Something needs saying plainly because the media keeps forgetting it. Harry and Meghan are private citizens. Not 'non-working royals.' Not 'royals in exile.' Not 'the Sussexes stepping out.' Private citizens. They chose it in 2020. They told Oprah why. They moved back in August with no plans to resume duties. And last month the Lord Chamberlain wrote it down so there could be no confusion: no royal role, no duties, no claim. So what was Nottingham? What's a tuxedo with medals on at Greenwich? What's standing next to the Irish Guards band, Catherine's regiment, for the pool photographer? What's turning up alone at the rugby, Catherine's patronage, and having a 'source' tell Hello! the kids would love to come once the security is 'sorted'? What's a 'sorry' floated through the Express without actually saying sorry? It's an application. For the thing they gave up. Royal adjacency without royal duty. The crowds, the flowers, the cameras, the police escort, the family's name over the door, and none of the Tuesdays in Peterhead or the 532 engagements a year the King did in cancer treatment. And we cannot give it to them. Not the public, not the papers, not the Home Office, not the family. Because the moment you reward leaving, then performing the job you left, for free, in the same city, with a fan club bringing the flowers, you've told every future royal that the door swings both ways and the perks are portable. It isn't and they aren't. That's the whole deal. You're in or you're out. One more thing. Meghan is 45. She's the oldest of the four. Older than William, older than Catherine, older than Harry. She is not the ingénue in this story, whatever the tears at a bouquet are meant to suggest. She's a grown woman who's made every choice on this list and now wants the one thing those choices cost her. Private citizens. Enjoy Nottingham. Pay for your own security like the rest of us, and the next time a working royal is on a bus in Sussex with a 94 year old, notice the difference. That's the job. They didn't want it. They don't get the bits that come with it.