Everything’s fine. Absolutely fine. The monarchy is in tip top condition and in the very ruddiest of health. Just don’t look at this photo.
If you can’t name the gentleman below, don’t worry, it’s unlikely anyone not perma-plugged into the royal mains power grid would recognise the 90-year-old Duke of Kent, a still working member of the royal family, spied here in the royal box at Wimbledon this week:
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This man, yes, this one, has in just the last six months, undertaken 26 official engagements connected with his 140 ongoing charity roles, including as the Colonel-in-Chief of The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, Colonel Emeritus of the Scots Guards, President of the Imperial War Museums, and Chancellor of the University of Surrey.
And this photo lays out precisely why Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex needs to be let back into the Palace, given the new wifi password, and shown where they now keep the office biscuit tin.
The countdown is on for the reentry into the British and royal bloodstream and consciousness of Vitamin S(ussex) in the form of the duke and his wife Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex and their children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. Having been reportedly holidaying in Portugal, the family will arrive in the UK this week for a milestone homecoming and a winding back of Megxit, more than six years after the Sussexes stormily exited through the gift shop.
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Reports suggest that during this trip Harry and Meghan and the kids will be staying at a royal property, the first time they have all spent a night under a royal roof since 2022, and will all meet with King Charles.
The seeming decision by the King to, albeit perhaps tentatively, welcome his “darling boy” back into the fold will not be an uncontroversial one given that 60 percent of Brits, per YouGov in April, have an unfavourable view of Harry. (And 67 percent have an unfavourable view of Meghan.) His Majesty might be willing to do the whole bygones thing but whether he can drag a nation of nearly 70 million people along with him and shift their attitude towards his son remains to be seen.
It’s a decision that should be read two ways: Charles as the man, the father, the soft heart and good friend of the Dalai Lama who reportedly desperately wants to patch things up and to get to know his Californian grandchildren.
The second: Charles as King, a job that is half medieval cosplaying (the crowns, the carriages, the ermine-trimmed underpants) and half CEO (it’s a multi-billion dollar institution with more than 600 staff). It’s his job to ensure the monarchy chugs along, as it has done since the 10th century when Æthelstan came up with this snazzy concept called ‘England’.
Because no matter what your views on Spare, on Netflix, on all the interviews and the jutting of bottom lips on TV sofas, the Palace needs Harry.
Polling in June by Ipsos shows support of the monarchy at the lowest level in more than 30 years with only 55 percent of Britons in favour, down from a high of 80 percent under the late Queen.
To wit: The Duke of Kent. This is what Crown Inc circa 2026 looks like, literally and figuratively greying at an alarming rate and which seems as in touch with contemporary life and sentiment as the telex and Are You Being Served re-runs.
One of Queen Elizabeth’s axioms was “I have to be seen to be believed,” but what Brits, and the world, are seeing of the monarchy is a rapidly ageing half dozen or so doers who generally have the pizzazz and fizzle of a few sodden sparklers in orthotic shoes.
The royal family badly needs an injection of a bit of pep and sizzle, younger faces who have at least once in their life used Uber Eats and don’t fondly remember the penny farthing.
And Harry? Look at photos of him at any charity engagement and he emits enough glow and energy to power several AI data centres. The man has the same je ne sais quoi, It-ish-ness that his mother Diana, Princess of Wales had in absolute spades, that marvellous ability to walk into rooms full of nervously perspiring strangers and charm the parents off them. Clearly this is his milieu and where he truly shines.
Yes, as a son and brother Harry’s track record in recent years might be a complicated, emotional one, but as a card-carrying, clocking-on-royal, the 41-year-old is hard to beat.
The exceptions to the Palace’s workforce woes are, of course, Prince WIlliam and Kate, The Prince and Princess of Wales but no matter how slick their Insta videos are getting, they are still just two people – and two people who have made abundantly clear they will not ploddingly log small potatoes official engagements in Yorkshire market towns.
Of the current working royals, what happens when the close to 80-year-olds – the King, Queen Camilla and Princess Anne – and the 60-somethings – Prince Edward and Sophie, The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh – are no longer able to shoulder the thousands of engagements they currently do? Someone has to do at least some of them.
What about roughly 30 investitures, held at both Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle and the garden parties attended by more than 30,000 chosen members of the public?
Then you have to add on the Downing Street-demanded overseas visits when the government du jour desperately needs a few big name royals to pack their travel neck pillows and to jet off to do their unique softpower, geopolitical jazz hands.
There is only so much William and Kate can do, even before we consider their current crop of large-scale personal projects (Earthshot, Howewards, The Foundation for Early Childhood), having to run a 60-odd staff member strong office, and being the devoted school-run parents we are always hearing about.
What the monarchy has in Harry is a readymade, fully-trained, turnkey duke who knows the ropes, who was once routinely voted the most popular member of the royal family and who could help pick up the slack.
The ruthlessly unemotional and smart decision would be to slowly reintegrate the duke into British public life and, gently-gently, re-introduced as a Palace staffer.
William and Kate don’t have to have any intention of ever cracking a Friday 5pm bottle of fizz with him to toast a bang-up week at the crown coalface, but the reality is they need him.
And vice versa because he needs them. The images and videos shared by Meghan on Instagram show a glowingly happy father and husband but he has made clear over the last year that he misses his home and the role he used to play.
So, the answer is simple – give him back his old job, at least on a casual or part-time basis. It would be a mutually beneficial arrangement, even if hurt feelings needed to be parked and deep breaths and cool heads were required to prevail on both sides of the Atlantic.
This might seem far-fetched now but remember, there was a time when, apocryphally, stories were being told of strangers in the 90s hating Camilla Parker-Bowles so much she had bread rolls chucked at her in the supermarket. Talk about a pain au ouch.
Attitudes can change, especially if the world started to see images of a charm-a-rama Harry out visiting hospitals and the like.
To paraphrase Edward III’s at the Battle of Crécy talking about his champing-at-the-bit son the Black Prince, ‘let the boy win his spurs…back’.
Daniela Elser is an editor and commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.
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