King Charles III has been accused of “sacrificing” Prince Harry to improve his own image, a friend of Queen Camilla has claimed.
Following the tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in a Paris car crash, both the then Prince Charles and the then Camilla Parker Bowles found themselves single. Their reputations were at an “all-time low” after Diana’s passing, as revealed in the new documentary ‘Queen Camilla: The Wicked Stepmother’.
Camilla sought the help of PR guru Mark Bolland, who aimed to present her relationship with Charles in a positive light to the public. As part of his strategy, William and Harry were included in his campaign, the documentary suggests.
Prince Harry alleges that Mark Bolland exploited his teenage drug use to promote Charles and Camilla. In 2002, the News Of The World reported that Prince Harry was sent to a drug rehabilitation clinic for a day after confessing to smoking cannabis and consuming alcohol.
It was suggested that Prince Charles decided to “shock” his then 17-year-old son after discovering he had taken drugs at his Highgrove home and drank excessively at a local pub, reports Aberdeen Live.
However, Royal journalist Charles Rae, speaking in the documentary, stated: “Any Royal involved in illegal activities is a great story, the only problem with this was, this was spin.”
“This had not happened as they said. What had happened was that Harry had gone to this drugs rehabilitation place two or three weeks beforehand. It was spun then to try and show people that ‘don’t worry, dad’s taken care of it. He’s taken him to a drugs rehabilitation unit to show him the evils of his ways.'”.
Royal historian Robert Jobson informed the documentary that the News Of The World “did a deal” with the Palace, and then twisted the story “to make Charles look as good as possible.”
The documentary revealed that when the News Of The World presented their evidence to Bolland, he utilised his close relationship with editor Rebekah Brooks, then Wade, to “soften the story”. Bolland allegedly provided Wade with “extra details of Harry’s royal visit to the rehab centre to make Charles look good”.
Petronella Wyatt, a friend of Queen Camilla’s, shared with the documentary: “I think it was a very bad decision on Bolland’s part. I think Charles was slightly distracted at the time. I think he would probably feel now he shouldn’t have allowed that to appear. It does look like a son being sacrificed to make his father look better.”
Prince Harry has since accused members of the Royal Family of getting in “bed with the devil” over their links with the tabloid press. In an interview with ITV, he stated: “Those certain members have decided to get in the bed with the devil, right? To rehabilitate their image.”
“If you need to do that, or you want to do that, you choose to do that – well, that is a choice. That’s up to you.”
“But the moment that rehabilitation comes at the detriment of others – me, other members of my family – then that’s where I draw the line.”
Queen Camilla: The Wicked Stepmother? will be shown on Channel 4 on Sunday, November 24.
