Kate and Meghan moment we’ll never see again

An iconic photo of Kate and Meghan taken just over two years ago captured a scene that now seems unlikely ever to be repeated.

Two years. Two very, very long years.

We’ve had TV episodes and a book and court cases and more court cases and a “near catastrophic car chase” and a coronation and cancer and cancer again.

Oh, and jam. Let’s not forget the jam.

Just over two years ago, when the late Queen was laid to rest on September 19, it seemed possible that the palace plot line could potentially become a bit ho-hum. The biggest royal event in nearly a century had finally happened, so what could possibly come next?

If ever there was a moment to indulge in some hollow laughter, it’s now.

Many things have come into focus since then, but here’s one that has not been discussed – that Elizabeth II’s funeral was possibly the last time that Kate, the Princess of Wales and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex will ever come face-to-face in public.

Nothing but a few feet separated Kate and Meghan at the Queen’s funeral. Picture: Alkis Konstantinidis – WPA Pool/Getty Images

That could well be the very last photo ever taken of the two women together, and that could have been the last time the duchess will ever humble herself to set foot in the royal midst.

Just after noon on that day in 2022, the late Queen’s coffin was borne aloft and began its slow journey to her final resting place in Windsor. Outside Westminster Abbey, the female members of the royal family – the menfolk part of the procession – gathered. (Equal-a-what-now?)

Nothing but a few feet separated Kate and Meghan.

It’s a shot that we may not ever see repeated.

Ask yourself – when, realistically, will Kate and Meghan ever be in the same room again? The only possible scenario where we might see a similar tableau is the (hopefully decades from now) funeral of King Charles. And even then, it really tests one’s imagination to picture it.

Given Buckingham Palace’s willingness to shunt Harry into second row at the late Queen’s funeral and third row at his own father’s coronation, where might they put the duke when this very dark day comes? It hardly seems a stretch to see Buckingham Palace doing everything in its power to keep the two couples as far apart as possible for practical and optics reasons.

You have to go all the way back to July 2019 to find the last time that Kate and Meghan were photographed side-by-side and at least attempting to put on a good chummy show.

It’s a shot that we may not ever see repeated. Picture: Phil Noble – WPA Pool/Getty Images

At the time, rumours had swirled for months of intra-duchess disharmony with the claim that Meghan had allegedly made Kate cry ahead of the Sussex wedding. (Bridesmaid dress fitting, blah, blah, blah).

What better way to put paid to these claims than for the world to see the two women as they pretended to enjoy spending their off hours in the Wimbledon Royal Box with one another, images of the two royal WAGs amiably chit-chatting about as persuasive as a Nessy sighting.

I don’t want to spoil the ending, but this Good Show did not work.

That outing, 61 months ago, was the last time that the King’s two daughters-in-law had actually been seen to speak to one another.

In March 2020, during the Commonwealth Day service, they did not even look at one another let alone utter a stray syllable.

Ditto in 2022 during the Service of Thanksgiving for the late Queen at St Paul’s and during the Windsor walkabout that the two couples, err, endured I suppose is the word, after Elizbabeth II’s death.

The tension between the two couples was on display during the ‘Windsor walkabout’. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Such is the current state of things between the Prince and Princess of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex that it makes relations between North and South Korea seem positively matey. (They only have the four kilometre-wide DMZ between them; the Sussexes and Waleses have 8750 of them).

I suppose going on the telly and taking to the page to embarrass and to rebuke one’s family and one’s sister-in-law can have consequences. Funny that.

In December 2022, Harry & Meghan landed and you know that practically perfect Princess of Wales of Hello covers and Walkers shortbread tins? Not so perfect, at least to the Sussexes’ telling.

Kate, and the rest of those stodgy Windsors, were threatened by Meghan, they said; Kate rebuffed “hugger” Meghan, the duchess recounted; other royal chaps don’t marry for love, the duke implied, but choose women “who would fit the mould”.

Erm, okay, we said.

Kate and Meghan pretended to enjoy spending their off hours in the Wimbledon Royal Box with one another in 2019. Picture: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

Then came Spare only a month later and the duke kept up with the negative revelations about Kate. The princess “howled” when he tried on his infamous Naxi costume, writer Harry revealed; she “grimaced” when she had to share her lip gloss with Meghan, he told us; and after The Bridesmaid Dress Fitting (the only one ever entered in the history books) he had found “Meg on the floor. Sobbing”.

“Baby brain” and hormone talk had ended with fingers being jabbed and tempers flaring.

Oh, golly, we said.

And William and Kate? Come 2023 and their friends started using swear words when talking to journalists, with a confidant of the couple telling the Daily Beast’s Tom Sykes that the Prince of Wales “absolutely f*cking hates” his younger brother.

“Harry sold his family out to the media for millions of dollars, and William can’t forgive that breach of trust,” the friend told Sykes.

In March 2020, during the Commonwealth Day service, they did not even look at one another. Picture: Phil Harris – WPA Pool/Getty Images

On another occasion, a friend told the Beast: “It’s impossible to exaggerate the extent of [William’s] contempt for Harry and Meghan now. He absolutely hates them, and can’t believe that Harry would do this to him and to Kate. He feels utterly betrayed”.

What has become clear via a plethora of reports from the Times and the Telegraph and the Daily Mail and even probably the West Woburn Bugle is that while Charles is more warily open to rebuilding some sort of relationship with Harry, William will welcome his brother back on the day hell becomes a frozen skating rink.

Earlier this month, The Sunday Times’ Roya Nikkhah revealed that things have disintegrated to such an irreversible degree that William will “not want” Harry at his coronation.

The same story also revealed that the King’s sons have not spoken since the late Queen’s funeral. It was also the last time that Meghan visited the UK and as things stand, there is no guarantee she will again any time soon and when not under PR duress.

William and Harry. Kate and Meghan. Wales and Sussex. What none of us knew back in September 2022 was that day might have been the last time we will ever again see them in the same image, at least aside from another funeral.

And after that? Well, then we can probably confidently say, never again.

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