The picture that tells Harry and Meghan: There’s no way back

more relevant and more resilient. Some will wonder if this is not just slimming down, but cutting to the bone. The unspoken elephant in the room is the absence of the King’s younger son.

Three years ago, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan would have had every expectation to be part of this family ensemble.

Indeed, only four years ago, there was just such a photograph issued to mark the then-Prince of Wales’s 70th birthday.

But, within months, the unity and happiness that radiated from that image had vanished.

So it is not difficult to imagine how this picture will be viewed in sunny California, where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are based. Might it deepen their feelings of exclusion and exile, or will it merely serve to remind them why they chose to break from the family in the first place?

It surely can be no coincidence that the picture was taken when the couple were still in Britain and several days before they returned home to their children Archie and Lilibet. It must, therefore, be yet another signal that they will never again return to their central role in royal life.

One reason that they chose to walk away in the first place was because they did not wish to share the spotlight.

In America, they are at the centre of their own production. But in Britain, there is a new royal order – and it revolves around four people, not six.

THERE is a finality about this photo that suggests there is no way back for a couple who could have been at the epicentre of royalty, but are now at its margins.

Is it the dagger to their hearts it was for Prince Andrew when he was first excluded from the Palace balcony? It certainly feels like it.

Over the years the Queen often curated the photographs around her when she spoke to the nation for her Christmas message. She did so in 2019, when on her desk were pictures of her own father and Charles, but also William and Prince George. Here, it said, was monarchy past, present and future. The omission of Harry was said to have contributed to his break from the family just weeks later.

rather than photographs, King Charles commandeered the art on the walls of his new palace home for this image – and he selected carefully. Choosing as backdrop a king who reigned for 60 years was another nod to the permanence – and preservation – of monarchy.

It is a lesson Prince Harry could do well to study, because every royal picture tells a story.