portuguese villas to the uber rich, he was left to watch the official procession of his family up the aisle, marooned in the third row.

Prince Harry sits in the third row and looks across to his brother, in the front row. Picture: Victoria Jones - WPA Pool/Getty Images

The world watched on as Their Majesties entered along with the Wales troupe, a stunning tableau like something dreamt up by Walt Disney after one too many late-night Grasshoppers.

It was impossible to not get something of a spine-tingle seeing the Waleses, all done up in robes and chains, entering along with their children Princess Charlotte, done up in miniature Alexander McQueen headpieces like her mother and Prince Louis on his bestest of best behaviour in a tiny suit.

The Walses made a stunning entrance with Kate and Charlotte in matching headwear. Picture: Dan Charity – WPA Pool/Getty Images

Not only did they look united but they all looked breathtakingly regal (oh the bromides are going to come thick and fast I’m afraid). They looked, and there is no other synonym for it, bloody royal.

King Charles III enters Westminster Abbey. Picture: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images

And Harry? He was lost in a sea of cousins, and notably, cousins’ husbands. It was like watching some sort of live streamed consignment to purgatory via in-law.

Never has Montecito’s third most famous ratepayer looked more isolated or more cut-off from not only his family but also the future that was meant to be his too.

Unlike his appearance at Her late Majesty’s service of thanksgiving during her Platinum Jubilee celebration last year when the duke looked as sullen as a small child deprived of their iPad, this time around Harry it seemed like he had been taking professional Grin and Bear It lessons. (Or maybe his Hollywood adjacent life has taught him a thing or two about putting on the old razzle dazzle even when he wants to stomp his feet and have a bit of a yell at his brother?)

Ahead of the ceremony, as the guests made small talk and waited for the real stahhhhs to arrive, Harry gave the appearance of a man whose biggest worry was whether to choose the chicken or the fish on his flight back to Los Angeles.

Prince Harry look resigned to being there. Picture: Andy Stenning / POOL / AFP

And yet, despite his best efforts, the grim fact is, he cut a pitiful – and nearly pitiable – figure.

Left behind, quite literally, by his family as they made their way to the good seats, never has the full weight of his years-long ritual disembowelment by TV series, book and interviews too numerous to mention been on such painful show.

Making it all the more arduous of an event for the 38-year-old was the fact that his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex was thousands of kilometres away in California. Her reluctance to spend any amount of time back amid the very same people who failed to dispense hugs and whom the Sussexes’ have regularly put the boot into is not hard to understand. What is that they chose that she would not be there to help Aitch bear the emotional brunt.

Meghan is, after all, the woman who described them as being “like salt and pepper. We always move together.” And Harry, according to his wife, saw the twin, connected palm tress in their garden and told her, “My love, it’s us.”

But salt and pepper, those palm trees were nowhere to be seen.

Prince Harry leaves after attending the coronation. Picture: Toby Melville / AFP

Prince Harry was thousands away from his wife on kids during the most momentous royal occasion in 70 years. Picture: Gareth Cattermole / POOL / AFP

Instead, while Harry did his Cheery Bloke routine next to Jack and a live global TV audience watched on, the duchess was instead back in Montecito where their son Prince Archie celebrates his fourth birthday also on Saturday.

The image of the duke left to sit between Mr Tequila and an 86-year-old princess who the vast majority of the world would be hard precessed to name, is hardly the sort of united front that we have come to expect of the Sussexes.

Then came the moment during the actual coronation when his brother ‘Willy’ delivered the Homage of Royal Blood. It was august and powerful, symbolically redolent and moving as hell.

How must Harry have felt watching that?

Prince William kisses his father, King Charles during the King's Coronation. Picture: Yui Mok – WPA Pool/Getty Images

Traditionally all the royal dukes have paid homage to the new sovereign during the service. A moment of fealty like this during the service could and would have included him.

Seeing Harry during the coronation was really about seeing the self-inflicted wound of Megxit laid bare.

Now that the coronation of the King is over, with His Majesty having yanked back the keys to the Sussexes’ Windsor estate home Frogmore Cottage and with trans-Atlantic relations in a reportedly tattered state, when if ever, during his father’s lifetime, will Harry ever step foot back inside the Abbey for a royal event such as this?

There is every chance the next time that the Duke of Sussex takes a seat there it will be for His Majesty’s funeral.

By the time you are reading this, Harry will probably be winging his way back to the US or even already there, so very far away from his family in every sense. At least he has that palm tree.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.

Originally published as Prince Harry photo sums up everything he’s lost