I think we all know why petulant Prince Harry is crawling back to his family. The truth hurts - Carole Malone

And now that in the US he has nothing left to sell, and he and Meghan have become somewhat of a joke, he desperately wants to regain his lost status by rejoining the family.

But if I were the King or Wills, I wouldn’t trust him, or his motives for a second. Because what can those motives be?

Do I believe Harry’s suddenly developed a conscience and is desperately sorry for what he’s done? No, I don’t.

Do I believe this is all about self-preservation, grabbing back his lost status and making himself saleable again? Yes, I do.

Harry has proved time and again that he can’t be trusted. Every communication, every meeting he’s had with the royals since he fled Britain has been mysteriously leaked to the U.S. media and the contents of the conversations exposed.

So how could he ever again be part of the royals’ inner circle? How could he be entrusted with family secrets? How could the royals ever be sure that any conversation they have with him won’t end up on Oprah’s show as a royal special?

They can’t. Especially because of his media-savvy wife, who’s currently fighting to save her own career, and whose hatred and disrespect of the royal family runs deep.

Hell, she hasn’t even allowed the royals to see her kids grow up or meet their royal cousins. The King has only met Lilibet once since she was born. That doesn’t sound like a couple who want to kiss and make up.

We’re told last week’s meeting between the King’s respected aide, Tobyn Andreae, and head of Harry and Meghan’s household in Montecito, Meredith Maines, was the first tentative step in a rapprochement.

Who instigated that, I wonder? It would be of no benefit to the royals, knowing that Harry can’t be trusted.

And it’s worth saying it was Ms Maines who organised an interview with the BBC recently where Harry said he’d love a reconciliation with his family but that the “King won’t speak to me because of the security stuff”.

I suspect there are many more reasons why Charles won’t speak to him – the most important one being that he tried to trash the institution to which he, his mother, and his son Wills have devoted their lives.

However, the fact Harry sent one of his flunkies to try and negotiate a way back into the family shows the arrogance, the entitlement, the belief that none of what’s happened is his or Meghan’s fault, are still all there - festering.

Even now, this grasping pair still don’t get that everything that’s happened to them is their own stupid fault. They were the ones who chose to sell out the royal family, to open their big, cruel mouths and brand them as racists on the world stage.

They were the ones to hawk every cough and spit of their lives within the family, blowing apart the discretion that had been its watchword for centuries.

Instead of sending flunky Harry – and even Meghan for that matter - should have come back on bended knees if need be and said sorry.

Even that would be nowhere near enough to compensate for the hurt, the pain, the distress and the damage they’ve both caused – but it would at least have been a start.

But no, Harry sends a flunky to do his dirty work, a flunky who has probably made clear to him that he needs to refresh his royal-ness if he intends to stay relevant.

Is Harry really so busy in Montecito that he couldn’t personally come and say sorry to his dad, who has cancer and to his brother Wills and Kate, whom he and Meghan have so disgracefully betrayed?

Is he scared? Or is he still so arrogant that he believes the Royal Family should apologise to him because not so long ago he said exactly that.

If he were really sorry, he’d have come himself to beg forgiveness from a Father who has cancer and who, despite everything, still loves his cruel and wayward son.

But the big question is, why now? Why does Harry want to make nice right now?

I suspect it’s because he knows he’s finished in the US. He’s literally got no more family secrets to sell and was only ever worth anything to the worldwide media when he was telling(selling?) tales. Now, no one’s much interested in either him or Meghan, and the Americans now see them both as a bit of a joke.

How strange that Harry is now the bloke he said he always wanted to be - plain, old private Harry living a life away from his royal status and all its trappings.

And guess what, he doesn’t like it.

That’s why he wants to be back in. He wants status, he wants money, and he wants to matter. And the best way to do that is to crawl back to the family and the life he abandoned.

Interesting, isn’t it, how both Harry and Meghan claim to have fled Britain because they were desperate to live a simple, private life. But the life they’ve created for themselves is anything but.

Their lives could have been much simpler, quieter, more private and protected had they stayed under the protection of the royals.

But the fact is, this pair can’t ever come back in the way they probably want to. Neither are now capable of being a part of the Royal Family - abiding by its rules, its protocols, its traditions. They’ve got so used to getting their own way on everything that they can never have back what they so carelessly threw away - not least the love and respect of the British people.

So, no, they shouldn’t ever be allowed to have any form of royal life.

They don’t deserve it, they’re no longer suited to it, and they hurt too many people.