He was Britain’s favourite newsreader, managing to combine gravitas with a lightness of touch – so when Sir Trevor McDonald talks he does so with authority.

The retired ITV News at Ten star’s decision to speak out this week over the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s self-imposed exile in America has, therefore, provoked much comment.

‘It’s a great shame that Prince Harry is no longer part of the working monarchy,’ he declared. ‘We cannot afford to lose someone so young, so full of energy and so imbued with the charitable instincts that are at the core of our Royal Family.’

Speaking to Saga magazine, Sir Trevor, 85, added of Harry: ‘Having met him three or four times over the years, I found him unfailingly friendly, honest and genuine. I was struck by the similarity to his mother, the late Princess Diana.’

The broadcaster, who was knighted in 1999, claimed that Meghan ‘never stood a chance of being accepted’ because ‘she is a foreigner: an American, a divorcee, a former actress – and black’.

He said: ‘Meghan could have brought a new dimension to the monarchy… She was never given a chance to prove herself.’

Sir Trevor McDonald claimed that Meghan ‘never stood a chance of being accepted’ because ‘she is a foreigner: an American, a divorcee, a former actress – and black’

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Sir Trevor’s comments were published a day before James Hewitt said his former lover, Princess Diana, ‘would be concerned’ about the ongoing rift between her sons, Princes William and Harry.

The former cavalry officer, 66, said in a rare television interview that the Princess, who died in Paris in 1997, would have done ‘her best to try and get them together’.

He was asked on ITV’s Good Morning Britain by host Richard Madeley whether Diana would have been able to ‘make a rapprochement possible’.

Hewitt replied: ‘I think any mother would be worried and concerned about such a rift, as you put it, and she’d do her best to try and get them together.’

Call me paranoid, if you wish, but I do sense something of a conspiracy among certain parts of our Establishment to bring about a return of Harry and Meghan to the royal fold.

There is no doubt that Harry is seeking a closer relationship with his family again.

After King Charles’s cancer treatment was announced in February last year, his younger son let it be known via friends that he was willing to take on a temporary royal role in support of his father. His offer was never taken up, but the California-based Prince is understood to be keen to spend more time in his homeland.

The King’s long-stated desire for a ‘slimmed-down’ monarchy may have made some royalists, such as Sir Trevor McDonald, nervous about the Sussexes’ absence.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the Invictus Games in Vancouver this month

Mail’s royal experts analyse Harry and Meghan’s PDA at Invictus

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 Royal insiders reveal the ‘reason’ for Meghan’s As Ever U-turn

When Charles was promoting his vision of a smaller version of The Firm, he envisaged Harry and his future family being a key part of it. He and Camilla would be supported by both his sons and their families. It was a compelling idea to which some monarchists still cling.

However, what it overlooks is Harry and Meghan’s past behaviour.

Much as I respect Sir Trevor, he is wrong to say Meghan was ‘never given a chance to prove herself’. Queen Elizabeth and the rest of her family rolled out the red carpet for the American actress.

Even though Meghan had been married before, the late Queen ensured her second wedding was a spectacular event at Windsor.

And when Meghan’s father said he could not attend the wedding, Charles offered to walk her down the aisle as if she were his own daughter.

The Queen put much effort into making Meghan feel welcome, asking her to join her on a day of engagements in Cheshire, for example, and handing her the roles of patron of the National Theatre and vice president of The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust. These made the most of Meghan’s talents and interests.

However, courtiers who were asked to work with Meghan say she sometimes gave the impression that she did not want to be a successful royal. They have told me she seemed to be looking for reasons to be resentful and encourage Harry to return with her to California, where she could make a stack of money.

On Instagram, she recently stated that she had not been able to share her passion for food and home for ‘years’ after she shut her lifestyle blog The Tig, which provides further evidence that she was unhappy with the restrictions of royal life.

The truth, Sir Trevor, is that Meghan had every chance to prove herself in the Royal Family but chose to reject the opportunity and instead seek her fortune back in America.

There is no reason why those she and Harry have hurt and insulted, such as Prince William and Catherine, should be forced to welcome the Sussexes back.

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