The relationship between Charles III and Prince Harry appears to be at the point where both parties have become accustomed to living with their relationships frozen. The tensions and conflicts that began long before the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced their departure from British royalty have remained unresolved and life has continued based on emotional adaptation and routine. However, when the British king was diagnosed with cancer, his son flew (literally and figuratively) to see him. After the transoceanic trip, Charles III dedicated 45 minutes to his son and headed to his retirement in Sandringham. Harry was pleased with the brief encounter, but when he returned three months later, in a less than spontaneous turn of events, the sovereign occupied his agenda celebrating his first party after cancer at the same time that Harry was at St Paul’s Cathedral celebrating ten years of the Invitus Games alone. In summary, there have been opportunities for rapprochement and the question remains: Why hasn’t reconciliation been possible? Now, with the change of circumstances, things could take a different turn.
Tina Brown, the journalist who belonged to Diana of Wales’s circle and whose career and information have positioned her as a reliable voice when it comes to the Windsors, has revealed in her new blog that a royal source has confirmed that “Sir Clive Alderton, the all-powerful private secretary, keeper of the king’s gate, and sworn enemy of Harry is considering retirement.” “The royals are managed in a way that the public does not usually realize, by their private secretaries, able to block and address the access of people on their personal lists of unknown people,” explains the journalist.
“If Alderton leaves, it could create a new, friendlier avenue for negotiations with Harry to be given the security protection he seeks and to resume an abbreviated version of his royal duties. It could also represent a major lifeline for Meghan, who By now you must realize that the boring demands of second-rate royalty are less onerous than the serial failures of rebranding”says Brown in an article in which he shows that does not support the decisions made by the Duchess of Sussex. It is not the first time that Brown points out as a mistake the strategy that Meghan is following in recent times in terms of her public profile, while assessing Harry’s role within the British Royal House.
Who is Harry’s enemy?
It must be made clear that Prince Harry (perhaps by his own decision or on the advice of his publisher) never named Sir Clive Alderton in his memoirs, titled Spare and that went on sale in January 2023. Alderton is a long-serving diplomat who joined the FCO (the ministry in charge of foreign affairs) in 1986 and who entered the British Royal Family in 2006 to rise to become the sovereign’s private secretary and, therefore, therefore, the highest-ranking operational member of the British monarchy. However, Prince Harry’s description of one of the employees of the British Royal Family led many, like Tina Brown, to conclude that “The Hornet” to whom Harry was referring was none other than Alderton.
“The Hornet was lanky, charming, arrogant, he overflowed with energy. He was a teacher, feigning deference, even servility. You would state a fact, something that, at first, brooked no discussion – ‘The sun rises in the morning’ – and he would babble. that it might be worth considering for a moment the possibility that you were not well informed: ‘Well, heh heh, I don’t know what to tell you, Your Royal Highness, you see, it all depends on what You understand in the mornings, sir.’ His weak appearance and apparent modesty could tempt you to defer and defend your position, and it was then that he would put you on his list. Shortly after, and without warning, he would give you such a sting that you would scream. “Explains Harry in a book in which he has shared his point of view on how family relationships are managed within the British Royal House.
Another idea that Harry’s story provides and that fully coincides with what Tina Brown has just published is the power that high-ranking employees of the British Royal House have. “All of them middle-aged white men who had managed to consolidate their power through a series of audacious Machiavellian maneuvers…” explains the Duke of Sussex.
“I had a great dislike for them and they couldn’t stand me. They considered me irrelevant at best, an idiot at worst. But, above all, they knew that I saw them as usurpers. Deep down, I suspected that they considered themselves the True Monarch and that they were taking advantage of the queen in her old age, taking advantage of her influential position while only appearing to serve her,” Harry says before giving as an example that Elizabeth II entrusted these officials to help them with the attacks of certain tabloids, with which Harry has ended up faced in court quite successfully. Always, according to Harry’s version, both the secretaries of Elizabeth II and those of Charles III recognized that it was something “disproportionate” and “unprecedented”, but did nothing about it.
Is it advisable to forgive even for practical reasons?
Nor does it seem fair to place all responsibility for the past and hope for the future on third parties, no matter how much power they have. In his book, Prince Harry shared many personal details about his fatheris a story full of everyday life that goes between compassion and rage. Far from the inaccessible and cold figure that we had imagined, Charles III was portrayed as an unarmed man who wanted to be a good father, but who did not know how or could not do so. For Harry, his father is a noble and kind man, a victim of his childhood, his position and also his inner circle. However, Queen Camilla was described as the true villain of all historya title that has taken him a lifetime to shake off. As it has emerged, neither Queen Camilla nor Charles III find it easy to forget that chapter of the book and something similar happens with everything that involves the princes of Wales.
For Tina Brown, known for her books about British royalty and also for her collaborations on television, there is light at the end of the tunnel, even if it is for more practical than sentimental reasons. “Enough of the fighting. Families, including this one, need to stick together. William, regardless of his lingering resentments toward Harry for his intemperate attacks in ‘Spare,’ should now accept it and let his father give Harry something to do.” In a Trump isolationist world, the UK needs to get closer to Europe and romanticize its relations with the Commonwealth. The princes of Wales fear foreign tours that keep the princess away from children and they cut off what Prince William (to the irritation of his advisors) calls his ‘me time’. So let the minor but important trips fall to the Sussexes, who, chastened by five years in the wilderness, would export some modern royal flair, especially to the trouble spots of the former colonies. “Wasn’t that the original plan?” Brown asks, summarizing the situation in which the two sons of Diana of Wales have been left when they confront each other.
According to this theory, Harry needs the Crown as much as the Crown needs Harry. Brown is not the only one, biographers of the stature of Robert Hardman have also said it, Prince Harry was a great asset to the British Royal Family, he was like the Princess Anne of his generation, he was always willing to work and never expected a deal. privileged for it. On the other hand, his marriage to Meghan, and the exorbitant fame they achieved for a time and then plummeted into free fall, made him rethink his priorities and he has already said, actively and passively, that the security of his family is his only priority. Under this prism, Harry could have learned to live away from the Crown and not miss it. In recent months, he has undertaken a solo agenda quite successfully and is positioning himself solidly in precisely those areas that often receive less media interest.