Once more, the Sussexes are damned if they do, damned if they don’t. Over the weekend Harry and Meghan joined a host of A-listers publicly supporting relief efforts against the horrors of Los Angeles’s wildfires.

They were filmed on a walk-about in the badly affected Altadena and Pasadena districts of the showbiz city.

Supplies were distributed, masks worn, hugs administered, and kind words proffered from the Pasadena mayor, Victor M Gordo, who assured Fox viewers the couple had boosted morale.

To no avail, their visit has met with predictable vitriol. Well known faces joined in the communal sneer against the couple,

led by Family Ties actor Justine Bateman who derided Harry and Meghan as “disaster tourists”, accusing them of “touring the damage” for a “repulsive photo op”.

No matter that Meghan grew up in Los Angeles and only lives 90 miles away in Santa Barbara, “Princess Markle” was castigated for being no better than an “ambulance chaser” in a city where she doesn’t “live”. Ouch.

This was eye-watering stuff from one of Hollywood’s own. Surely the couple were only trying to help?

Having opened the doors of their Montecito mansion to displaced friends, here they were working alongside one of the Archewell Foundation’s partners, World Central Kitchen, to support first responders and victims of the fire. But when it comes to “Princess Markle” nothing is straightforward.

Tellingly, despite a raft of A-list stars rallying to the cause – Sharon Stone, Halle Berry, Jennifer Garner and Charli XCX to name but a few – it is the Sussexes who were singled out for condemnation. Which begs the question, what is it about Meghan (Harry was little more than a spare thumb in the footage) that proves so triggering? Afterall, in the midst of this Tinseltown disaster, let’s not pretend that most famous-do-gooders aren’t on the hunt for positive PR and image enhancement.

The situation for the couple wasn’t helped by the rescheduling of the Duchess of Sussexes’ ominously entitled With Love, Meghan series, originally due to premier this Wednesday. A Californian reality-docu Netflix series, in which the princess assures viewers “I have always loved taking something pretty ordinary and elevating it” (no, she is not talking about Harry), and includes sunlit cutaways of a So-Cal-styled Meghan meandering through an idyllic kitchen garden basket-in-hand, is hardly timely fare for the disaster-stricken American state.

But even the predictable postponement, which saw Meghan explain that the launch was delayed “as we focus on the needs of those impacted by the wildfires in my home state of California” has been met with cynicism. The new start date of 4 March provides a longer lead-in and potentially more attention for her latest production.

It appears the actor-cum-duchess can’t do right for wrong. And to trawl back, beyond the recent fire-disaster, is to be reminded that it was ever thus. Timing is apparently not Meghan’s strongpoint, getting it wrong is her special skill.

The super-stylised retro-trailer for her American Riviera Orchard brand eclipsed Harry and William’s respective efforts to honour their mother’s Princess Diana Legacy Awards last year, while rapturous responses from curated celebrity friends to Meghan’s Riviera dog biscuits and jam, coincided with the announcement that the Princess of Wales would appear at Trooping the Colour, despite her cancer diagnosis.

For those less engaged with the minutiae of royal life, this may sound like curmudgeonly nitpicking, a tiresome b*****iness that follows Meghan around and reveals more about the naysayers than it does about the Duchess. Predictably, the truth is somewhere in the middle.

Taken at face value, Meghan’s respective efforts at self promotion and charitable good works are pretty harmless, sometimes even beneficial. I am sure most residents in Los Angeles’s Altadena and Pasadena districts were pleased to see the pair on 10 January.

In many ways the couple’s little walkabout was reminiscent of the late Queen and Prince William’s arrival the 2017 Grenfell Tower disaster, a timely appearance that upstaged the then Prime Minister Theresa May and went down a storm.

But there is a key difference: William and his grandmother were full-time working royals, engaged in the long-established routine of glad handing and acknowledging, listening and platforming in the name of the British state. Hurrah for the institution of monarchy, which acts as a block against any insinuation that its members might be in pursuit of self gain. (As we all well know, the Royal Family have more than enough.)

In stark contrast, Harry and Meghan very publicly exited the royal stage to go it alone in 2020. Harry was adamant they would continue to serve, insisting that “a life of service” did not depend on royal handouts. Crucially, the Sussex-formula involved making enough money to fund a celebrity Montecito lifestyle while maintaining their philanthropic identity, channelled through the Archewell Foundation and various tours, both overseas and now in the fire stricken districts of LA.

In keeping with that philanthropic mission, Meghan and Harry today encourage others to “open their homes”, the Sussex.com website reminding the less initiated that “a state of emergency has been issued. If you feel compelled to help, here are some resources and ideas…”

It is this hybrid identity that trips up Duchess Meghan’s efforts at altruism. First and foremost, she is an actor, a respectfully ambitious woman who made it in a tough industry on her own. That primary image is now tempered by an apparent broader “queenly” desire to be seen as something bigger, more profound: a philanthropic influencer, a community player. And it doesn’t wash.

Ploddish Prince Harry could probably get away with a backslapping-handshaking existence as a modern equivalent of the Duke of Windsor, on the basis that once a prince, always a prince. But Meghan is a harder sell. She married into royalty, but rejected the life that came with it, much of which is premised on funded philanthropy, while opting to keep the Duchess title and do her own thing. However unfair it feels, there will always be a lingering suspicion that Meghan’s end goal is not the philanthropic mission, but rather the Sussex brand.