For William and Kate the developments are especially troubling. They have always been enormously careful about friendships and they have placed a premium on trust.
They have eschewed the celebrity friends that Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex appear to like to surround themselves with.
No friends of Kate have gone chatting to gossipy magazines as Meghan’s have done to People and Vanity Fair.
As a royal wife and mother, Kate has never put a foot wrong, her family are loyal and discreet. She carries out her official duties with enthusiasm.
She and William have not been photographed exchanging so much as a cross word in public.
But while William has never indulged in the kind of ‘what Meghan wants, Meghan gets’ foot-stamping as Prince Harry is said to have done, he knows how important she is as a mother and a future queen.
And if this whole sorry episode turns out to be some cack-handed attempt to dent Kate’s unshakeable standing with the public, it has almost certainly backfired.
