King Charles could 'reunite family' with one important gesture to Prince Harry

01 October 2023 , 19:07

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Prince Harry with his father in 2014 (Image: Getty Images)

King Charles could “bring his family back together again” by providing Prince Harry with a residence in the UK, which would let him hold onto a vital royal role.

Harry is a Counsellor of State, meaning if his father is ever ill or out of the country he could be summoned to take on royal duties. He is one of seven Counsellors of State, which also include his brother William, the Queen Consort, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward, Princess Anne, and Princess Beatrice.

Counsellors of State are required by law to have a home in Britain - which caused an issue in Harry’s case, after the US-based royal was asked to leave his Frogmore Cottage UK residence earlier this year.

But a PR expert claims the King realises he could reunite his family after years of turbulence, conflict and speculation. Jerome Cleary of Publicity and Marketing told Daily Express US: "Now that the dust has settled with the drama of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, the King realises he could bring the family back together again. With that, I do believe the King should allow Harry a place to live in Britain and keep him as Counsellor of State."

Debate is likely to erupt if King Charles were to provide Harry with a UK residence, with Mr Cleary feeling the reaction from royal fans would be a “mixed bag”. He said: "Half the fans would believe that the King is within reason to deny Harry and the other half would be heartbroken that the King could bring the family back together again with this decision."

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He said this could be seen as "shunning" his youngest son and "breaking a part of the family". Last week, a royal source told The Sunday Times that Harry could be granted a base in England due to the laws attached to his Counsellor of State role.

A friend of Charles said: "The King can see that to remove Harry as a Counsellor of State would be seen as an act of antagonism and he does not want to do that. If, as a consequence of that, somewhere on the royal estate needs to be earmarked as a pied-à-terre for his son, that seems a reasonable thing to do."

But Buckingham Palace quickly refuted the idea, telling the outlet "these claims are not true" - but didn't elaborate further. The claims come after Harry and Meghan were forced to vacate their UK property of Frogmore Cottage earlier this year.

The Duke of Sussex also flew to London earlier this month to attend the WellChild Awards. Liv Arnold, of Public Status PR, told Daily Express US if the King chooses to keep his youngest son in the role, and grants him a place to stay in the UK, it would "show a united front". "It'll give the public less to gossip about,” she said.

Rosie Jempson