The Prince of Wales and his long-time friend, Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles, yesterday vigorously denied any involvement in a new book celebrating the Prince's 50th birthday. The book portrays Diana, Princess of Wales, as destructive and serially unfaithful.
In what is their first joint public statement, Prince Charles and Mrs Parker Bowles dismiss suggestions they collaborated with the author, Penny Junor, in her book Charles: Victim or Villain, written to mark the prince's birthday next month.
Extracts from the book, which allege that the princess made threatening telephone calls to Mrs Parker Bowles and was the first in her marriage to commit adultery, were trailed in British newspapers yesterday. These reports prompted the joint statement in which the prince and Mrs Parker Bowles denied they had "authorised, solicited or approved" of the book.
The statement said that while the prince recognised that there would continue to be great interest in his marriage, he was of the view that "private and personal details surrounding it should be left private and undisturbed. . .that is why both he, and Mrs Parker Bowles, refused to become involved in any way in the writing of Penny Junor's book.
"The Prince of Wales hopes that for the sake of all those most closely involved - particularly for the sake of the princess's memory and Prince William and Prince Harry - people will agree with him that what is in the past should remain there. That is certainly his own wish." Buckingham Palace also became embroiled in the row when it described allegations that Queen Elizabeth had raised an objection to the princess's body being flown back from Paris in a royal plane as a "gross misrepresentation of the truth". According to the book, Queen Elizabeth was persuaded that the aircraft should be used only when an aide remarked: "What would you rather, Ma'am, that she came back in a Harrods van?" Contrary to popular belief, Ms Junor claims it was the princess who first had an affair during her marriage, not Prince Charles. Part One of the book, printed in magazine form in the Mail on Sunday, claims the princess began an affair with her then bodyguard, Mr Barry Mannakee, possibly as early as 1985. Mr Mannakee was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1987, and the tragedy led Princess Diana to slash at her body in an attempt at self-mutilation, the book claims.
Mr Mannakee's widow, Ms Susan Miller, refused to comment yesterday.
Ms Junor writes that no one has ever challenged the view of the royal marriage propagated by the princess in Andrew Morton's biography and the infamous Panorama television interview. Indeed, her book claims that far from being unfaithful, Prince Charles desperately wanted his marriage to work and that the princess once told Mrs Parker Bowles: "I've sent someone to kill you. They're outside in the garden. Look out of the window; can you see them?"
The book may have been intended as part of Prince Charles's public rehabilitation since the princess's death last year, but it seems to have seriously backfired.