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under the PCC. Edward has been, however, the only royal who has been allowed to take
up a normal civilian job, first with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s theatre production company
and then setting up on his own as an independent TV producer. It was the nearest he
could get to his dream of acting, but in an overcrowded and competitive field he ran the
risk of jealousies and accusations of trading on his privileged position. Before his
marriage he lived at Buckingham Palace a life fairly distant from his parents; even
when at one of their holiday homes he preferred to go out riding by himself rather than
accompany his mother. Elizabeth has comparatively little contact with her youngest son
(who, surprisingly, is his father’s favourite); but the romance with Sophie Rhys-Jones, an
ordinary British working girl with a background utterly remote from the royals, had her
approval.
In the 1980s Elizabeth began to fight back against media intrusion into the family’s
affairs. In 1987, when the Sun published a private letter written by Philip to the
Commandant General of the Royal Marines about Edward’s decision to give up his
career in the service, Elizabeth initiated proceedings against the newspaper for breach
of copyright; she did the same thing when the Sun published a photograph of her with
her newborn York granddaughter. The problem for her was that the stories leaking
through into the British press from 1985 onwards, particularly those relating to the
Waleses’ marriage, were based on fact, although the general public was not yet
prepared to take them seriously. In an article entitled ‘The Mouse that Roared’, Tina
Brown, the New York-based but well-informed British editor of Vanity Fair, wrote that
‘the heir to the throne is pussy-whipped from here to eternity’ and that both the Waleses
had lost touch with reality. By 15 September 1984, when Prince Harry was born, the
marriage was a shell and the Prince had turned again to Camilla Parker Bowles, whose
new home was conveniently near to Highgrove, while Diana later initiated an affair
with a Guards officer, Captain James Hewitt. Diana’s jealousy of Camilla and the
Prince’s resentment of the public adulation of his wife (which had first become acute
during their joint tour of Australia and New Zealand) had poisoned the atmosphere
between them. With their total lack of compatibility there was no common ground on
which they could meet. There was an exodus of staff who could no longer cope with the
‘two camps’ atmosphere within the Wales household. Oliver Everett, the Princess’s
Private Secretary, was the first to go, cold-shouldered by the Princess but rewarded by
Elizabeth with the coveted post of Royal Librarian as some compensation for the
diplomatic career which he had given up to join the Wales household. Even the faithful
Michael Colborne, wearied of being the victim of the Prince’s moods, handed in his
resignation. The chef left because the couple’s social life was too boring; both ate
sparingly and gave no joint dinner-parties (how could they when they had no joint
friends?). Diana got rid of Stephen Barry, whom she regarded as having far too strong a
hold over the Prince, then Charles’s favourite labrador, and tried to distance him from
his friends. ‘He’s got to give up everything for me’ was her attitude.
The Wales situation was developing towards danger-point, but neither Elizabeth nor
her household seems to have realized it. One problem was the lack of communication on