A not so fond farewell: the Americanisation of Prince Harry is almost complete

The Sussexes have dropped their biggest hint yet that they may finally swap Britain’s rainy shores for a full-time post across the Atlantic, writes Sean O’Grady. But how long will it be before the prince trades in his UK passport for a US one?

In many ways, the life of Harry and Meghan resembles that enjoyed – or endured – by the post-abdication Edward VIII and his American wife, Wallis Warfield Simpson (AP)

It appears as though it’s finally time for the UK to bid a (not entirely) fond farewell to Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex.

For those of us who thought he’d already become resident in the United States of America, the “news” is that he’s actually backdated his official residency there to the date on which his dad turfed him out of Frogmore Cottage on the Windsor estate, a substantial property which was basically a rarely used second home.

So, it’s really what we press people call a further “snub” to his father, mother-in-law, brother and sister-in-law – and, indeed, a further sign that he’s gone to California for good. No doubt he’ll soon enough acquire a west coast accent to go with his easy-living, glamorous surroundings, and become more and more estranged from his family and his homeland.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing – for him, or for those he left behind in Britain’s new permanent-rain weather system? It’s certainly not what you might call a “good look”, for somebody once a member of a family supposedly emblematic of British identity to clear off like this.

Exiles – and particularly royal exiles – often cut a sad figure. Whereas, for good or ill, they had some sort of constitutional or ceremonial use in their homeland, abroad they are rendered rootless and purposeless. Like the ex-monarchs (and descendants) of Greece, Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, Iran, Cambodia, Albania and the various claimants to the Romanov crown, these figures occasionally flit across the gossip columns and attend the coronations of their luckier cousins, curiosities who’ve long since ceased to mean much to their former subjects. It’s a strange, twilight existence that seems to beckon for Harry too.

In many ways, the life of Harry and Meghan resembles that enjoyed – or endured – by the former King Edward VIII and his American wife, Wallis Warfield Simpson. He famously gave up the throne for her, though historians agree he wasn’t that keen on the job of sovereign anyway, and as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, they spent almost the rest of their days in Paris or touring America as peripatetic celebs, attending receptions, occasional television interviews, offering fashion advice and entertaining a dwindling group of friends until old age and infirmity caught up with them.

Unlike H&M, E&W lived a life with liveried servants and glittering formality in their mansion in the Bois de Boulogne, stuffed with fine antiques and mementos of his time as Prince of Wales and king-emperor. But, aside from a few years in the war when the duke was dispatched to the Bahamas to be governor (and to keep him out of trouble), Edward and the former Mrs Simpson didn’t have a great deal to do.

When he abdicated in 1936, a substantial portion of the British public took the view that his American girlfriend had “stolen our prince”. Perhaps she did, but she didn’t seem to know what to do with him afterwards.

It’s not entirely clear what Meghan wants to do with Harry either. It was never going to be possible for the pair to maintain royal duties as residents in another continent – let alone country – and with that, almost all of the other charitable functions were lost, with the sole exceptions of the Invictus Games and their own Archewell Foundation. Nor can they “mine” much more of their experiences for Netflix documentaries and the like. In a parallel world, where Harry and Meghan could somehow have dealt with the intrusions of the media and managed the lingering traumas of the death of Diana, the Sussexes might have been great and popular national assets. Alas, it was not to be.

So, this further severing of Harry’s links with Britain is rather poignant. It feels a shame, not least because Charles III’s concept of a “slimmed down” monarchy has, because of the absence of the King and the Princess of Wales, left the institution understaffed and overstretched.

It is a bit painful to reflect on all the goodwill for the future heaped on Harry and Meghan when they got married, only six years ago next month. Whoever is to blame for the collapse in their relationship with Britain in the meantime, the country lost something quite special when the Sussexes decamped to North America.

Nor does the process feel complete; it’s not long since he officially changed his surname, and that of his family, from Mountbatten-Windsor to plain Sussex. The next logical step for the couple is to become Mr and Mrs Sussex. Then it will be how long before the Duke of Sussex seeks US citizenship, complete with US passport?

The Sussexes’ quest to “find freedom” isn’t yet over. Their loss – but also ours.