Prince Harry has never publicly expressed his interest to return to his royal duties but just to reconcile with his family. But per royal author Tina Brown, this is likely possible when King Charles III’s top aide Sir Clive Alderton resigns.
The Duke of Sussex isn’t particularly fond of his father’s private secretary and even nicknamed him “The Wasp” in his memoir Spare. He didn’t actually drop names, but royal watchers were quick to associate his description of a “lanky, charming, arrogant, a ball of jazzy energy” man with Alderton. He wrote: “He was great at pretending to be polite, even servile.”
Harry had referred to Buckingham Palace’s top courtiers in his book as “The Bee, The Fly and The Wasp,” all “middle-aged white men who’d managed to consolidate power through a series of bold Machiavellian maneuvers. ” He wrote: “I disliked these men and they didn’t have any use for me. They considered me irrelevant at best, stupid at worst. Deep down, I feared that each man felt himself to be the One True Monarch.”
According to Brown, an “intimate royal source” has told her that Alderton may be eyeing his retirement soon, which could open a path for Charles’ wayward son to return to his royal fold. She wrote on her Fresh Hell Substack blog: “If Alderton goes it could create a new, friendlier path for negotiations with Harry to be given the security protection he seeks and to resume some curtailed version of his royal duties.”
She added that Alderton’s potential retirement could also benefit Harry’s wife, Meghan Markle, as it would be a “great face-saver for Meghan who must realize by now that the dull demands of second-division royalty are less onerous than grinding out serial rebranding flops.”
Brown, author of The Palace Papers, added: “Enough with the feuds. Families, including this one, need to stick together. William, whatever his abiding resentments toward Harry for his intemperate broadsides in Spare, should now suck it up and let his father give Harry something to do.”
She thinks that with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex back on the game, they could greatly help with foreign tours, which is something that she said Prince William and Kate Middleton dread. She added: “William and Kate dread foreign tours that take the princess away from the children and cut into what William (to his advisers’ irritation) calls his ‘me time. So, unload the lesser but important red-carpet junkets onto the Sussexes who, chastened by five years in the wilderness, would export some modern royal flair, especially to ex-colonial trouble spots.”
Brown is referring to the Commonwealth realms, those countries outside of the U.K. that have expressed their desire to be independent from the British monarchy, like Jamaica, Belize, and the Bahamas. William and Kate had what the press called a “disaster” tour to these countries in 2022. They were welcomed by protestors in Jamaica and pictured shaking hands with children behind a fence (what a PR eye-sore).
Even if Brown’s source is right and Alderton resigns, it’s still up in the air if Harry would want to return to his royal duties as it would mean leaving Meghan and their children behind in the U.S. But if push comes to shove, especially with his deportation being questioned under Donald Trump’s presidency, then he’d have no choice otherwise, unless he relocates his family to Portugal where has reportedly purchased a home.