{"id":883636,"date":"2026-09-07T20:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T20:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/883636\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T20:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T20:38:12","slug":"king-clarifies-prince-harrys-status-to-government-officials-to-avoid-confusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/883636\/","title":{"rendered":"King clarifies Prince Harry’s status to government officials to ‘avoid confusion’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will not resume royal duties despite returning to the United Kingdom, the King has clarified.<\/p>\n

A letter, on behalf of King Charles, has been sent to government and military officials in a bid to “avoid doubt or confusion”.<\/p>\n

It stated that the couple were no longer working members of the Royal Family and addressing them as His and Her Royal Highness was not to be used.<\/p>\n

“The charitable work of the Duke and Duchess is a personal matter for them both and undertaken in their private capacity,” Lord Chamberlain, a senior Buckingham Palace official, wrote.<\/p>\n

“In short, their position is akin to private citizens with commercial and charitable interests.”<\/p>\n

Prince Harry and Meghan made a shock return to the United Kingdom with their children last month, six years after they moved to California.<\/p>\n

What’s behind Harry and Meghan’s UK return<\/a><\/p>\n

While a move to London now brings Meghan and Harry in closer proximity to the royal family, it does not solve the Windsor’s complicated dynamics or the deep rift between two brothers.<\/p>\n

The pair gave up their royal duties at the start of 2020 and moved to Montecito, near Santa Barbara, as relations with the Royal Family deteriorated.<\/p>\n

The prince’s relationship with his father, King Charles has said to have improved in recent times, in particular after a visit in July but it has been widely reported that Harry is not on speaking terms with his brother and heir-to-the-throne, Prince William.<\/p>\n

Prince Harry told British media last year he would not feel safe returning to the UK with his family after losing his fight for government-funded security protection.<\/p>\n

The letter said the couple’s position as non-working royals meant any security issues should be directed to the police while any administrative questions regarding the couple should be sent to their office, which operated separately from The Royal Household.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex take a stroll in Sydney earlier this year. (\u00a0Reuters: Hollie Adams)<\/p>\n

However, any questions about what reception to give Prince Harry and Meghan, “particularly where recourse to public funds may be required, should be directed to Buckingham Palace”.<\/p>\n

The ABC has contacted representatives of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for a response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will not resume royal duties despite returning to the United Kingdom, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":883637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,24720,197970,134,155269,2546,137934,5513],"class_list":["post-883636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-buckingham-palace","tag-duke-and-duchess-of-sussex","tag-entertainment","tag-harry-and-meghan","tag-king-charles","tag-meghan","tag-prince-harry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=883636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/883637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}