‘Out the window’: Prince Harry was once destined to serve as ‘top advisor’ to his elder brother when William becomes King

A royal expert has claimed Harry was being prepped to take on a major role in the monarchy but those plans “went out the window” when he married Meghan Markle and moved to the United States.

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On Sunday, royal reporter Charles Rae told The Sun’s Royal Exclusive show that Harry likely would have served as King William’s “top advisor” had the brothers’ relationship not fractured in recent years.

“When William becomes King, I always believed Harry would be one of his top advisers. I think that’s out of the window,” Mr Rae said.

Harry and William’s once tight bond disintegrated in the months leading up to the Sussexes controversial decision to “step back” from royal duties in 2020.

Prince Harry would likely have served as King William’s right hand man if the Duke of Sussex stayed in the royal family. Picture by Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images.
Prince Harry would likely have served as King William’s right hand man if the Duke of Sussex stayed in the royal family. Picture by Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images.
Relations between the Prince and Princess of Wales and the Sussexes soured further after Harry and Meghan opted to cash in telling royal secrets in an Oprah Winfrey interview, Netflix series and the Duke of Sussex’s memoir Spare.

Mr Rae believes that Princess Diana envisioned that William would be crowned monarch with his younger brother by his side.

“That’s what Diana always wanted, the boys to remain as close as possible,” he said.

“They had each other, and it was them against the rest of the world but of course now it’s not happening.”

Princess Margaret was an advisor to her sister Queen Elizabeth II. Picture: Alamy.
Princess Margaret was an advisor to her sister Queen Elizabeth II. Picture: Alamy.
Instead, the California-based Duke and Duchess of Sussex are estranged from the monarchy and were not informed of Princess Catherine’s cancer diagnosis until shortly before her illness was publicly announced.

At major royal occasions like the coronation of their father Charles, Harry was seated away from his brother in the distant third row alongside his non-royal cousins Zara and Peter Phillips.

If Harry had stayed in the monarchy, he likely would have fulfilled a similar role to Queen Elizabeth II’s sister Princess Margaret, who remained a lifelong advisor to the Queen until her death in 2002.

Similarly, it is understood that Charles relies heavily on his sister Princess Anne as his “right hand woman”, with the Princess Royal taking on a larger official role following the King’s cancer diagnosis.

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