Saying that King Charles III has a lot on his plate is an understatement. His Majesty inherited a mighty stressful and complicated job from his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
Less than one year after his coronation, His Majesty underwent surgery for an enlarged prostate. Weeks after the surgery, King Charles was diagnosed with cancer.
At the age of 75, The Monarch is undergoing chemotherapy in an effort to beat the illness. His Majesty, while optimistic, is tired and vulnerable, and that has pushed at least one dishonest staff member to take advantage of him.
According to a senior staff member who spoke to The Daily Mail, the incident caused The King’s aides to go ballistic. It will push Prince Harry to ask the same questions he asked about his late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth: who is watching The Sovereign? And is The Sovereign well surrounded?
David White, who served as King Charles’s Garter Of Arms, dupped His Majesty into signing documents so an associate could get a top position in the Palace.
White convinced King Charles to put his signature on the documents during a brief trip to London for chemotherapy.
The Mail reported: “King Charles was cynically duped by a senior courtier into signing a document appointing a colleague to a job at the Palace – while the monarch was recovering after a bout of his cancer treatment, it has been claimed. The incident has sparked a furious row in Charles’s court – with one of his closest aides said to have ‘gone ballistic’.”
More senior Buckingham Palace aides told The Mail: “It’s like a trick from the Middle Ages. There’s been a huge row behind the scenes. Some people believe that David White deliberately tried to get to Charles behind their backs so that he could get his preferred candidate into the role. What David may not have realized was that the King was tired. In other words, he was at his most vulnerable, which is why proper procedure exists. When the King is in London he is here to receive treatment and therefore that can often be a challenging time for him. The aides closest to Charles knew him well enough to know he should have been left in peace at that time.”
Insiders described White’s move “as a deliberate ambush to circumnavigate the King’s comptroller and his private secretary, Colonel Michael Vernon and Sir Clive Alderton,” according to the publication.
When a reporter from The Mail called White for a comment, he refused to share his side of the story. White, who did not hang up the phone, could be heard telling a colleague: “‘S***. She has got wind. She’s got wind of the fact that I nominated Peter O’Donoghue, that he had been put forward.”
A royal husehold source said: “That direct approach to the King should never happen. It should always go to the private secretary. Michael Vernon went ballistic and David decided to circumvent the whole system. I think Clive Alderton is equally irritated by it.”
The matter was handled by senior staff members, and O’Donoghue did not get the job.
