LIZ JONES: Yes, Meghan was a stick in the spokes of the royal tricycle and Kate lost a close friend. But Harry had to grow up...

Meghan Markle: actress, feminist, podcaster, wife, mother, sister, activist. And now?

She can add yet one more epithet to that long list. Stick. She is a 'stick in the spokes' of the freewheeling tricycle that once was William, Catherine and Harry.

The Duchess of Sussex was thus described by Gary Goldsmith, Catherine's 'Buncle' or 'bad uncle', during a conversation on Celebrity Big Brother earlier this week.

Meghan 'creates so much drama' that does not exist, he said, then uses it to 'rewrite history'. She is an 'extra dynamic'.

On Wednesday night, he even called for her to be stripped of her titles.

How seriously you take the opinion of a man who put a great big spanner in the cogs of the Royal Family with his own vodka-fuelled antics and rumbustious domestic life is up to you.

But he has a point. That royal tricycle, once carrying laughter, camaraderie, and youthful energy is now upside down in a ditch, wheels spinning, mud splattered everywhere.

That royal tricycle of William, Catherine and Harry (pictured), once carrying laughter, camaraderie, and youthful energy is now upside down in a ditch, wheels spinning

The moment Harry turned to see Kate walking down the aisle towards William. He mouthed to his brother, 'She is here now. She looks beautiful, I can tell you that.'

I like Meghan. I admire women who take no prisoners, who refuse to simper and smile, who have the gumption to tell our future king, 'Keep your finger out of my face.'

You go, Girl!

To succeed as Meghan did in the world of American television is harder than qualifying to be an astronaut. You must harbour no fear and grow a hide so thick you can re-enter the Earth's atmosphere with no need of shields.

Which of course made Meghan prickly when she joined this triumvirate with its in-jokes and banter, nicknames and weird party games.

All famous (even mildly well-known) people are difficult, self-doubting. But drop one into the middle of a family that believes royalty trumps stardom-via-meritocracy and you become a sharp penknife in an over-inflated tyre.

Yes, Meghan was a stick, but Harry needed to mature, didn't he? Life can't all be spent in the stands watching rugby, giggling.

Goldsmith revealed on CBB that he hasn't actually met Meghan. Hah! But one thing he said did strike a chord: 'When William, Harry and Kate were a threesome, they looked really comfortable together.'

These days, Harry denies that he was ever happy back then, that the smiles were for the camera. But looking back we do indeed see photo after photo of Harry and Kate in hysterics. There's a genuine fondness, rapport and pleasure in each other's company, as easy to wear as an old sweater, but hard to fake.

William has always looked more reticent, weighed down by history and the expectation of duty. Kate doubtless saw the younger brother as uncomplicated, on her side.

If ever you tire of kittens and puppies, just Google 'Harry and Kate laughing' to cheer you up.

Remember the 'Three Musketeers' racing each other for charity in 2017?

Harry was the winner, but he slowed and waited for his brother – the man he'd later describe in his memoir Spare as his 'nemesis' - to catch up. There was no competitiveness there.

Watching the London Olympics on 2012 together, attending premieres as a trio. It was just so easy and fun.

And who can forget the look on Harry's face at Westminster Abbey when he saw Kate walking down the aisle towards William. He mouthed the words, 'She is here now. She looks beautiful, I can tell you that.'

That clip went viral.

Maybe Harry looks so serious, now, less happy and healthy, because he knows what his wife Meghan has gone through – continues to be put through.

Harry said Kate was the sister he never had. She was doubtless a strong, feminine force unafraid to tell him when he had overstepped the mark.

It's not just Harry's devil-may-care joie de vivre of those days that I miss, but the lovely relationship between those two.

Now? There are endless photos of him looking glum. Of Meghan clinging like a limpet at yet another pop concert. Him, stiff as a board.

But maybe that's most marriages after a while? There are always more smiles for a friend than for your partner.

Any woman entering that polished gang of three would have felt out of place. As the interloper, you're bound to make mistakes.

Meghan wore ripped jeans when she met William and Kate for the first time at Harry's Kensington pad, Nottingham Cottage. She had bare feet. She hugged.

There are endless photos of Harry looking glum, of Meghan clinging like a limpet at yet another pop concert. Him, stiff as a board. But maybe that's most marriages after a while?

The bigger point in all of this? Meghan stopped the merry go round and showed Harry that life isn't all about waving and smiling.

Maybe Harry looks so serious, now, less happy and healthy, because he knows what his wife has gone through – continues to be put through. The endless trolling would wipe the smile from most caring husbands' faces.

Perhaps he looks back at his old, carefree life and thinks: 'I must have been blind. I was a gurning idiot, sheltered from the real world, its hardships, its warped vendettas.'

I think he's stopped laughing because he has finally woken up.

Meghan is a stick who stuck, certainly. She stopped a rollercoaster of beer pong and pheasant annihilating.

But there's sadness here, too. Kate has lost not just a close friend in Harry but someone whom she might well need to lean on right now as she recovers from surgery amid all the mad theories about her health and her whereabouts.

He was someone who really got her.

On Wednesday night our future Queen's Buncle told his fellow Celebrity Big Brother Housemate former Love Island contestant Ekin-Su: 'She will be back. Of course, she will.'

And she will. But the thing is, Kate used to have a brother-in-law to support her, someone who could gee her up, flatter, console her.

But Harry grew up, grew apart. And, sadly, William lost the light to his shade.