RICHARD EDEN: The hidden detail of Meghan’s solo red carpet appearance that has courtiers asking the same question

The absence of the Queen from a major event would normally be a big story. But though Camilla, who turned 77 over the summer, withdrew from the ceremonial welcome for the Emir of Qatar on Tuesday because of the lingering effects of pneumonia, the eyes of royal watchers were firmly focused on the Princess of Wales instead.

That’s because it was the first state visit in which Catherine, 42, has taken part since she underwent ‘planned abdominal surgery’ almost a year ago. In June, she missed the state visit of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako of Japan, because she was continuing treatment for an unnamed form of cancer.

Now that treatment is over, and Catherine was the star attraction at Buckingham Palace in a maroon coat dress thoughtfully chosen to pay tribute to the flag of Qatar, which features maroon and a serrated band of white.

She also made a point of wearing pearl drop earrings and a pearl necklace which had belonged to the late Queen Elizabeth. Pearl hunting – recovering the gems from wild molluscs in the sea – is a central part of the history of the oil-rich Gulf state.

Catherine’s appearance by Prince William’s side was a reassuring display for monarchists alarmed by the health problems that have beset the Royal Family this year. Queen Camilla’s disclosure that she had not fully recovered from pneumonia was not what they wanted to hear after King Charles’s ongoing treatment for cancer.

The Waleses’ joint display offered a stark contrast to Prince Harry’s latest solo appearance across the Atlantic.

When the Sussexes moved to California in 2020 they were expected to become a ‘power couple’ with their own ‘court’ of admiring celebrities desperate to share their limelight.

Instead – as was evident last night when Meghan did not join Prince Harry on his visit to New York – they are pursuing increasingly separate working lives.

He was in the city – his second solo visit in little more than two months – for a party to celebrate the opening of an art exhibition, called Friend, at the Ki Smith Gallery, to raise money for Sentebale, the African charity he founded with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho.

Meghan’s absence was notable because Sentebale – which helps children come to terms with having HIV or AIDS – is a cause close to Harry’s heart. Nor did she accompany him when he visited Lesotho with the charity in October.

Last night, the prince’s wife was more than 2,000 miles away, attending the Paley Honors Fall Gala in Los Angeles in support of her friend, filmmaker Tyler Perry.

A royal source told me this week: ‘William and Catherine know that their strength is as a couple. It’s surprising that Harry and Meghan seem to believe that they are stronger apart when it comes to their engagements.’

The source added: ‘Yes, the Prince and Princess of Wales will do things separately, but they will be together when it matters.’

Meghan’s focus appears to be on her cooking and lifestyle business, American Riviera Orchard, which she launched with great fanfare back in March but which has still not started selling produce.

This week, I reported in my Daily Mail social diary, Eden Confidential, that she had appointed herself as chief executive officer of the firm. The former actress started interviewing several people for the position nine months ago, but was unable to find anyone who matched her expectations.

Meghan is said to hope that American Riviera Orchard, which will focus on home, garden, food and lifestyle wares, will be highly lucrative.

Since marrying in 2018, the Sussexes are reported to have lost at least 18 staff, with nine or more having left since they moved to California.

It hasn’t been a great week for Harry and Meghan, with a documentary in Germany, where they previously enjoyed great popularity, accusing them of hypocrisy while enjoying an ‘elitist’ lifestyle in the United States.

The programme, Harry: The Lost Prince, includes damning criticism of the couple’s attempts to build a new life for themselves as charity activists and campaigners since exiting the Royal Family.

One stinging voice in the documentary is former soldier Ben McBean, who lost his left arm and had his right leg amputated above the knee after being seriously injured by a landmine blast in Afghanistan in 2008.

McBean, who shared a flight home from Afghanistan with Harry, did not hold back in criticising the prince over his indiscretions about his family in his bombshell memoir Spare and in his Netflix ‘docu-series’.

The former Royal Marine said: ‘I just thought, with him kind of whingeing about his family – and he was saying something about his brother pushing him over or something like that – I was just like, “Mate, just leave it out.” You and your brother had a little fisticuffs… but family’s family, you know.’

Harry had described McBean as a ‘hero’ after their flight home together, so his criticism is sure to sting.

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