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There can be nothing more humiliating than being a UK royal - and not being invited to a high-profile British Royal Family wedding. So if anything proves that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are palace persona non grata it's claims they "weren't even in the mix" for an RSVP to Peter Phillips's nuptials in Gloucestershire next month.

We already knew Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson had been barred from the wedding of Princess Anne's 48-year-old son to fiancée Harriet Sperling at All Saints Church, Cirencester, on June 6. Sources suggested the soon-to-be-wed couple thought the pair, whose reputations have been tarred by the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, would "cause a distraction to the whole day".

But the York daughters Princesses Beatrice, 36, and Eugenie, 35, are reportedly both going to the do which is already shaping up to be the high society event of the year.

Naturally the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would expect to be invited, and would surely desperately want to be there - to show to the rest of the world that they are still regally relevant and remain 'plugged into' the Royal Family.

So the snub is completely damning - it effectively means either Peter Phillips, Princess Anne, Prince William or even King Charles decreed that the day would be a lot easier and jollier if Harry and Meghan were nowhere in sight.

Mark Dolan said of the royal wedding on the Daily Expresso podcast: "There was a conversation about whether Andrew and Sarah Ferguson would attend.

"Clearly, it was quite a short conversation. But a conversation was had and it was decided it was not the best move. Well, poor old Harry wasn't even in the mix for an invite. So he's done."

Mr Dolan added that if Prince Harry had been invited, it could have marked "the beginning of the thawing of relations". "With his absence, he's got an uphill struggle getting back in that family," he said.

Podcast host JJ Anisiobi pointed out: "So the fact [is] that Harry went to Peter Phillips' first wedding, Peter went to Harry and Meghan's wedding, and now Peter has not invited Harry."

Meanwhile a source told Hello! Magazine: "Peter and Harry haven't spoken for several years and have simply lost touch, so he hasn't been invited."

While the official guest list has not been released, it's been reported that the royals likely attending the wedding are Peter's divorced parents, Princess Anne and Mark Phillips and his sister, Zara Tindall with her husband, Mike Tindall.

The Prince and Princess of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh could also attend.

But Harry and Meghan's supposed snub has deeper and more ominous consequences for the Californian couple.

If the pair cannot scrounge two invites to a cousin's second wedding - Peter divorced first wife Autumn Kelly in 2021 - what hope have the Sussexes got in fulfilling their future dream of convincing Charles to reintegrate them as half-in-half-out 'working royals' who rake it in by monetising their royal titles?

The Sussexes are now like tubes of hemorrhoid ointment: we all know they exist, but you don't want to be seen with one.