ANGELA MOLLARD: If they’d carried on in their Commonwealth roles, Harry and Meghan could’ve had the respect of millions. But as they pose in Jamaica, their short-sightedness has been revealed – mostly, I suspect, to themselves

There was something about the black dress worn by the Duchess of Sussex in Jamaica last night that felt faintly familiar.

Sleeveless and with its full skirt, it was the same silhouette the newly pregnant Duchess wore to attend the Australian Geographic Awards in Sydney in October 2018 although that time the Oscar de la Renta dress was embellished with birds – a perfectly judged nature-themed nod to the occasion.

I was there that night when Prince Harry and his new bride awarded prizes to young conservationists and marvelled at the couple’s star power. It was clear why the Queen had made her grandson President of her Commonwealth Trust, an organisation tasked with helping youth in the 53 Commonwealth countries to enact positive change. It was also completely obvious why within weeks of that long tour to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific, the monarch had appointed Meghan as the Trust’s Vice-President.

Quite simply, the pair were electric. His unique combination of sincerity and humour and her megawatt polish and warmth felt fresh and modern and appropriate in these lands where class is not a metric but community, mateship and pride are everything.

Harry and Meghan understood innately how it works in these parts. There is something of the terrier, the underdog, in both of them and anyone watching them in Sydney that day would’ve regarded the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust appointments as insightful and inspired.

Harry and Meghan were a natural fit for a Commonwealth role and the Queen knew it (Pictured: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the world premiere of Bob Marley: One Love on Tuesday in Jamaica)

The newly pregnant Duchess wore an Oscar de la Renta dress embellished with birds to attend the Australian Geographic Awards in Sydney in October 2018

Which is why it’s not just disappointing but utterly depressing to see them attempting a facsimile of that role in Jamaica where they hobnobbed with the nation’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness at the premiere of the new Bob Marley film One Love.

Whatever you think of them, Harry and Meghan were a natural fit for a Commonwealth role and the Queen knew it. Youthful, woke and attuned, they had the skill sets and the instincts to be genuine agents for both continuity and change in these nations. And yet they bolted before they even gave it a chance.

They were too impatient, too reactive, too preoccupied with their own suffering to see that in being the first to hold the new Commonwealth roles they were ideally placed to shape them as their own.

Fed up with being down the chain in the Windsor hierarchy, they could have positioned themselves as a self-styled royal diffusion line, crossing the globe as caring and attentive ambassadors for her Majesty’s realm. With consultation and innovation they could’ve lived anywhere, setting themselves up as a branch office of Royal Inc in one of their favoured nations – perhaps New Zealand where they discussed the possibility with then Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

One of the best qualities of the late Queen was her deft problem-solving. She’d seen it all and stuffed up occasionally but for the most part she brought the brilliance of an ace CEO as well as the heart of a mother and grandmother to her decision-making. She knew what was best for Harry and Meghan.

Youthful, woke and attuned, the couple had the skill sets and the instincts to be genuine agents for both continuity and change in the Commonwealth

Fed up with being down the chain in the Windsor hierarchy, the pair could have positioned themselves as a self-styled royal diffusion line 

The Sussexes were warmly welcomed in Jamaica by top government officials including Marlene Malahoo Forte (pictured), the minister for legal and constitutional affairs

Had they not been so hasty, Harry and Meghan could’ve had it all: the respect of millions and the sense of worth which comes from doing purposeful work

Republic-leanings or not, we’d have welcomed the ‘Spare’ and his wife with open arms and the Queen knew that

Kate and William were always going to be focused on the UK where they would eventually become the Heads of State, while Meghan and Harry were free to roam the realms

I bet they were thinking the same as they were warmly welcomed in Jamaica by top government officials including Marlene Malahoo Forte, the minister for legal and constitutional affairs. It’s all very well attending as Meghan and Harry, a couple of freelance grifters from California with only a little more cache than your average influencer. It’s quite another, representing the sovereign, carefully navigating a nation’s desire to sever itself from the monarchy and charting a new relationship that benefits all.

That’s where you need charisma, understanding and excellent communication skills. Harry, at least, had those in abundance and I suspect he would’ve been thinking last night about what could have been. A week spent at an aviation awards night and a movie premiere in some nebulous capacity is hardly a meaningful career.

Even now the ferocity of loathing for the Sussexes in the UK is not matched down here. Perhaps because we in the Commonwealth countries still regard ourselves as tenacious upstarts and free-spirited chancers, we see in Harry a certain kinship. Republic-leanings or not, we’d have welcomed the ‘Spare’ and his wife with open arms and the Queen knew that. Kate and William were always going to be focused on the UK where they would eventually become the Heads of State. Meghan and Harry were free to roam the realms.

Oddly, the Sussex Royal website is still online with the tagline ‘Strengthening the Commonwealth‘. Images of the Sussexes in Australia, the Pacific and Southern Africa run alongside a list of current members of the Commonwealth and a note that the late Queen, when aged 21 during a speech in Cape Town, vowed to devote her life to the service of this coalition of nations. Today, citizens of the Commonwealth compromise a third of the world’s population, with 60 per cent aged under 30.

Had they not been so hasty, Harry and Meghan could’ve had it all: the respect of millions and the sense of worth which comes from doing purposeful work. In Jamaica this week, their short-sightedness has been revealed – mostly, I suspect, to themselves.