Harry and Meghan will never resume official roles following the bombshell biography laying bare their rift with the Royal Family.
The couple have ‘torpedoed’ any chance of creating a new position with the help of the Queen and senior royals when their ‘trial period’ in the US ends, sources believe.
The book, which reveals their soured relationship with the monarchy in excruciating detail, is likely to scupper any hopes of renegotiating their royal duties when ‘Megxit’ is reviewed.
The revelations will also harm efforts to repair their rift with Harry’s brother William and sister-in-law Kate, it is feared.
A royal household source said: ‘The door will always be open to them as much-loved members of the family.
‘But it’s hard to see how they can now salvage the new role they wanted as ‘hybrid’ royals, running commercial careers alongside royal duties from the US.’
Another source told the Mail: ‘The review period has not yet been discussed but it doesn’t seem if there is any way of going back now. Some very private family matters have now been aired in public, seemingly with their blessing. That will be hurtful.’
The book, serialised in the Times and Sunday Times, has detailed the increasingly bitter relationship between Harry and William, as well as the rollercoaster romance that saw the couple declare ‘I love you’ within three months.
It also claims:
The one-year ‘probationary’ period was designed to give all members of the family breathing space and allow Harry and Meghan to establish their independent new lives, while offering them the chance to return to the royal fold if they changed their minds.
But multiple sources believe the way the couple have conducted themselves in Los Angeles – such as borrowing a glitzy £14.5million Beverly Hills mansion – and now the bombshell book have put an end to any hope of their returning, in a working role at least.
One senior figure added: ‘Given the state of the world this just seems so ill-timed. The Sussexes need to move on.’
Harry and Meghan have publicly denied giving an interview to the authors of Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family, or of ‘contributing’ to the book. But their statement failed to address whether they had given permission for their closest friends, staff and associates from collaborating with it.
Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand say they have written the book with the ‘participation of those closest to the couple’ and boasted of having access to Harry and Meghan’s personal and professional ‘inner circle’. Insiders firmly believe that would only have happened with the couple’s permission, tacit or otherwise.