Described as the PR woman ‘who helped turn Prince Charles into a human being’, Colleen Harris has returned to work for him now he’s King.
I can disclose that the respected public relations consultant, who quit as Charles’s press secretary in 2003 after five years to ‘spend more time with my family’, was appointed on Tuesday as a director of the Prince of Wales Charitable Foundation. It has awarded £70million in grants to a host of good causes since it was established by the King in 1979.
Harris, 67, who attended the King’s Coronation in May, was the most senior black member of the Royal Household. She previously worked for the civil service and has spoken about the challenges she faced.
Explaining that she was the ‘only black person working in PR across the entire British Government‘, she said: ‘A senior civil servant asked me to fetch more milk for the tea, assuming I worked in catering. It wasn’t an isolated incident.’
Guru: Described as the PR woman ‘who helped turn Prince Charles into a human being’, Colleen Harris has returned to work for him now he’s King
King: Harris, 67, who attended the King Charles’ Coronation in May, was the most senior black member of the Royal Household
After Ms Harris began working as the Charles’ press secretary in 1998, she claimed some of the Palace ‘old guard’ struggled to cope with the appearance of a black woman from South London.
‘I was one of the first black members of the Royal Household,’ she wrote.
‘The Queen recognised immediately that the Royal Family can exist only with the consent of the people and that listening to their views was vital. That acknowledgment was key to a marked shift in attitude.’
After Harry and Meghan’s wedding in 2018, Ms Harris celebrated the presence of a mixed-race Duchess, predicting the Palace would warmly embrace the new royal.
‘Mixed-race people are the fastest growing ethnic group in the country but can sometimes feel marginalised and misunderstood, and having someone like Meghan talk about these issues could be just what’s required,’ she wrote.
