Sad detail in latest photo of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

Prince Harry looked carefree and relaxed as he walked hand-in-hand with Meghan down an LA street recently – but the photos hid a sad truth.

Prince Harry didn’t attend his longtime friend Jack Mann’s wedding over the weekend. Picture: @KarlLarsenPhotography/BACKGRID/Netflix

Just hours before Prince Harry’s longtime friend Jack Mann tied the knot, he was spotted 8,000 kilometres away running errands with Meghan Markle – in a clear sign he had no plans to attend.

The Duke of Sussex’s absence has come as a shock to many, considering the pair’s previously close relationship.

One day before the UK wedding, Harry was pictured 8,000 kilometres away. Picture: @KarlLarsenPhotography/BACKGRID

Harry and Mann appeared together in the now-iconic “band of brothers” photo, along with the rest of his inner circle, on the night of his own wedding to Meghan Markle in 2018 – with reports that Mann was actually his “real” but unofficial best man on the big day.

Harry with his best friends (including Mann, second from the right) on the night of his wedding. Picture: Netflix

“There have long been rumours in Harry’s circle that there was another best man, in secret. [Prince] William was the public-facing best man but not the sole best man, nor the true best man in Harry’s eyes,” a source told the Mail on Sunday earlier this year.

Fast-forward five years, and Harry wasn’t even present in the audience for Mann’s big day.

The Duke of Sussex met Mann at Sandhurst while both were training to become officers in the Blues and Royals, later serving together on tour in Afghanistan, and were known to be best friends for years.

But on Saturday, Mann tied the knot with Isabella Clark in Suffolk in front of their loved ones, including Princess Charlotte’s godfather, Thomas van Straubenzee, with Harry and Meghan nowhere to be seen.

While it’s not clear exactly why Harry skipped the occasion, he admitted in his memoir, Spare, that he’d fallen out with some of his longtime friends after divulging explosive details about his family in his 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview.

“Several close mates and beloved figures in my life had chastised me for Oprah,” Harry wrote.

“’How could you reveal such things? About your family?’ I told them that I failed to see how speaking to Oprah was any different from what my family and their staff, had done for decades — briefing the press on the sly (and) planting stories.”

Harry and Mann after a polo match in 2015. Picture: Jabpromotions/Shutterstock

Signs of Harry’s dwindling friendship group were also evident in his Netflix docu-series, Harry & Meghan, in which several of Meghan’s friends were interviewed – but only two of Harry’s.

In the recent pictures of Harry and Meghan, taken the day before Mann’s wedding, the couple looked happy and relaxed as they smiled and held hands while walking through Santa Barbara.

The California-based couple were seen emerging from an office complex which houses several organisations including a karate studio, hair salon, pilates studio and a yoga and Himalayan meditation group.

It’s not clear which one they had been visiting.

The outing came just one day after it was confirmed by the Palace that their final belongings had been shipped out of Frogmore Cottage in Windsor to their new US home, six months after being given their eviction notice from King Charles.

Meanwhile, new reports suggest Harry and Meghan are blaming external factors beyond their control for their struggling post-royal relaunch.

“The word is that they think they’ve been really unlucky,” an LA source told The Daily Mail, adding that they believe Covid-19, economic downturns and the deaths of Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II have significantly hampered their efforts.