Prince Harry’s lonely return home without Meghan is royal history repeating itself

As Prince Harry boarded a plane from Los Angeles to London, we can only imagine the inner turmoil he must have felt as he prepared for the long and lonely journey home.

His adored grandfather had died at a time of unprecedented familial discord, with the Royal Family still reeling from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s corrosive, finger-pointing Oprah Winfrey interview.

Prince Philip’s death may have prompted an outpouring of national gratitude and affection, but the question now is whether it can cement the deep fissures within the House of Windsor itself.

How will Harry be welcomed by Princes William and Charles, after accusing his family of racism? Not to mention following reports, via Gayle King, a US news anchor and friend of Meghan, that private telephone calls between the California-based prince and his father and brother had been “unproductive” - disclosures said to have gone down badly at the Palace.

That Harry had not seen his grandfather for more than a year, after he whisked his wife and son, Archie, to the other side of the world to escape being “trapped” by the monarchy, can only add to the Duke of Sussex’s inevitable feelings of wretchedness and grief. His sense of isolation will likely have been compounded by the fact that Meghan, heavily pregnant with their second child, hasn’t been able to accompany him.

The echoes of history here are uncanny as, nearly 70 years ago, a similar scenario played out.

Another once-beloved member of the Royal Family had to leave his American wife behind in the United States to make the solitary journey home for a royal funeral, where he had to face his frosty relations, saddened that he had quit monarchical life.

In 1952, when King George VI died, his brother Edward, the Duke of Windsor - exiled to France after the abdication - was staying in New York with his wife, Wallis Simpson.

Edward and Bertie’s relationship had been further strained by the antipathy between the royal sisters-in-law, Wallis and Queen Elizabeth, later the Queen Mother. Just as Meghan made clear in her Oprah confessional, her relationship with Kate Middleton has been far from sisterly and cosy.

The tragedy for Edward was that no rifts had been healed before the King died. While Harry has not seen his family for over a year, Edward had not seen his relatives for 15 years after he left Britain in 1936.

Just as one imagines poor Prince Harry receiving a jolting call in the middle of the night last Thursday at his Montecito mansion, telling him that the Duke of Edinburgh had died, the Windsors had that distressing phone conversation in their six-room apartment on the 28th floor of the Waldorf Towers on February 6 1952.

For the Duke of Windsor, it came as a stunning shock. Even though his rancour towards his family was - as Harry’s seems to be - mired in resentful fury that his wife had been mistreated, he was blindsided by the tragic news.

Just as for Harry, immediate arrangements were made for Edward to return home. Yet unlike Meghan, for whom an invitation for the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral would have been de rigueur, the Duke of Windsor was bluntly told by Buckingham Palace – even before his niece, the new Queen Elizabeth had returned from Kenya where she was on tour with Prince Philip - that there could be no question of Wallis accompanying him.