Clive Alderton has been King Charles’ long-time private secretary, which is a royal household’s equivalent of a chief-of-staff. Alderton was Charles’ private secretary and lead courtier before Charles was king, and Alderton was arguably the architect of the 2020 Sussexit terms, with a lot of help from Simon Case (who was then Prince William’s private secretary) In Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare, he referred to Alderton as the Wasp. Even before Spare, many royal reporters knew about and talked around Alderton’s power, especially when it came to gatekeeping Charles from both of his sons. Well, interesting news! Alderton is leaving. He’s stepping down as Charles’ all-powerful private secretary.
The King’s most senior aide will step down next year, Buckingham Palace has announced. Sir Clive Alderton, the principal private secretary to the King and Queen, has worked for the royal couple for 20 years, including 11 as their principal private secretary, but will stand down around his 60th birthday in May.
Alderton, who has a remuneration package of about £300,000 a year, has received plaudits for helping to smooth the transition of the change in reign. He has helped the King deliver some of his most significant speeches, including his address to Congress on the state visit to the US in April this year and a landmark speech in Berlin when, in 2023, Charles became the first British monarch to address the Bundestag.
The Palace said that the King and Queen were “deeply grateful to Clive for his tireless support and wise counsel over the years and for the enduring loyalty that will ensure a smooth transition to his successor”.
Alderton was knighted in the 2022 Birthday Honours list and his longevity has been a sign of the King’s affection. He is understood to be stepping down to retire.
Julian Payne, former communications secretary to Charles and Camilla, described Alderton as a “royal ringmaster” who “has had the great good fortune to be surrounded by some incredibly talented colleagues”. He added that Alderton was part of the “golden triangle, acting with the cabinet secretary and prime minister’s principal private secretary as guardians of our unwritten constitution”.
Valentine Low, former royal correspondent for The Times, wrote about Alderton in his book Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind the Crown, describing him as “smooth, charming and humorous”. Low added: “With his boyish face and floppy blond hair, he looks like a caricature of an English gentleman … Some people love Alderton, who fits the image of the polished diplomat-turned-courtier; others find him a touch too elusive. He has, they suspect, read his Machiavelli. ‘Clive is a schemer, a chess player,’ said one friend. ‘He is a figure from Wolf Hall or House of Cards.’”
So, here’s an uncomfortable admission: Tom Sykes was right??? Sykes has been following the internal drama within Buckingham Palace for a while, and he was basically the only one saying this month that all of the bulls–t in and around the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s UK visit was a “hawks vs. doves” situation within BP. Sykes wrote, in his Royalist Substack, that “the hawks, led by Clive Alderton… agree with William that Harry should not be allowed anywhere near the King and regard it as their duty to protect the sovereign from his own softer instincts.”
In that same Royalist piece, Sykes called Theo Rycroft one of the “doves” on Charles’ staff, and one of the biggest potential successors for the private secretary position. Rycroft was seemingly brought in last year specifically to deal with the fractured royal relations between the king and his sons, and if Rycroft comes in as the new private secretary, there could be some big changes in how the palace deals with both Prince Harry AND Prince William. But yeah, Sykes was right – in that same Substack piece, he wrote, “I would not be surprised to see departures from the King’s staff over the coming months as a result of all this. Some aides are very, very unhappy.” “This” being Harry and Meghan bringing the children to see Charles at Highgrove. Fascinating, isn’t it? Another piece of interesting gossip is that last year, Sykes pretty much admitted that Alderton and the “hawks” were behind the leaks about Harry’s meeting with Charles last September. Hmm.
Of course, it’s possible that this has nothing to do with internal royal-family drama – I find it interesting that Alderton is leaving one week after Keir Starmer was replaced by Andy Burnham. There’s likely a strong political element to all of this too.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
