The Montecito-based couple’s people have been busily playing down any suggestion that they will upstage the Queen as she marks 70 years on the throne. 

As a source told The Telegraph last week, they will stick to the script by “avoiding visits elsewhere”.

The palace also appears to be unaware of any potential competing engagements, with one insider revealing: “I don’t think they’re doing much. I wouldn’t be surprised if they just do Trooping and the service and that’s it.” 

Talk of the couple seeking to christen Lilibet while she is in Britain and meeting her great-grandmother and namesake for the first time appear wide of the mark. As one source put it: “It’s already an incredibly busy weekend for the Queen, I don’t think anyone would also want to wish a Christening on her.” The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, testing positive with Covid also appears to have put paid to that rumour. 

Intriguingly, it appears the couple will not be accompanied to the UK by any of their own public relations representatives after Toya Holness, their former spokesman, left Archewell earlier this month. 

Liaison between the Sussexes and the Palace is being handled by Herlihy Loughran, an “advisory partnership” comprised of Clara Loughran and Beth Herlihy, former palace aides. The duo handled the communications for the Invictus Games and are said to be the Duke’s “eyes and ears” back in Britain. 

Meanwhile, The Telegraph understands that conversations have taken place to establish what the Cambridge children – Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis – are attending, in a bid to match them up with their American cousins.

As such, none are expected at the thanksgiving service – with the jury still out on their presence at Trooping the Colour, the Party at the Palace on Saturday night or the Pageant in the Mall on Sunday afternoon. 

Security remains a key concern for the Duke of Sussex, who is suing the Home Office over its decision to strip his family of their Metropolitan Police bodyguards. It is thought the Sussexes will be enveloped into the policing provision for all the royals while they are here.  

For one weekend only, then, it is hoped the Sussexes will not just take one for the team – but be the team players The Firm once loved, and lost.