Harry and Meghan were accompanied during their walkabout in Nottingham by a former Kensington Palace aide who once appeared as a stripper in a soap-opera spin-off, the Daily Mail can reveal.
As the couple greeted members of the public, Beth Herlihy followed discreetly a few steps behind, helping to carry the flowers and balloons presented by supporters.
Ms Herlihy, who earns $155,000 a year as a programme coordinator for the Sussexes, co-founded the public relations boutique Herlihy Loughran. She previously worked for the Royal Family before becoming one of Harry and Meghan’s most trusted aides.
She travelled to Nottingham with the couple yesterday after helping organise their engagements in the city, walking behind them as they greeted a crowd of around 100 people.
Video footage also showed her directing schoolchildren into position shortly before Harry and Meghan arrived to cheers.
Before moving into royal circles, however, Ms Herlihy pursued a different career as a soap actress. Her roles included playing a stripper in a racy Hollyoaks spin-off.
Using the stage name Bethan Coundley, she played Honey in two episodes of Channel 4’s Hollyoaks Later in 2011.
In the storyline, her character slept with a man before drugging him and making him hallucinate that he had killed her with an axe.
The deception was exposed when a supposed burial site was found to contain a pig’s body rather than a human corpse.
Ms Herlihy also appeared in several racy photoshoots, including one in 2012 in which she wore a PVC bodysuit.
Away from acting, she built a career in public relations and joined Kensington Palace within a few years. She now works with Harry and Meghan after establishing an advisory firm serving prominent figures and organisations in the philanthropic sector.
As one of the Duke of Sussex’s most trusted staff members, Ms Herlihy, pictured behind the Duchess, travelled to Nottingham with Harry and Meghan yesterday
Beth, pictured playing a stripper in Hollyoaks, left acting behind in 2016 when she was appointed an events manager at the Royal Foundation
The Sussexes’ strategic adviser wore black trousers, suede boots and a taupe jumper during the Nottingham visit yesterday
Ms Herlihy founded the firm with Clara Loughran, another former royal aide who served as Harry’s programme manager. Ms Loughran is married to Nick Loughran, Harry’s former assistant communications secretary.
She was appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order by the Queen on Harry’s recommendation. The honour is awarded to people who have served the monarchy with dedication in a personal capacity.
The organisation describes itself as “a small, high-trust advisory working with high-profile individuals, founders and organisations to build and deliver meaningful philanthropic work.”
Its “bespoke” services include “advice, positioning and delivery”, with the stated aim of helping “good people do meaningful things, exceptionally well”. Retaining the firm, however, comes at a considerable cost.
A tax return filed by Harry and Meghan’s charity, Archewell Philanthropies, shows that the couple paid Herlihy Loughran $155,000 for strategic advisory services. The firm received $127,807 in 2022.
The six-figure payment may reflect the time Ms Herlihy and Ms Loughran spend working for the Sussexes. As the Daily Mail’s Royal Editor Rebecca English has written: “Both have been trained in the ‘royal way’.”
‘Even the walkabout undertaken by the couple – just hours after their own team pointedly insisted they wouldn’t do one because they didn’t have the security to manage it, despite the exact timings of their visit being publicly released, presumably in an effort to drum up interest – was royal in all but name.’
Ms Herlihy was hired as an events manager at the Royal Foundation, the joint charitable vehicle for the now-Prince and Princess of Wales and the Sussexes, in 2016.
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Beth Herlihy also took part in several modelling shoots, including one in 2012 when she posed in a PVC body suit
Beth Herlihy, Prince Harry and Meghan at the Invictus Games 2023
She is seen here walking with the Duchess of Sussex
In September last year, Beth was seen pictured with the Prince at the Invictus Games in Dusseldorf, Germany
After the Sussexes split from the foundation in 2018, she remained with Harry and Meghan but was laid off by Kensington Palace after the Sussexes stepped down as senior royals and relocated to the US.
She set up Herlihy Loughran in 2020 and has followed the Sussexes across the pond.
In September 2023, she was seen talking with the Prince at the Invictus Games in Germany. The pair chatted in the stands as they watched a wheelchair basketball match between Team UK and Ukraine in Düsseldorf.
And it would seem that Ms Herlihy has remained loyal to the Sussexes after they decided to return to the UK after six years living in Montecito, California.
Dressed in black trousers, a beige sweater and suede boots, Ms Beth was close at hand as Harry and Meghan carried out a series of charity visits in Nottingham – nine years after their first royal visit to the city.
The scenes looked identical to their walkabout almost a decade ago – although the crowds appeared smaller in 2026.
Around 100 royal fans and well-wishers gathered to greet Harry and Meghan. The duchess beamed as she shook hands and took selfies with fans, including one boy who asked if she lived in a mansion and another who wanted to know whether she had a Bentley.
The visit came after the Sussexes were described as ‘private citizens’ by the King, who was in Wales with the Queen for an official engagement at the same time.
Beth Herlihy attending the second day of the One Year to Go Event before the Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025 at Mountain Square in Whistler, Canada
The pair chatted in the stands as they watched a wheelchair basketball match between Team UK and Ukraine in Dusseldorf
One of the Duchess’ friends said Meghan does not see herself as a working royal and is instead more of a ‘full-time mum and entrepreneur’, adding that public events like this with her husband will be ‘rare’ for her.
The Sussexes were supporting a number of charities, including a community food project established in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy and a recording studio where Meghan took part in an acting workshop.
In keeping with traditional royal engagements, the scores of photographers and journalists gathered outside were kept behind barriers, as were the crowds of well-wishers, some clutching flowers, with one youngster holding a unicorn balloon, while media access inside the event was pooled.
Harry and Meghan are waiting to hear whether they will be granted taxpayer-funded security, with the duke said to fear a delay after Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced a review of security measures for the royal family and public figures in the wake of the death of Reform UK’s justice spokeswoman Ann Widdecombe.
The duke and duchess are said to consider themselves ‘public figures’ and were caught off-guard by the letter, authorised by the King, outlining their position.
Meghan is hoping to launch As Ever in the UK by the end of this year.
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