While certainly well-intentioned by all parties, the Jubilee weekend did little to ease tensions between the Sussexes and the rest of the royal family.

On their first official family trip to the UK since moving to California, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were almost spared. Whether this was intentional is complicated by the simple fact that everyone's Jubilee schedule is busy. In fact, Harry did not get any one-on-one time with his brother Prince William, and the couple only got a total of 15 minutes of private audience with the Queen.

Zara Tindall, cousin of the Duke of Sussex, was one of the only royals to publicly acknowledge Harry and his wife at a thanksgiving celebration on Friday.

For royal expert Duncan Larcombe, the chilly welcome was no accident: he believes the presence of the Sussexes would have aroused unpleasant feelings among other royals over the long weekend.

"The royal family may have been united, but there was definitely a lot of tension, awkwardness, and caution behind the scenes," Larcombe said in this week's Closer. [Ultimately, it would have been Harry and Meghan's presence that would have mattered.

"I can't imagine there would have been a lot of interaction or a lot of heart-to-heart because the royals would have felt that what they said might end up in a chapter in Harry's memoir or in a future podcast."

In Larkom's view, the royal family doesn't know how to navigate a family member being so directly involved with the media, including lucrative deals with Spotify and Netflix.

"It's uncharted territory for the royal family, and it's the first time they've been 'in bed' with a streaming giant or publisher," the expert said.

Still, the author thinks it is overall a good thing that the Sussexes went all the way to the UK.

"I think it's great that they were there because it's clear that the Queen really likes Harry," he explains.