AMANDA PLATELL: King Charles may be ‘delighted’ by Princess Eugenie’s pregnancy news, but I can’t be the only one pondering this unpalatable truth about her announcement…

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson haven’t had much to celebrate lately, so we can only assume they’re buoyed by the news that their daughter, Princess Eugenie, is expecting her third child.

In her post announcing the pregnancy on social media, Eugenie shared an adorable photo of their two sons – taken from above so their faces can’t be seen – with a photo of their mother’s baby scan.

I have no wish to diminish any parent’s joy at such a happy occasion, but what is most shocking to devout monarchists like me is that the baby – who, unlike his mother, is not eligible for the title HRH – will still be fifteenth in line to the throne.

This means the child will push his great-uncle Edward, the Duke of Edinburgh, to 16th place and Princess Anne, the late queen’s second child, to 19th place in the royal hierarchy.

In what kind of modern world do we think it decent or reasonable for the newborn child of a non-working royal family – Eugenie works part-time in an art gallery – to be elevated above two of the hardest working royal families?

Thanks to the vagaries of our labyrinthine succession system, Eugenie’s two sons – August, five, and Ernest, two – are already 13th and 14th in the royal line, despite the fact that they are never expected to work for ‘the Firm’ a single day of their lives.

The unpalatable truth is that the Royal Family currently consists of just eleven senior working royals: King Charles, Queen Camilla, the Prince and Princess of Wales, Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, Princess Anne, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, Prince Richard and his wife Birgitte, the Duke of Kent, Prince Edward and Princess Alexandra.

Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank are expecting their third child. The couple are pictured leaving a restaurant in London this week

In her post announcing the pregnancy on social media, Eugenie shared an adorable photo of their two sons with a photo of their mother’s baby scan.

And yet Eugenie’s “Baby Brooksbank,” as she described her child on Instagram in a reference to her married name, will benefit from their royal association without lifting a finger, just as his mother has done all her life.

I can’t be the only one wondering if Eugenie’s announcement, just a day after her husband’s 40th birthday, which she marked by posting an adorable photo of the Tequila brand ambassador and real estate developer with their son August, was incredibly coincidental timing.

If your horrible parents are rightly being pilloried for their horribly inappropriate relationship with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein – and you’ve suffered guilt by association – what better way to distance yourself from your parents and restore your reputation than by highlighting your own healthy family life.

The King was even gracious enough to celebrate the news on Buckingham Palace’s official website in a statement that included the following line: “His Majesty the King has been informed and is delighted by the news.”

Intriguingly, there is no mention of Queen Camilla’s delight, a rather surprising omission considering that one of Charles’ favorite choruses is “The Queen and I.”

I have the utmost respect for the King, but his congratulatory words in no way reflect the mood of the nation.

Far from being ‘delighted’ about the impending arrival of a new royal hanger-on, who will enjoy all the perks that come with the royal family without having to do a thing, many of us see it as an event that shines an unwelcome spotlight on the iniquities of the age-old rules of succession and the way they perpetuate a blatant system of class privilege.

At a time when the popularity of the monarchy among Generation Z is languishing at 30 percent and the disgraced former Prince Andrew remains eighth in line for the throne despite being stripped of all his titles – not to mention his dignity – this latest addition to the Brooksbank clan, which is above Princess Anne in the pecking order, seems wildly out of place in today’s world.

11 senior working royals: King Charles; Queen Camilla; the Prince and Princess of Wales; Prince Edward and wife Sophie; Princess Anne; Prince Richard and his wife Birgitte, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester; Prince Edward, Duke of Kent; and Princess Alexandra

King Charles and Queen Camilla were in New York last week during their triumphal state visit to the US to mark 250 years of American independence

Andrew is still under police investigation in this country and is persona non grata across the pond, thanks to his steadfast refusal to appear before the US House of Representatives Oversight Committee, which would like him to answer some disturbing questions about his friend Epstein and his industrial abuse of young women and girls.

Meanwhile, as extraordinary as it may sound, Prince Harry remains fifth in line for the throne despite giving up his military service and making millions from a tawdry memoir and TV ventures that included a sordid interview with Oprah Winfrey and a Netflix series that, in part, discredited the late monarch himself.

How shameful his record looks compared to that of his father, who carried out 532 royal engagements last year – and made a triumphant state visit to the US last week.

Then there is the excellent work of the ever-industrious Princess Anne, the second hardest working royal who completed 478 commissions, her brother Prince Edward who completed 313, followed by his wife Sophie. How ridiculous that these three Trojans will be pushed even further down the line of succession by the birth of Andrew’s fifth grandchild.

And I regret to say that this absurd state of affairs has its origins in an act of weakness on the part of the king. Stripping his disgraced brother of all his titles, having him expelled from the vast Royal Lodge at Windsor and banished to a cottage on his estate at Sandringham, His Majesty prevented his removal from the line of succession, claiming that this would require an Act of Parliament.

Charles is reported to have said at the time that he did not believe this was an appropriate use of parliamentary time. This was and remains a complete subterfuge, as we, the public, would certainly support it, no matter how long it took, if the result was a piece of legislation that would deprive the evil Andrew of such a prestigious position.

Since Charles became king, his heir, the Prince of Wales, has made much of his passionate desire to slim down the monarchy, with a view to making it fit for the purpose of the modern world.

A world in which presumably non-working members of the royal family, such as Eugenie and her children, would have no place in the line of succession.

I’m no expert, but you don’t have to be a long-experienced constitutionalist to deplore the possibility of the death of an elderly king and queen coinciding with a disaster befalling the Welsh family, with an outcome that no right-thinking subject of this country could ever welcome.

Yes, you were there before me, the ascension to the throne of King Harry and Queen Meghan.