Prince Harry has just had the weekend from hell, and there’s photos to prove it

The Duke of Sussex has just had a blistering 72 hours, the likes of which he is not likely to forget any time soon.

You might have heard of ‘panda diplomacy’ so today I present you with ‘sweet-tooth statesmanship’.

The all-bells and whistles non-royal, royal-adjacent wedding of the Duke of Westminster in Chester in England’s north over the weekend necessitated, for security reasons, the closing of streets, and so to do his lord bountiful bit, His Grace laid on free ice cream for the entire city.

It’s hard to complain about being put out with a mouthful of mint choc chip.

Maybe he should have extended his sugary largesse a bit further afield because the duke’s chum, one Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has just endured what one could officially term, a real bummer of a weekend.

What, I ask you, is the best flavour to cheer up a man facing a brother rubbing his elevation in his face, his friends hardly rushing to rally to his side, a charity of which he is president facing new, devastating allegations and clouds over a mooted Netflix project?

Somehow a solo scoop of vanilla is not just going to cut it.

Let’s begin things here on the beaches of France where, last week, every world leader worth their official NATO travel mug gathered to mark 80-years since the D-Day landings on 6 June.

With King Charles still being treated for cancer it was Prince William who got to play international statesman alongside a bunch of heads of state – people who have nuclear launch codes and whose power extends beyond vetoing acts for the Royal Variety Show – including President Joe Biden and President Emannuel Macron.

So on 6 June, with Harry back in California muttering to himself “service is universal”, it was his older brother and sometimes “arch nemesis” William who was getting to have a good long go at strutting his stuff on the world stage.