Harry and Meghan's upcoming trip will cause 'difficulties' for the royal family

Since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped down as senior members of the royal family, they have carved out new career paths for themselves. Last year, Harry released his memoir Spare - which went on to become the UK's fastest-selling non-fiction book - and the couple also released their joint Netflix documentary, Harry & Meghan.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have spoken about how happily settled they are in Los Angeles, where they now live with their two young children, Archie, 5, and Lilibet, 3. Although many of their business ventures have been media projects, the couple has also continued to publicly support various charitable endeavours under the Archewell Foundation banner. In the years since they left the UK, they have donated to gender justice projects and civil-rights charities, and have attended events for WellChild and the Invictus Games.

But one of the conditions of their departure from the royal family was that they would no longer be permitted to represent the crown on royal tours. Their three-day trip to Nigeria in May this year, which included a warm public welcome and visits to local charities, was a chance for the couple to visit independently from the monarchy - but was criticised as a 'quasi-royal' tour. Despite the backlash, it was considered to be a huge success for the pair and they have since been invited to Colombia by the country's Vice President, Francia Márquez.

Harry and Meghan are expected to visit Colombia later this year, and the trip will reportedly comprise of visits to Bogotá, Cartagena and Cali. But royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams has claimed that the Sussex's trip to South America will be a 'problem' for the royal family.

During an interview with The Sun, he said: "I think when you have former senior working members of the Royal Family do what the Royal Family would like to do, I do think will create difficulties."

He continued: "The problem with Royal Family at the moment is that they are simply not able to do something which attracts attention on the same level – and attention is important if you’re royal."

The royal expert added that a 'vacuum' currently exists within the royal family, given that both King Charles and the Princess of Wales have been dealing with serious health issues this year. Fitzwilliams continued: "It’s going to take an enormous amount of publicity and the Royal Family will not be able to match that in any way that I can foresee. What it will do, however, will be to draw attention to the Sussexes and not to the Royal Family, at least not to the Royal Family in a positive way because the Sussexes and the Royal Family have a very deep rift. That’s the problem."

The Palace has not yet commented.