{"id":593260,"date":"2026-09-07T21:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T21:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/593260\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T21:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T21:14:10","slug":"king-charles-clarifies-status-of-harry-and-meghan-after-uk-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/593260\/","title":{"rendered":"King Charles clarifies status of Harry and Meghan after UK return"},"content":{"rendered":"

King Charles III has reiterated that Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, remain non-working members of the royal family following their return to the United Kingdom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A letter sent on behalf of the King to senior government officials said the couple will continue to refrain from using their royal titles as they have done since stepping back from official royal duties in 2020. Any charity work the couple undertakes will be carried out in a private capacity, and operational security decisions are matters for the relevant police agencies, the letter adds.<\/p>\n

The letter was sent by the Lord Chamberlain, the most senior official in the royal household<\/a>, to senior officials in the government and military, as well as lord lieutenants, the king\u2019s personal representatives around the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo help avoid doubt or confusion, The King has directed that (this) information be shared,\u201d the letter says.<\/p>\n

While the communication simply confirms that Harry and Meghan\u2019s status remains unchanged, the decision to send the letter and release it publicly demonstrates the concern among some palace observers that the couple\u2019s status could a<\/a>llow them to become a sort of parallel royal court<\/a>, competing with working members of the royal family.<\/p>\n

The security question is particularly sensitive because Harry has fought a long-running battle with the government for the restoration of publicly funded police protection, which was cancelled when the couple gave up their royal roles.<\/p>\n

The decision about whether to restore the couple\u2019s round-the-clock police protection is a matter for a government panel known as RAVEC, or the Royal and VIP Executive Committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny specific questions from official and State organisations about the courtesies which should be extended to the Duke and Duchess, and particularly where recourse to public funds may be required, should be directed to Buckingham Palace,\u201d the Lord Chamberlain said in his letter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"King Charles III has reiterated that Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, remain non-working members of the royal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,11018,4866,111,139,69,3578,6747,1745],"class_list":["post-593260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-king-charles","tag-meghan-markle","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-prince-harry","tag-royalty","tag-uk-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}