King Charles outmanoeuvres Meghan Markle with one surprising photo

Buckingham Palace has pulled off a surprise move, featuring the Duchess of Sussex in an official coronation souvenir.

Meghan Markle and King Charles.

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There are many things one can do with 20 quid. You could buy an official Clarence House coaster from the Buckingham Palace gift shop, pick up 14 packets of Waitrose home brand sausage rolls or, as of this week, purchase the official coronation program.

It’s an item all but destined to clutter up the attics of grandmothers and retired colonels across the UK, but there on its pages, when the Archbishop of Canterbury is not banging on about the sacral part of the coronation, is something pretty surprising.

There, laughing and smiling in the midst of this official coronation souvenir, is one Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex.

Specifically, the program features a family shot, taken in late 2018 to mark King Charles’ 70th birthday. It includes Meghan and Harry along with His Majesty, his wife Queen Camilla, William and Kate, the Prince and Princess of Wales and their trio of adorable tykes.

This 2018 family photo appears in the official coronation program. Picture: by Chris Jackson / Clarence House via Getty

Viewed in isolation it’s a sweet shot, all family good humour and nicely ironed shirts, but given the Sussexes’ seismic eruptions, tears, and TV outbursts, and all the virtuous pouting that has taken place in the years since it was taken, its inclusion is very surprising, if not a bit odd.

The inclusion of this photo is something of a masterstroke on Charles’ part, a brainwave he probably had after his morning tai chi in the Clarence House rose garden while upstairs, Camilla got started on her first Malboro of the day.

For months now the looming question in the never-ending psychodrama of the Sussexes has been: will they actually frock up and front up to the coronation?

You know, after the couple enterprisingly took all their family hurts and transformed them into a lucrative small-scale industry; and then after Charles and William remained wholly unmoved in the face of Harry’s demands for ‘sorry’s’ and hugs and the use of Balmoral for his full moon workshops (I’m guessing).

It’s been confirmed that Meghan will stay home during the coronation. Picture: Patrick van Katwijk/Getty

Four months ago, the release of Spare saw Harry lay down his terms, so to speak, only for His Majesty and William to essentially get up and leave the room. Poor old Aitch has been left self-righteously sitting at that negotiating table since January, ready for his apology, while his father and brother have gotten on with their lives.

Poor bloke. Harry has become like the Miss Havisham of family rapprochements, forever left hanging on his own and waiting forevermore.

Then last week the world found, via a carefully timed Buckingham Press release, that Harry will be going to his Dad’s crowning while Meghan will not because she has son Prince Archie’s fourth birthday party.

That both Sussexes packed up their three-year-old and one-year-old for a quickie trip to the UK last year for the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee knees-up, during which they celebrated daughter Princess Lilibet’s first birthday, but are not willing to do the same for Charles, is quite the litmus test, no?

Which is where Charles’ choice of that particular portrait from his 70th featuring both of his sons and their families comes into play.

Is the choice of photo a not-so-subtle sign from Buckingham Palace? Picture: Dan Kitwood/Getty

His Majesty could easily have opted to use some other photo of himself with the Wales clan, or maybe a childhood shot of him with William and Harry.

Or he could have simply instructed his footman to instruct his private secretary to instruct the Buckingham Palace phone operator to place a call to Kensington Palace to request that William, Kate and the kids pop around for a photo shoot.

There is no practical reason that His Majesty had to use this photo, and there is no reason he had to choose one that included his daughter-in-law.

And that leaves us with one possibility – that the King is sending a far-from-subtle message.

That despite the Netflix series, the tell-all book, all those interviews and that one live stream where Harry admitted to experimenting with drugs like a first year philosophy major; despite having dragged the royal family through the mud and readily monetised his family feuding, His Majesty still loves Harry and sees Meghan as part of the family.

It might be going a bit far to say it feels like there is a degree of longing here on Charles’ part but I certainly think we can say this constitutes some familial wishful thinking.

Harry and Meghan have loudly insisted they were treated terribly by the royal family. Picture: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

Touching, yes but more importantly, it’s also bloody smart.

Obviously, at the very crux of the gospel according to Harry and Meghan is that they were poorly treated by a royal outfit that was only interested in cosying up to Fleet Street and bigging up whatever the heirs were up to.

The Sussexes were locked in a two-tier system where they were forever relegated to second-class status. Such suffering. Such bravery. Such a nice five-bedroom freebie home they had to live in.

This coronation program picture executes a swift jiu jitsu-like jab at that argument.

This shot reinforces, or is trying to reinforce, the image of Charles as a doting dad who equally loves his boys, even if one of them is driving him up the wall and sending Camilla to the drinks trolley early and earlier.

In short, it takes some of the aggrieved, huffy wind out of the Sussexes’ sails with the added benefit of making His Majesty look like the bigger person here, willing to offer up this touching gesture of paternal affection even after everything his son and daughter-in-law have said and done.

It’s also an image that cannily seeks to include Meghan in the coronation, even tangentially, even though she has chosen not to attend a once-in-a-lifetime event because she would rather be 8500km away icing sugar-free Paw Patrol cupcakes.

Sorry history, those Fairtrade balloons won’t blow themselves up. (Note that there has never once been a word in any of the Sussex statements about their coronation attendance that suggests Meghan is in any way sorry that she won’t be there.)

The $140 million question here is, what happens after the coronation and when all the crowns are back safely locked back inside the Tower?

Will Harry and Meghan continue to spend their sun-dappled Californian days continuing to wage their Palace PR grudge match? Will they keep monetising the greatest dynastic falling out of the 21st century so far? And what would Charles do in this scenario?

His Majesty seems likely to have a lot of dawn-tai chi in his future.

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