NATASHA LIVINGSTONE: If you REALLY want to be a real Duchess, Meghan, check out the steadfast, no-nonsense Sophie

Harry and Meghan may have cut so many ties with the royal family, but one move they’ve never supported is giving up their Duke and Duchess titles.

After all, dynastic rank offers them great prestige in America – and commands a status and respect that plain old Mr. and Mrs. Windsor could never command.

Although Harry has insisted that giving up the titles would make no difference, some observers increasingly believe that the time has come to do so, since their lives in California have become so far removed from the ideals of selfless duty and service that holders of the rank should have. ideally embody.

And for an example of how the holder of such a privileged title should behave, look no further than the Duchess of Edinburgh, wife of Prince Edward and formerly known as Sophie Wessex.

Last week, as Meghan lounged around her £12million Montecito mansion while her favorite author Omid Scobie set up a new media circus with her at its core, Sophie was on a four-day state visit to Colombia.

With the controversy over his new book Endgame taking up acres of newsprint, not a word about Sophie’s journey appeared in any national British newspaper, apart from the standard, functional mention in The Times’s Court Circular notices.

Over the past three months, Sophie has also visited Canada and Ethiopia. She also received little media attention there. Yet that doesn’t matter to those she meets, because her presence is more than enough in recognition of their work.

Since Harry and Meghan left Britain in 2020, Sophie has increasingly taken on the burden of royal responsibilities.

The mother-of-two is a patron of more than 70 charities and organizations and carried out 138 engagements last year, including visits to schools, hospitals, military bases, charities and community groups.

Her workload is in stark contrast to the lifestyle of the Sussexes – who have been scathingly described as ‘con artists’ by an executive at streaming service Spotify.

Sophie completed a 10,000-mile tour to Colombia last week in support of Britain’s leading role in advancing the women, peace and security agenda, established by the UN Security Council to help women in conflict zones.

Her visit was undertaken at the request of the State Department to see how the South American nation was faring since the 2016 peace deal that ended a decades-long armed conflict with FARC rebels that claimed 220,000 lives.

On Wednesday, the decked-out duchess traveled to the capital Bogota, where she met former FARC fighters who now work at a coffee farm called Tropicos Fruits of Hope, which has retrained more than 130 former fighters.

Dressed in a floral blouse, jeans and walking boots, Sophie then visited a research laboratory to see how British DNA sequencing technology is being used in the fight against the illegal wildlife trade.

Later that day, she met women and girls who survived sexual violence during the bloody conflict. Sophie listened attentively to the women’s testimonies and, clearly moved by their stories, hugged them warmly.

The visit had important diplomatic ties and highlighted Colombia’s role as vice-chair of the International Alliance on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict, which was founded last year at a conference in Britain. The alliance, which has 25 members including Britain and the US, aims to tackle the way women are disproportionately targeted and how sexual violence is used as a tactic of war.

On Thursday, the hard-working Duchess met local ballerinas at a British Council camp in the city of Cali. Sophie, patron of London’s Central School of Ballet, was told how art can heal communities and build peace.

She then attended a sustainable fashion show to showcase clothes made by designers recovering from the effects of decades of conflict and organized crime, in line with her role as patron of the London College of Fashion.

Photos of the visit were largely ignored by the media – something Sophie is well used to.

However, people close to the Duchess say she is not concerned about chasing headlines because she knows the deeper value of her work. Yet the images proved popular on the royal family’s Instagram account.

One follower said: ‘Thank you for being so inspiring,’ while another added: ‘Such important causes to shine a light on… so much admiration for her and the work she does.’

The week before, Sophie was at the duchess’s service for South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s state visit to Britain and accompanied him to the Royal Society in London. In characteristic fashion, she managed to smooth out a potentially awkward moment by laughing heartily when a rather gruesome ‘death mask’ of legendary physicist Sir Isaac Newton failed to get more than a polite nod from the slightly bewildered president.

Earlier last month, she made a five-day solo trip to Canada in her capacity as colonel-in-chief of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment, a reserve infantry regiment of the Canadian Army; and as patron of the General and Western Hospitals of Toronto.

Local media praised the Duchess for “bringing empathy” to the patients and soldiers she met and welcomed her “deep knowledge of global health initiatives.”

In October she visited Ethiopia to defend two other important causes. As a global ambassador for the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, Sophie visited the city of Hawassa to meet children being screened for eye conditions.

She then traveled to war-torn Tigray in northern Ethiopia to meet women and girls internally displaced by conflict and living in a large camp with more than 16,000 others.

Typical comments on social media included: “She is such an asset to the Royal Family” and “You are an amazing, warm and genuine Duchess Sophie.”

How different from the tsunami of negativity that has greeted Meghan and Harry’s silence over claims they endorsed Scobie’s new book, which predicts the demise of the royal family.

At the time the couple broke away from the royal family, ITN’s Tom Bradby – another journalist who reportedly looked favorably on Team Sussex – admitted that the couple ‘seemed philosophical about the prospect of losing their titles’.

But when asked earlier this year on US TV show 60 Minutes about withdrawing their titles, Harry said: ‘And what difference would that make?’

Those who believe that the holders of such esteemed titles should do something to justify them – as the Duchess of Edinburgh so selflessly does – will surely believe that this will make a huge difference.