Royal Foundation Forum 2018: Why we probably won’t see photo like this again

When this photo was taken of the royals it sparked an international frenzy — but here’s why you won’t see it again anytime soon.

Sing it with me now. Don’t it always seem to go, you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone …

Remember when we were young and carefree and it was early 2018? Prince Harry had recently gotten down on bended knee in the kitchen and was engaged to Meghan. We were about to get a thrilling new member of the royal family, one who knew her way around a couture frock and a red carpet unlike any other Windsor before her.

Then, in March of last year we were treated to our first, tantalisingly view of the royal family of the future: Kate, Wills, Harry and Meghan, all in co-ordinating shades of muted blue, on stage at the Royal Foundation’s annual forum, beaming at one another.

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The Fab Four attending the first annual — and now probably last — Royal Foundation Forum in February 2018. Picture: Chris Jackson — WPA Pool/Getty Images.

The so-called Fab Four were going to be an unstoppable force! Like the Avengers but all wearing much better shoes. It made so much sense and we could already see they were the royal yin and yang, the Sussexes’ verve and warmth tempered by the Cambridges’ steady hand.

Everyone assumed this was just the beginning of the sort of powerful alliance that could dismantle single-handedly totalitarian regimes, end world hunger and make a Reiss tea dress sell out in minutes.

Sigh. We were so naive and foolish.

Reports have emerged that Harry and Meghan are set to break off from the Royal Foundation to pursue their own charity interests, putting the final nail in the coffin of the ‘Fab Four.’

The Foundation was set by the boys in 2009 as an umbrella organisation for all of their various charitable endeavours. When Wills whipped out Diana’s huge sapphire engagement ring in 2010, Kate joined too. Ditto Meghan.

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Public events with the Sussexes and Cambridges working together are set to become rarer. Picture: Eddie Mulholland — WPA Pool/Getty Images.

What this Royal Foundation news means is that the Fab Four are never making a comeback. There will be no second album. The sequel will never be seen.

The news is just the latest in the long and painful bifurcation of the Cambridges and the Sussexes’ interests. So far, Harry and Meghan have set up their own office and press apparatuses, hired themselves an exciting new PR director, set up their own spiffy Instagram account and left London for life in Windsor.

Of this latest development, a source has told The Sun: “The couples have been given two options — the first is to leave things as they are and the second a complete split. Nothing has been formally ratified but all the mood music is suggesting the Sussexes will break away.

“The Sussexes weren’t in a rush to make any changes, but the Cambridges were. However it’s a complex procedure and very sensitive. Nothing will be done quickly and it’ll be a phased untangling of many of the joint initiatives, not an overnight chop.”

Meghan and Harry will be able to operate with more freedom in Windsor. Picture: Dominic Lipinski/Pool via AP.

While Kate and William will stick to more official duties and work out of the more central Kensington Palace. Picture: Yui Mok/Pool via AP.

In the past year the diverging interests and approaches of the two couples have become glaringly apparent. Harry and Meghan have gotten to talk about climate change and saving elephants, be greeted by cheering crowds everywhere they went and gad about with Oprah. Wills and Kate, by contrast, have been lumped with going on official visits to such thrilling destinations as remote Wales and Blackpool and attending an education conference.

Still this final separation comes as a deep blow for those of us with an unhealthy interest in all things royal. Never again will we get to witness this heady foursome in action which is a bloody shame.

Still, with the recent arrival of Archie Harrison Mountbatten Windsor, at least we have a new player joining the royal stage. And you know what that means: Royal baby pictures. So while, we may never again get to see shots of Harry, Meghan, Kate and Wills doing their thang all together, at least we know that we will be treated to other adorable, ovary-jangling images will in the future.

The Fab Four is dead. Long live the Cambridge quintuple and the Sussex troika!