AMANDA PLATELL: Harry and Meghan are the unlikely saviours of the Royal Family. Hear me out… there are upsides to the painful Sussex psychodrama

After weeks of speculation and fervid anticipation that his wife and children were coming to the UK to meet his ‘Pa’, Prince Harry landed in London alone yesterday without Meghan, Archie or Lilibet.

Over the weekend, more headlines beamed across the world about the ongoing Sussex saga and their rift with the Royal Family, this time over their security. Their ‘will-they-won’t-they?’ drama has become a delicious, must-watch cross between Downton Abbey and EastEnders.

Which makes me wonder where would the Royal Family be today, how significant would it be globally, without Harry and Meghan’s capricious manoeuvrings?

Is it possible that, through this seemingly endless family drama, the Sussexes have, in a strange twist, become the unlikely saviours of the Royal Family?

For all the relentless headlines, the feud has also made the monarchy feel unexpectedly relatable. At its heart is an ageing, cancer-stricken King Charles longing to see his grandchildren, and Queen Camilla by his side – a deeply human tragedy that has helped make the Firm feel more relevant in the modern age.

And not just in Britain. The ‘can’t-miss-an-episode’ Harry and Meghan soap opera – which began with Megxit, followed by that Oprah interview, then Harry’s bombshell memoir Spare and the couple’s Netflix documentary – has become compulsive viewing across the world.

The world has been watching the ongoing Sussex saga and their rift with the Royal Family. But have Harry and Meghan done the monarchy a favour by dragging it into the spotlight?

At the core of this is an ageing, cancer-stricken King Charles longing to see his grandchildren – a deeply human tragedy that makes the Firm feel more relevant in the modern age

Painful as it is to admit, especially for a loyal monarchist like me, the British Royal Family – for all of their worthy OBE ceremonies and event openings – can, at times, be rather dull.

Yet Harry and Meghan have unwittingly dragged Britain’s sedate monarchy into the centre of the global spotlight.

I mean, come on, think about it. How often do you see Europe’s other royal families dominating the headlines in any comparable way? The Grimaldis of Monaco? Liechtenstein’s princely family? Luxembourg’s House of Nassau?

Yet since the psychodrama started by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, the House of Windsor has rarely been out of the news. For six years, the saga has provided an endless stream of interviews, documentaries and memoirs, turning Britain’s monarchy into the closest thing the world has to a real-life soap opera.

It is an irresistible story of fractured family relationships and sibling rivalry, one that makes even the billionaire Beckham family’s highly publicised rift with their eldest son Brooklyn seem almost understated.

The breakdown in the relationship between William and Harry – two brothers who once walked together behind their mother Princess Diana’s coffin and were bound together in grief – is almost biblical in its scale, with echoes even of Cain and Abel.

Even now Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes could scarcely have written a more dramatic script.

How different things would be if Meghan had quietly settled into life at Frogmore Cottage, raising Archie and Lilibet in Britain where they could see their grandfather regularly

Let’s imagine what would have happened if B-list TV actress Meghan Markle had quietly settled into royalty, embracing life at Frogmore Cottage, raising Archie and Lilibet in Britain and seeing their grandfather King Charles regularly, just as Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis have done.

If there had been no Oprah interview, no Netflix series, no memoir, no accusations of racism that engulfed the family for years.

Had Harry and Meghan accepted the restrictions – and benefits – of royal life, as Kate Middleton did when she became engaged to Prince William, we would be living in a very different world.

The Sussexes might still be carrying out engagements, with Meghan supporting charities close to her heart and contributing to the institution rather than waging war against it from thousands of miles away.

Maybe if life had turned out differently, if Harry had made different choices, he and William would be closer than ever. Little Archie and Lilibet would be best friends with their cousins George, Charlotte and Louis.

Instead, after all the Sussexes’ ongoing antics – especially when Kate was fighting her own cancer, a time Prince William describes as the worst in his life – insiders say hell will freeze over before Harry’s kids ever meet our future King William’s children.

But then don’t we all relate on some fundamental level? So many of us have experienced our own less-than-glamorous family fallouts, which is what makes the Sussex Saga so captivating and enduring.

We all know how difficult it is to forgive when you cannot forget the past. That’s why we can understand the hurt felt by King Charles. And it’s why the Sussexes, with their betrayal and bitter family infighting, have kept the House of Windsor relevant in a modern social media world.

In fact, in a warped way, it has actually been good for the British Royal Family, because it just makes us love them more.