‘Secret royal war’ for Prince Harry is being waged by shadowy figures | Royal | News
King of England III. Charles and England’s Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Queen Elizabeth II Walking behind Elizabeth’s coffin (Image: LOIC VENANCE/AFP via Getty Images)
King Charles’ encounter with Prince Harry this week sparked significant controversy in royal circles. The Duke of Sussex spent time with his father at Highgrove on Friday, meeting them for the second time in less than 12 months.
Importantly, Harry’s wife Meghan Markle was there, as well as their children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, as well as Queen Camilla, whom Harry criticized in his Spare memoir. This development has triggered a briefing war within the royal family between those who support the reconciliation and those who oppose it.
Prince William’s resistance to welcoming Harry back into the royal family was widely understood. But behind the scenes there are other influential figures who are equally distrustful of the Duke.
Among them is said to be the King’s private secretary, Clive Alderton. According to royal expert Tom Sykes, Alderton represents a group of courtiers intent on keeping Harry away from his father.
Sykes says they were worried about Charles being vulnerable when it came to his son; Sykes says it is also understood they believe Harry and Meghan will try to exploit their meetings with other royals for commercial gain, as they have done before.
Alderton first started working with Charles and Camilla in 2006 and has served as their private secretary since 2015. When Charles ascended to the throne in September 2022, he became the 25th Private Secretary to the Sovereign.
Privy Council member Sykes claims that Alderton led a group “who saw it as their duty to protect the monarch from his own softer instincts.” In his memoir Spare, Harry described Alderton as ‘The Wasp’ in distinctly unflattering terms.
He described her as “a slim, charming, arrogant, magnetic ball of energy” and “great at being polite, even servile.”
But he continued: “Because he’s so weird and self-effacing, you might want to back away, insist on your idea, and that’s when he’d put you on his list. A short while later, without warning, he thrusts his massive needle into you so hard you scream in surprise. Where did that come from?”
King Charles III introduces Theo Rycroft to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (Image: Aaron Chown – Pool/Getty Images)
In contrast, Theo Rycroft, another member of the royal family, is known to be keen to see the damaging dispute repaired.
According to Sykes, the former diplomat, who becomes the King’s assistant private secretary in 2024, has his sights set on the 59-year-old Alderton’s position in the long term.
It was previously reported that Rycroft wanted to “bank heads together” to encourage Harry and Charles to reconcile.
Rycroft, described by Tatler magazine as one half of a “power couple” with his wife Flora Astor, is considered the monarch’s “gatekeeper” and was credited with arranging the pair’s meeting last year.
King Charles III and his Principal Private Secretary Sir Clive Alderton (Image: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images)
Rycroft appears to be gaining the upper hand at the moment, with Charles encouraged as he is responding well to his cancer treatment.
The briefing battle was highlighted by royal editor Roya Nikkah in a piece for the Sunday Times, which quoted a friend of the monarch as saying: “He will never close the door on the possibility of spending time with his family because despite all the problems, blood is blood.”
But the same article noted that others had concerns that Harry’s stay at Buckingham Palace would provide him with an “Evita moment”, while also revealing that his reaction to losing a case against the Daily Mail, which included attacking the judge’s impartiality, was “mouth-dropping”.
