Charles had to act as king: REBECCA ENGLISH reveals why King backed move to evict Harry and Meghan

King Charles loves Harry. That is a fact. No, more than a fact, actually.

I remember the look of genuine pride on his face as he joined Harry at his inaugural Invictus Games in London in 2014, visibly in awe of the feat his often underrated youngest son had managed to accomplish. ‘My dear boy…’ he smiled adoringly, patting her on the back.

But Charles isn’t just a father, he’s a king.

And I know from numerous conversations with royals in recent months that he feels he owes it to his country to act like a monarch, regardless of repetitive family drama.

That is why, as I understand it, you have bet bold moves to ‘evict’ his son and family from their home at Frogmore Cottage.

As I understand it, [Charles] has backed bold moves to ‘evict’ his son and family from their home at Frogmore Cottage (Pictured: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at Frogmore Cottage)

It’s a risky move and one that the Sussexes’ group of media advocates have already seized on in their efforts to paint the Duke and Duchess as victims of a cutthroat, protectionist institution (although how do they reconcile this with the fact that the couple pontificant has made it clear that they see their future in the US, thus leaving an entire house empty for more than 11 months of the year is anyone’s guess).

There is no doubt that the timing of the move, days after the publication of Harry’s controversial and damning memoir, Spare seems to suggest that it was an act of retribution.

And I’m sure there are many in the royal house who will smirk at the back of the ‘disloyal duo’, as some refer to them.

Indeed, as I reported on Saturday, there is still a lot of ill will ‘simmering’ at Buckingham Palace over the couple’s behavior in recent months and neither the King nor the Prince of Wales are in the mood to indulge Harry’s tantrums.

But Charles is not a vindictive man, and despite being deeply hurt by much of what he understands his son said about him and his wife (he has not yet read Harry’s memoirs and has no intention of doing so), I am told that this move was a while in the planning.

You see, the royal family has something of a housing crisis.

Not the kind of crisis many of the king’s subjects face, it has to be said.

Plus the fact that they have a glut of big houses and not enough people to justify their existence as luxurious private houses, except, oddly enough, Windsor, which is proving to be a bottleneck.

The trouble has been sparked by the Prince and Princess of Wales’s decision to move their family from their high-profile Kensington Palace apartment to the Royal Family’s Berkshire estate.

If the Crown Estate’s decision to pull the plug on Harry and Meghan’s lease on Frogmore Cottage (pictured) is as much practical as financial, it’s also a move that could backfire.

For now they are in Adelaide Cottage, not an immodest residence by anyone’s standards, but with only four rooms (not even one for the nanny) and they live side by side.

As someone familiar with their situation tells me: “Kids go to games in houses much bigger and grander than theirs.”

Admittedly, it’s a first-world problem, but one that would be solved if, say, a 30-bedroom, seven-bedroom property like Prince Andrew’s Royal Lodge became vacant.

If, of course, he could be persuaded to ‘downgrade’ to five-bedroom Frogmore Cottage instead, a move that is said to be fiercely resisted. Who knows where this merry-go-round of mansions will end?

But if the Crown Estate’s decision to pull the plug on Harry and Meghan’s lease is as much practical as financial, it’s also a move that could backfire.

Not only will it add another record to Harry and Meghan’s pyre of alleged injustices against them (and surely enough meat for another chapter in any forthcoming book), but it will sever, once and for all, any physical ties the couple has to him. United Kingdom.

And because they will no longer benefit from the security that Windsor affords them, the Duke and Duchess will inevitably argue, no doubt through court cases and ‘friends’ reporting to the media, that any future visit to Britain for them and their children are infinitely more complex now.

They could stay with family or friends, but let’s be honest, they’ve fallen out with so many people that this isn’t even a realistic option on the table.

It raises the question of whether Charles will ever see his grandchildren again.

More immediately, it now also gives Harry and Meghan the perfect excuse not to attend the coronation.

Because while they’ve apparently been given until early summer to pack up and move in, it’s not like the welcome mat is being dusted.

Read more from Rebecca English at Mail Plus here.