Africa plan for Harry and Meghan
Courtiers have drawn up plans to hand the Duke and Duchess of Sussex a major international job that could see them moving abroad after the birth of their child, The Sunday Times can reveal.
Prince Harry’s advisers are working on a ‘‘bespoke’’ role for the royal ‘‘rock stars’’, probably in Africa, that will combine some work on behalf of the Commonwealth along with charity work and a role promoting Britain.
The plan has been drawn up by Sir David Manning, the former British ambassador to the US and special adviser on constitutional and international affairs to the two princes.
Lord Geidt, the Queen’s former private secretary, has also been involved in the discussions. He is chairman of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust, an organisation that champions young global leaders, of which Harry and Meghan are president and vice-president.
The proposal would give the couple the chance to enjoy a break from the divisions that have riven the royal household in recent months while ‘‘harnessing’’ their global appeal for Britain.
A decision on where they would be based is unlikely to be taken until 2020, when they have settled down with their new baby, which is due within days. Harry has close links to several African countries and has visited the continent since his teens.
He spent his gap year in Lesotho in 2004 and started a charity there two years later. He and Meghan are believed to have fallen in love on a trip to Botswana, a country that Harry has referred to as his ‘‘second home’’ and where they returned for Meghan’s 36th birthday in 2017. South Africa and Malawi are other options.
Senior palace officials have concluded that a proper role needs to be found for Harry as Prince William starts preparing to be king. They want to keep Harry and Meghan as part of the royal ‘‘firm’’ rather than letting them pursue their own projects, such as a planned television series on mental health with Oprah Winfrey.
The African scheme began to take shape after a proposal to make Harry governor-general or deputy governor-general of Australia or Canada was dismissed as impractical. Another idea, that the couple become trade envoys for post-brexit Britain – which had enjoyed support from senior figures in the government – was also rejected as too restricting.
Instead, palace insiders say a hybrid role will be devised that would take them away from Britain for two or three years. ‘‘Discussions are at an early stage, but the plan is to find a new way of using their soft power abilities, most likely in Africa,’’ a source said.
A second source confirmed: ‘‘There are discussions in palace circles about: how do we harness Harry and Meghan? How do you harness this phenomenon that has emerged? You make it productive.’’
Courtiers have discussed the potential plan as an opportunity for the couple’s ‘‘Malta moment’’, echoing the time that the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh spent on the Mediterranean island between 1949 and 1951.
Palace officials are expected to open talks with the government about how to pay for the plans and how to provide security for the couple while they are away.
Simon Case, William’s private secretary who worked in No 10 for Theresa May and David Cameron, will be pivotal in those talks. He is understood to think that a period of separation between the young princes would help them to define the roles they will adopt for the next 50 years.
While Harry’s and Meghan’s precise roles remain undefined, they are all but certain to include a Commonwealth component. Last year the Queen appointed Harry as a ‘‘Commonwealth youth ambassador’’.
– Sunday Times