Just half a year after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle exchanged vows at St George’s Chapel in Windsor, whispers of a potential divide within the royal circle started to surface.

Even ahead of their big day, there were several alleged disagreements between Meghan and Kate over issues including lipgloss and bridesmaid dresses.

According to royal historian Robert Lacey’s book, “Battle of Brothers,” a significant clash unfolded between Prince William and Harry late in 2016, when William aired his reservations about Harry’s burgeoning relationship.

In November 2018, however, the Sussexes showed a united front as they participated in the Centenary of Armistice Day service at Westminster Abbey, a renowned London landmark.

Dressed in matching navy blue outfits, the newlyweds, who were soon-to-be parents, arrived hand in hand, joining the ‘Fab Four’ to honor Britain’s wartime heroes.

While the couple seemed to be settling into royal duties, an intriguing conversation overheard that day might have hinted at their future plans to step away, as interpreted by an expert lip reader.

During the wait for the service to begin, both wearing remembrance poppies, Harry appeared tense as Meghan turned to him and reportedly uttered five impactful words.

‘Take advantage of the situation’, she urged Harry, according to forensic lip reader Nicola Hickling, who discussed her interpretation of their seemingly tense interaction.

 Explaining the premise of their conversation in detail, she told Channel 5: ‘Meghan leans into Harry and I believe that she’s saying “take advantage of the situation” and then she pauses and just looks around and turns back to Harry.’

According to Ms Hickling, her husband, who perhaps appears to be slightly taken aback by her bold statement, then seeks some clarification by asking: ‘Today?’

After processing his wife’s demands, Harry then proceeds to make one rather simple, and slightly puzzling, remark: ‘Sweet’.

‘I’ve never heard anybody say “sweet” at the end of a conversation but according to what I can lip read, I can’t think of any other word that he would say other than sweet’, Ms Hickling adds. 

Analysing how the conversation between the Sussexes progresses, Ms Hickling claims that Meghan then goes on to ‘direct the conversation in a way that she appears to be instructing him’.

She adds that the Duchess provides the Prince with a clear instruction, telling him: ‘Do it tonight’.

Meghan then appeared to mournfully ‘look away as if she’s visualising a scenario perhaps and she’s processing what she’s just said’.

Turning sharply to face Meghan, perhaps in a desperate bid to make the gravity of her demands abundantly clear, Harry asked a haunting question that could signify their impending exit.

 Ms Hickling said: ‘Harry leans into Meghan and I do believe at this point he’s saying to her “You do realise that this is the end?”.’

But Meghan, seemingly certain in her decision, allegedly responds with one conclusive answer: ‘Yes, I know’.

It remains unknown what exactly could have triggered such a tense conversation between the pair in that particular moment.

However, eagle-eyed royal fans could not help but notice that the Sussexes appeared to had been placed in the ‘cheap seats’ of the royal box at the Festival of Remembrance hosted the evening before. 

Held annually at London’s Royal Albert Hall, the music concert paid tribute to the British victims of WWI, with several members of the Royal family in attendance. 

While images showed the late Queen, then Prince Charles and both Prince William and Kate sat close together, Harry and Meghan appeared to have been snubbed with their seating arrangements – seen almost out of view in the far corner. 

It was only days later that the pair announced they were to split their joint royal household, relocating from the Kensington Palace estate to Frogmore Cottage in Windsor.

In a move that fuelled pre-existing rumours of a breakdown in relations among the ‘Fab Four’ and particularly acute ‘tensions’ between the two royal brothers, a ‘substantial overhaul’ of Frogmore Cottage was approved – a gift to the couple from the late Queen.

 But over the course of the next year, relations between the Sussexes and the remainder of the firm continued to deteriorate, as the couple became increasingly unhappy with life within the Royal Family.

In June 2019, the pair split from the joint Royal Foundation with William in Kate to establish their own charitable foundation, titled the Archwell Foundation.

And during a notorious ITV documentary while on a royal tour in South Africa, Meghan issued a clear warning that she was struggling to cope with the challenges that came with her new life by opening up about her wellbeing.

When prompted, Meghan said: ‘Thank you for asking, because not many people have asked if I’m okay… But it’s a very real thing to be going through behind the scenes.’ She was moved close to tears as she told of her ‘struggle’ at being in the media spotlight since marrying into The Firm.

Despite the emotional nature of the comments, her grumble was seen as out of touch and drew criticism. It was made worse by the fact Meghan had decided to make her comments of alleged suffering in one of the most unequal and deprived parts of the world.

Behind the scenes, the programme angered many in the royal household, where staff felt they had done their best to support the Sussexes in extremely ‘trying’ times as they tried to placate a couple desperately unhappy with their roles.

Less than two months later, in January 2020, their seeming frustrations came to a head as Harry and Meghan announced their plans to step back from their roles as senior members of the Royal family.

In an extraordinary statement, the Duke and Duchess insisted they wished to ‘carve out a progressive new role’ and hoped to balance their time between the UK and North America. 

 More than four years on from ‘Megxit’, and perhaps a clear indication of the dramatic demise of their relationship with the Firm, by November last year, Harry and Meghan ensured that they stayed far away from the Festival of Remembrance.

Opting to film a video in California instead, the pair, who both donned dark blazers with poppy pins fastened on their lapels, spoke about protections for ‘the most vulnerable in our world’ against the threat of digital violence and harm.

Conducting a thorough analysis of the video, body language expert Judi James told Daily Mail that both their appearance and body language ‘made it look as though they have turned back the clock to the times when they appeared as a royal couple at the Remembrance service in the UK.’

As their first joint appearance in nearly three months, Ms James said that it felt like ‘Harry was very much the alpha prince’ while Meghan seemed to be ‘taking her lead from him as she learned the ropes’.

She added: ‘Meghan looks less assertive here and she appears to be copying and mirroring her husband, taking her cues from him.’

Ms James commented that although their words define their campaign against violence against children, ‘Harry and Meghan’s visual image looks very much like a royal homage to Remembrance day.’

 She continued: ‘Their side-by-side poses straight to the camera look regally formal and official. They wear matching, tailored navy jackets that make a feature of the poppies in their lapels.

‘Harry is emphatically in royal military mode, standing unsmiling, with his hands behind his back and rising up onto the balls of his feet and dropping down again as though briefing the troops.

‘Although she starts with her hands clasped in front of her body, by the end of the video she has repositioned to copy Harry’s pose with her hands clasped behind her back.

‘She is the one throwing the frequent glances at her husband as he speaks, smiling warmly and fondly in a gesture of encouragement and support.’  

Following interviews with several Invictus Games athletes at the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance, many noted Harry’s absence last year. 

The Duke had founded the Invictus Games – an annual major sports event for wounded, injured and sick servicemen and servicewomen – in 2014 while he was still a working member of the Royal Family.