Prince Harry may not lose his Duke of Sussex title, despite news on Wednesday that he had surrendered his British residency. However, there are concerns over whether he may — or should — lose a significant royal position because he now considers the United States his new home country.
According to British law, Harry should no longer be allowed to serve as a Counsellor of State, which is a group of royal family members who are deputized to represent King Charles III when the monarch is away or incapacitated. Richard Eden, the diary editor at the Daily Mail, has advocated for Charles to remove Harry’s Counselor of State title once he and Meghan abandoned royal duties in 2020 and moved to California.
Eden emphasizes the importance of this issue after Harry’s official shift of residency to the United States was revealed in U.K. company records on Wednesday. Media reports reported that he had “renounced” his British residency.
According to Eden, the late Queen Elizabeth II was a firm believer in etiquette and would not have hesitated to remove Harry from his post as Counselor of State. After all, Eden stated that she had no trouble informing Harry and Meghan that they could not be part-time royals after moving to the United States to pursue careers as media moguls and influencers.
Eden believes Charles should be as decisive, given that British law states that Counselors of State “are required to have a UK domicile.” He also described the title as “more than honorific.”
“Now, King Charles needs to take a leaf out of his mother’s book – and be decisive when it comes to his younger son and his role as a Counselor of State,” she said.”How on earth can someone who has officially left Britain be allowed to stand in for our country’s head of state?”
Since 2020, Harry has lived in a $14 million estate in Montecito with Meghan. However, his legal representative stated in 2022 that “the U.K. will always be Prince Harry’s home and a country.”
According to The Mirror, Harry’s address change was discovered in records for Travalyst, the sustainable travel group he launched in 2019.The data were lodged with Companies House, the British government body in charge of company registrations.
The records are also public, and The Mirror reported that the address change was backdated to June 29, 2023. Harry famously lost his only known UK home when Charles asked him and Meghan to leave Frogmore Cottage.
The late queen gave permission to use the property near Windsor Castle as a gift. However, Charles canceled his mother’s gift to the couple, apparently believing it was impractical for his California-based son and daughter-in-law to keep the cottage since they only used it for a few weeks every year.
According to Eden, until the queen’s death in 2022, the Counselors of State were Queen Camilla, Prince William, Prince Harry, Prince Andrew, and Andrew’s eldest daughter, Princess Beatrice. However, many people believed the position was untenable because Harry, Andrew, and Beatrice were no longer working royals, according to Eden. Furthermore, Harry had left the United Kingdom to seek his riches in the United States, whereas Andrew was compelled to resign from royal duties due to his notorious association with the late sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein.
Eden stated that Charles urged Parliament in late 2022 to add his sister, Princess Anne, and youngest brother, Prince Edward, to the list of Counselors. But Charles reportedly decided not to remove Harry and Andrew off the list because he did not want to exacerbate family tensions; he also believed that neither would ever be compelled to step in for him.
However, Eden urged that Charles not make such assumptions, arguing that the situation “has become even more urgent” as a result of his cancer treatment. “Continuity matters,” he wrote.
Questions regarding Harry’s residence have personal ramifications for the duke, who is also fighting a legal battle over how much taxpayer-funded protection he will receive when he visits Britain. Harry is slated to visit the United Kingdom next month to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in the United States, has taken legal action to make Harry’s visa application for the US public. The Heritage Foundation wonders if the Duke was given preferential treatment for a visa or misled on his application about his previous drug use.
According to legal experts, admitting to past or current drug usage might lead to the denial of a visa application. In his 2023 book “Spare,” Harry related details about his childhood experiments with cannabis, cocaine, and other drugs, and he claimed in an interview that he had used or continues to use hallucinogenic drugs recreationally and therapeutically.