RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Add Page Six on Google Prince Harry isn't any closer to a reconciliation with his dad, King Charles III, after the reigning monarch's top adviser's resignation.
News broke this week that Charles and Queen Camilla's longtime principal private secretary, Sir Clive Alderton, will be leaving his position in May 2027.
"Harry may welcome Sir Clive’s retirement personally, especially after portraying him so negatively in 'Spare,'" royal insider Kinsey Schofield exclusively told Page Six Tuesday, referring to how Harry slammed Alderton in his bombshell 2022 memoir.
"But if Harry believes one retirement suddenly clears the path back into the Royal Family, I think he’ll be disappointed," she continued. "The trust deficit is far bigger than any one adviser."
Schofield claimed that a "narrative" that removing one courtier will suddenly unlock a reconciliation gives far too much credit to palace staffers and not nearly enough responsibility to the Duke of Sussex himself.
"Reconciliation has always depended less on who advises the King and more on whether Harry can convince his family that history won’t repeat itself," she said.
She also reacted to royal expert Tom Sykes's claim to News24 that the shake-up signaled a "good day for Harry" and "a bad day for those who think the King is making a mistake by bringing him back in."
"I think it’s premature to call this a win for Prince Harry," Schofield said. "Sir Clive Alderton has been one of King Charles’ most trusted advisers, but Palace policy isn’t built around one individual.
"The issues that fractured the relationship, trust, confidentiality, and Harry’s repeated public criticism of the institution, don’t disappear because one courtier is retiring."
Staffing changes aren't enough to help bring Harry back into the fold, Schofield said.
"It begins with rebuilding credibility. That’s something only Harry can do, and it takes time, consistency, and discretion," she said, noting that Charles receives advice from multiple people on how to handle his relationship with Harry and not just Alderton.
Schofield also pointed out how Charles always had the "authority" to rehabilitate his relationship with his youngest son.
"The obstacle has never simply been Sir Clive Alderton. The much bigger issue is whether the Royal Family believes they can have private conversations with Harry without seeing them become public," Schofield said.
"People often overestimate the power of palace aides. Senior courtiers advise the sovereign, they don’t overrule him," she continued. "If Charles truly wanted Harry back in an official capacity, that decision has always belonged to the King."
Harry was believed to have referred to Alderton as "the Wasp" in his book.
"The Wasp was link, charming, arrogant, a ball of jazzy energy," Harry wrote. "He was great at pretending to be polite, even servile. You'd assert a fact, something seemingly incontrovertible — I believe the sun rises in the mornings —and he'd stammer that perchance you might consider for a comment the possibility that you'd been misinformed: Well, heh-heh, I don't know about that, Your Royal Highness, you see, it all depends what you mean by mornings, sir.' "
"Because he seemed so weedy, so self-effacing, you might be tempted to push back, insist on your point, and that was when he’d put you on his list," Harry added. "A short time later, without warning, he’d give you such a stab with his outsized stinger that you’d cry in confusion. 'Where the f— did that come from?'"
Meanwhile, Harry, 41, and Charles, 73, have been on the outs since the former and his wife, Meghan Markle, resigned from their royal duties and moved to California in 2020.
Since then, Harry and the "Suits" alum aired private royal family matters to the public in several interviews. Harry also dragged his relatives in his controversial memoir.
However, Harry started taking steps to mend things with his dad after Charles revealed his cancer battle in 2024.
Harry and Markle took a major step when they reunited with Charles and Camilla for the first time in four years at Highgrove House in the UK earlier this month. Harry and Markle's two kids — Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5 — were also present for the reunion.
While a source told Page Six that the gathering "wasn’t entirely warm and fuzzy," Harry is expected to return to the UK in September and will reportedly be offered a room at Buckingham Palace — signaling that things could be on the upswing for him and his estranged father.
Yet Harry and his brother, Prince William, still appear to be on the rocks and have continued to keep their distance.
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