The £300,000-a-year job that could be key to Harry and Meghan’s royal comeback

The search is on for arguably the most influential and powerful job in Buckingham Palace: the King’s next right-hand man or woman. As officials comb through the highest-calibre internal and external applicants to replace Sir Clive Alderton, Charles’s most senior aide, royal observers speculate that a changing of the guard could be significant – particularly for the monarch’s relationship with his younger son. Prince Harry is keen for a permanent reconciliation with his father and smooth working relationship with Buckingham Palace, they say – and some believe Alderton’s exit will make this kind of post-Megxit rapprochement much easier to manage. Shorts While there is no sign of any desire to bring back Harry and Meghan as part-time royals in an official capacity, according to well-placed sources, his departure might make it slightly easier for palace officials to help father and son continue navigating the tricky process of rebuilding their personal relationship, potentially with more reunions. Even so, a friend of the Duke of Sussex predicted Alderton’s departure would make “no difference with the brother”. Alderton has proved a popular figure with many courtiers, government officials and journalists. However, he incurred the wrath of Harry, who appeared to blame him, as one of the “men in grey suits”, for the late Queen’s refusal in January 2020 to allow him and Meghan to be half-in, half-out royals. Charles’s principal private secretary, who is stepping away from a £300,000-a-year salary, is also widely thought to be the adviser that Harry dubbed “the Wasp” in his book Spare. “Without warning, he’d give you such a stab with his outsized stinger that you’d cry out in confusion,” the Duke wrote in his autobiography. Friends of Alderton – who has spent 20 years in the Royal Household – have always insisted he has only ever carried out the wishes of his boss and has performed his role with good grace and charm. He intends to stand down in the next year to coincide with his 60th birthday in May, and after a handover period in the spring and summer of 2027. It will leave big shoes to fill: the veteran diplomat has been praised for overseeing a smooth transition of power in the past four years, including helping stage the King’s successful state visit to the US. Win for the ‘bring back Harry party’? Among internal candidates, the frontrunner to succeed Alderton, according to insiders, is Theo Rycroft, his deputy. The Oxford-educated lawyer and Foreign Office mandarin is married to Flora Astor, half-sister to Samantha Cameron. “He has the confidence of the King and he’s certainly regarded as a safe pair of hands,” one royal source said. More than that, Rycroft has been credited by some with helping to smooth the path for the King to begin the process of reconciliation with Harry and Meghan, who brought their children to see their grandfather at Highgrove last month – the first time he had met Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet in four years. Rycroft has been “chief dove” pushing for a Charles-Harry reconciliation, according to Tom Sykes, who runs The Royalist podcast. He described Sir Clive’s exit as a “huge win for the bring-back-Harry party”. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni meets Theo Rycroft in Rome during the King’s state visit to Italy last year (Photo: Aaron Chown/AFP) Andrew Lownie, author of Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, suggested Alderton might have viewed Charles’s tentative reconciliation with Harry as a good time to step down. “I suspect there may have been a bit of a dispute or impasse,” he told The i Paper. “I think that once there is a task of building bridges with Harry and Meghan, then Clive may have felt he had had enough.” But that may be unfair to Alderton, who certainly appeared delighted for his boss when the children came over in 2022. To the frustration of many at the Palace, Harry appears to have held him responsible for issues including the decision by a Home Office committee to strip him and his family of an automatic right to armed police protection when they are in the UK. Valentine Low, author of Power and the Palace, said he would be “surprised if Sir Clive was acting as a barrier” to friendlier ties with the Sussexes. “But it’s possible that a reconciliation may be a little more difficult with Sir Clive around – given Harry’s comments nicknaming him ‘the Wasp’.” Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams added that Sir Clive’s presence at the Palace would make a possible smoothing of the waters with the Sussexes “more difficult, because it appears Harry couldn’t stand him”. Dr Martin Farr, senior lecturer in contemporary British history at Newcastle University, said: “I suspect Charles is reluctant to let Sir Clive go, because he’s been the absolute model private secretary. The Harry issue will be probably be low in the order of priorities in deciding on a successor. There are so many more substantive things to consider. “Familial relationships will sustain soap opera appeal for the prurient, but private secretary to His Majesty is, and always, has been an enormously important role constitutionally.” Charles with Harry at the Queen’s funeral in 2022 (Photo: David Rose/AFP) Working for Charles: ‘He rings all times of day and night’ Not everyone thinks Rycroft’s appointment is inevitable. Low said he was “well-regarded” but added: “I get the feeling that this idea that he is the obvious successor might be over-egged.” The role of principal private secretary also carries responsibility for representing Queen Camilla, the King’s most powerful and trusted adviser. Aides talk about being in the “happiness business” because of the pleasure royal engagements bring to people, but Charles can be a hard taskmaster. “The King is demanding and a bit like Lady Grantham [from Downton Abbey], he doesn’t really know where the weekend starts,” according to Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty magazine. One senior aide described his working day without complaining: “He rings me at all times of the day and night. It’s not unusual to get a call at 11.30pm and he wants immediate action.” Charles has been known to give quite senior officials dressings-down in front of people if his wishes have not been met, on one occasion going red in the face as he berated aides at an event in Clarence House garden. The runners and riders The principal private secretary must have a grasp of foreign and Commonwealth affairs and be comfortable dealing with the cabinet secretary and the prime minister’s principal private secretary. These are the other two key individuals in the so-called golden triangle navigating the relationship between the head of state and the government. Other potential candidates include Scott Furssedonn-Wood. He served as deputy private secretary to Charles and Camilla before returning to the Foreign Office as high commissioner to Barbados and several other Caribbean island nations between 2021 and 2025. He is currently director protocol and vice-marshal of the Diplomatic Corps in London. The King, like Prince William, has shown a willingness to appoint key staff from the private sector. Charles also has a record of appointing people from ethnic minorities and varying backgrounds to key positions, said Low. However, the glaring omission has come with the top jobs. “The senior echelons at Buckingham Palace and Clarence House have always been pale, male and stale,” he claimed. If the King and Queen were minded to appoint a woman to the most senior post, Sophie Densham, Camilla’s private secretary since 2008, has proved her worth. India-born Muna Shamsuddin, a Foreign Office high-flier who has been an assistant private secretary to Charles since 2023, has also impressed courtiers. Sophie Densham, Queen Camilla’s private secretary, and Alderton meet the Trumps at Windsor Castle during their 2025 state visit (Photo: Aaron Chown/Getty) Norman Baker, author of Royal Mint: National Debt, and a former Liberal Democrat MP who wants greater transparency over royal finances, is pessimistic that a new aide will help bring about any significant changes. “The new person will no doubt take a ‘steady as she goes’ approach,” said the former minister. “I think change will have to be forced upon the Royal Family by Parliament and the public.” Alderton’s predecessor Sir Edward Young received an exit package of between £145,000 to £150,000 when he stepped down in 2023. Some form of royal housing may be possible for the departing aide even after he steps down next year, said Lownie. The author pointed to the recent National Audit Office report that found some former royal staff continued to live in royal palaces at below-market rates. “That can be part of the deal for these former retainers,” he said. “But I think it’s unlikely [Sir Clive] will want to hang around – he will want to go off and do his own thing.” Buckingham Palace and the Sussexes’ office were approached for comment.