Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s exclusion from the first official portrait of King Charles with Queen Consort Camilla feels like “a dagger through the heart” for the Sussexes, a royal commentator has claimed.

The official photograph shows the new monarch posing alongside his wife with Prince William and Kate Middleton beside them.

It was snapped the day before the Queen’s funeral, while the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were still in the United Kingdom.

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Royal expert Richard Kay claimed in the Daily Mail that the picture showed “yet another signal that (Prince Harry and Meghan Markle) will never again return to their central role in royal life”.

He explained how divisions over the past three years, after the controversial royal couple sensationally quit the family to move to California, had cemented the new order to four senior royals.

The columnist asked: “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…

“The picture was taken when the couple were still in Britain and several days before they returned home to their children Archie and Lilibet.

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“It must, therefore, be yet another signal that they will never again return to their central role in royal life.”

But others reckon the Sussexes are unlikely to be too bothered over their royal demotion, which also saw them moved lower on the Royal Family website.

This is because they can focus on other work including their Archewell foundation.

Royal commentator Neil Sean explained: “What they’d much prefer is to keep a low profile in this interim period, particularly with the book that’s looming from the Duke of Sussex.”

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