Prince Harry’s recent meeting with his father, King Charles, was believed to have gone relatively smoothly. It was their first meeting in 19 months and lasted around 55 minutes.

During their private tea, the King reportedly said his second son wouldn’t be able to have a “half-in, half-out” role in the royal family. Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, famously stepped down as senior royals in 2020 and have been making their own money through heavily publicised deals with Netflix and Spotify (which has since been axed).

As a working royal, you are unable to earn money through other avenues as Harry and Meghan do.

Plus, there’s the controversy like Harry’s memoir Spare, or the couple’s controversial Netflix series, Harry & Meghan, in which they made several bombshell claims about their experience with the royals.

Late Queen Elizabeth II was known to push a “never complain, never explain” mentality among The Firm.

Harry and Meghan’s actions don’t quite follow this, and that is why royal commentator Hugo Vickers said he doesn’t see “any possibility of Prince Harry returning here to royal duties”.

“For the simple reason that he attracts a lot of publicity, often controversial,” Vickers told The Sun.

“It would be in complete contradiction to everything that the King and other members of the royal family are doing.”

He said it was very important for Harry and Charles to reconcile on a personal level, but claimed there was not a strong enough wish from anyone else in the royal family to see Harry return as a working royal.

The King, Vickers said, was remaining consistent with what his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, wanted back in 2020 when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex first stepped down – you are either a working royal, or you’re not. You can’t have it both ways.

He explained that he believes “it’s always difficult for the monarch” as he must “do what is best for the monarchy, and what’s best for this country”.

While the door was open for Harry to return for a while, he and Meghan made it clear that they wanted to continue doing what they were doing in the US and making money privately through their Netflix agreement or other commercial ventures like book deals, adding, “it’s not fair” to assume you can do both.

“It’s not fair on the British taxpayer. It’s not fair on the other members of the royal family, it’s not fair on the King. Simple as that,” he said.