This Is Why King Charles Is Now at Harry’s Mercy

King Charles has lost the gatekeeper who stood between him and Prince Harry—and a pair of experts say it could mark a turning point.

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Buckingham Palace announced last week that Sir Clive Alderton, the King’s most senior aide, will step down next year after working for Charles and Camilla for two decades.

“Harry… is pretty scathing about Clive in his memoir Spare,” Low said. “One of the things about Spare is he doesn’t actually name his enemies, but the intelligent or the well-informed reader knows who they are. And he comes up with this description of… the important private secretaries as being the bee, the fly, and the wasp.”

“Clive in that was the wasp. Harry basically describes how he’s very sort of charming and courtier-like and self-effacing, but, you know, if you cross him, if you push back—in Harry’s view—you’d learn about it.”

Low, a former royal correspondent for The Times, noted that he had learned firsthand that “it’s not necessarily a strategically wise thing to get on the wrong side of Clive Alderton.”

“Speaking as someone who, you know, he hasn’t always treasured everything I’ve written about him. And I think he, should we say, remembers that to this day,” he added.

Tom Sykes, the Daily Beast’s royal expert and European editor-at-large, asked what “went so wrong” between Harry, 41, and Alderton, 59.

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Low noted that Alderton represented the 77-year-old king’s interests as well as those of the “palace machinery,” which was not necessarily aligned with those of Harry and Meghan, who left their roles as working royals and moved to California in 2020.

“There was a certain amount of antipathy—I mean neither Meghan nor Harry liked Clive. He wasn’t their kind of guy, and they didn’t trust him, rightly or wrongly,” Low said. “Because what you have to remember about these palaces, it’s all separate fiefdoms, isn’t it? And sub-fiefdoms. And so Harry’s was a sub-fiefdom.”

Sykes said that “if you speak to Harry’s people now,” they blame Alderton for blocking Harry from receiving taxpayer-funded security from the Royal and VIP Executive Committee (RAVEC), on which Alderton sits—a dispute over RAVEC nearly derailed Harry’s trip to the U.K. in July.

Harry, Meghan, and their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, met Charles and Camilla at Highgrove House in Gloucestershire during the trip—the first time the King has seen his grandchildren in person in more than four years.

But blaming Alderton for “everything” is “a bit absurd,” Sykes said.

Low agreed, saying that regarding the RAVEC security Harry is seeking, “The palace private secretaries have an input—obviously, their voice is listened to—but in the end, I don’t think it’ll affect it.”

The Sussexes’ office and Buckingham Palace did not immediately respond to a request for comment.