She wrote on news.com.au: “What little, if any chance, there might have been of Archie especially but Lili too forming some sort of real bond or connection with their British family has, this week, taken a massive hit.
“How much harder will it be for Charles to ever really get to know his American grandchildren […] The situation was parlous enough already.”
Elser noted how Archie, as well as Lilibet have only spent a total of four days back in the UK after their parents quit their royal duties and moved to the US in 2020.
The royal expert asked: “Have this week’s events just further ingrained and further entrenched the chasm between Montecito and the monarchy? Has this Endgame mess ensured this schism will continue to blight the next generation?”
“While we wait to see what the short and medium-term repercussions of Endgame’s naming of Charles and Kate and the Sussexes’ so-far extraordinary silence might be, let’s you and I take a look at the longer-term picture – a longer-term picture where it’s these kids, and especially Archie and Lili, who will pay a high price,” she added.
According to Ms Elser, whilst Prince William and Princess Kate’s children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis – who barely know their cousins – will have the “pressure and workloads” to “just fulfil the basic requirements of a constitutional monarchy” when they grow up, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet will be two adults “with titles that inextricably tie them to the monarchy and yet no practical or emotional connections to the crown.”
She added: “That duality of these inherently opposing identities seems liable to cause no end of headaches down the track.[..No matter what, their actions, their marriages, and their business dealings will still refract back and reflect on The Firm, a sort of reputational ricochet effect.
“My point is, in all of the tempest and the interviews and the tears and the finger-pointing and the cheques and the ‘senior palace sources’ popping up to whisper sweet nothings into the British media’s ears, the people I really feel sorry for are the ones high on Octonauts merch and low on ever having met the Archbishop of Canterbury.”
