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More Nasty Allegations Feeding British Tabloids

Aired November 11, 2002 - 11:26   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: More nasty allegations are feeding the British tabloids this morning. These concerning people near the royal family, not in the royal family this time. A male aide to Prince Charles is said to have raped another man, a former royal valet and of course that means we have to bring our Nick Robertson in on this one from London. He's got more on this latest royal mess and the royal response as well to these stories. Morning, Nick.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Morning, Leon. That royal valet laying out his story over the weekend, accusing one of Prince Charles' staff of a homosexual act, essentially raping him. Now according to the valet, George Smith, that took place in 1989. It wasn't until 1996 there was an internal palace inquiry. It wasn't until last year that the police were called in to investigate. That has lead to some allegations of a cover up. I'm joined here by royal watcher Robert Jobson.

Robert, what can we learn from the fact that the police weren't called in so quickly to investigate this?

ROBERT JOBSON, CNN ROYAL COMMENTATOR: Well, the questions here are about Prince Charles' judgment. Surely the police should have been called in at the stage when there was a serious allegation and the fact it was found out lately is actually very damaging to the royal family and particularly to Prince Charles which calls into question his judgment.

ROBERTSON: Does it have implications for the monarchy?

JOBSON: Well as the Prince of Wales is heir to the throne, it certainly does because obviously people are going to be looking at this and saying what on earth is going on at St. James Palace? I think the implications will be that I think that Buckingham Palace will have to take complete control and in my opinion, they should all come under one corporate royal umbrella and so these decisions won't be made just by one office, i.e. St. James' Palace.

ROBERTSON: What is Prince Charles, what is St. James' Palace doing about it at this time?

JOBSON: Well, there have been crisis meetings from the beginning of the day today. Sir Michael Pete (ph), Prince Charles' private secretary who has nothing to do with any of this. He's come in and had (ph) to try to deal with it and he's a very good man. I think he will be pivotal in the negotiations between both St. James' Palace and Buckingham Palace and I think he will probably get to grips with the issue and try to at least put out some sort of statement about this. ROBERTSON: But of course, as well, Prince William, his aides are Prince Charles' aides, these same people who have been called into question here.

JOBSON: Exactly. I think that really what the situation here is that Prince William is after all the future of the British monarchy. I think it needs for the queen and her advisers to sort of take control of Prince William and to groom him for the new role. There have been huge mistakes here at St. James' Palace and I think the question of judgment is one that they have to address.

ROBERTSON: One of the other issues outstanding as well is the questionable, is the sale of royal gifts by Prince Charles' aides.

JOBSON: I think this is a serious issue because it will be raised by MPs in the House of Commons and it's basically suggesting that a royal aide is actually selling off gifts given to Prince Charles, official gifts and then taking a cut on the money. But if that is true, that is a serious situation, a serious allegation and I think the MPs will not rest until they get to the bottom of that.

ROBERTSON: When are we going to see an end to all the sleaze that's coming out in the papers now?

JOBSON: It's difficult to assess when the actual curtain will come down on this whole thing. I think you can take a while before it goes away. Remember that we're building up to the weekend when more revelations will come out from the "Mail" on Sunday, the story, the paper that broke the story of the rape and I do really think that they're going to have to hope for another story to come along before the papers turn on another issue.

ROBERTSON: Robert Jobson, thank you very much.

JOBSON: Pleasure.

ROBERTSON: Leon, this does look set to run at least we are told until the end of the week until perhaps another big story comes. Leon.

HARRIS: And Nick, you thought you were dealing with some dirt out there on the desert in Afghanistan, huh? Almost like every week, there's something new. One thing before we let you go, I'm being told that Paul Burrell, the butler for Princess Diana, who was in the news all of last week, he is now in New York on a publicity tour. Do you know anything about that?

ROBERTSON: He is, some of the papers here again, all this is speculation, allegations in the British papers here, that he has been having a difficult time trying to explain some of the allegations that have surfaced in newspapers over the weekend, allegations about his own background, some homosexual relationships that he may have had. That was the allegations in some newspapers. That is the latest on Paul Burrell from here. So he's not having an easy ride at this time either.

HARRIS: All right, well more to come. Thanks Nick. Nick Robertson reporting to us live from the streets of London. Daryl.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired November 11, 2002 - 11:26   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: More nasty allegations are feeding the British tabloids this morning. These concerning people near the royal family, not in the royal family this time. A male aide to Prince Charles is said to have raped another man, a former royal valet and of course that means we have to bring our Nick Robertson in on this one from London. He's got more on this latest royal mess and the royal response as well to these stories. Morning, Nick.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Morning, Leon. That royal valet laying out his story over the weekend, accusing one of Prince Charles' staff of a homosexual act, essentially raping him. Now according to the valet, George Smith, that took place in 1989. It wasn't until 1996 there was an internal palace inquiry. It wasn't until last year that the police were called in to investigate. That has lead to some allegations of a cover up. I'm joined here by royal watcher Robert Jobson.

Robert, what can we learn from the fact that the police weren't called in so quickly to investigate this?

ROBERT JOBSON, CNN ROYAL COMMENTATOR: Well, the questions here are about Prince Charles' judgment. Surely the police should have been called in at the stage when there was a serious allegation and the fact it was found out lately is actually very damaging to the royal family and particularly to Prince Charles which calls into question his judgment.

ROBERTSON: Does it have implications for the monarchy?

JOBSON: Well as the Prince of Wales is heir to the throne, it certainly does because obviously people are going to be looking at this and saying what on earth is going on at St. James Palace? I think the implications will be that I think that Buckingham Palace will have to take complete control and in my opinion, they should all come under one corporate royal umbrella and so these decisions won't be made just by one office, i.e. St. James' Palace.

ROBERTSON: What is Prince Charles, what is St. James' Palace doing about it at this time?

JOBSON: Well, there have been crisis meetings from the beginning of the day today. Sir Michael Pete (ph), Prince Charles' private secretary who has nothing to do with any of this. He's come in and had (ph) to try to deal with it and he's a very good man. I think he will be pivotal in the negotiations between both St. James' Palace and Buckingham Palace and I think he will probably get to grips with the issue and try to at least put out some sort of statement about this. ROBERTSON: But of course, as well, Prince William, his aides are Prince Charles' aides, these same people who have been called into question here.

JOBSON: Exactly. I think that really what the situation here is that Prince William is after all the future of the British monarchy. I think it needs for the queen and her advisers to sort of take control of Prince William and to groom him for the new role. There have been huge mistakes here at St. James' Palace and I think the question of judgment is one that they have to address.

ROBERTSON: One of the other issues outstanding as well is the questionable, is the sale of royal gifts by Prince Charles' aides.

JOBSON: I think this is a serious issue because it will be raised by MPs in the House of Commons and it's basically suggesting that a royal aide is actually selling off gifts given to Prince Charles, official gifts and then taking a cut on the money. But if that is true, that is a serious situation, a serious allegation and I think the MPs will not rest until they get to the bottom of that.

ROBERTSON: When are we going to see an end to all the sleaze that's coming out in the papers now?

JOBSON: It's difficult to assess when the actual curtain will come down on this whole thing. I think you can take a while before it goes away. Remember that we're building up to the weekend when more revelations will come out from the "Mail" on Sunday, the story, the paper that broke the story of the rape and I do really think that they're going to have to hope for another story to come along before the papers turn on another issue.

ROBERTSON: Robert Jobson, thank you very much.

JOBSON: Pleasure.

ROBERTSON: Leon, this does look set to run at least we are told until the end of the week until perhaps another big story comes. Leon.

HARRIS: And Nick, you thought you were dealing with some dirt out there on the desert in Afghanistan, huh? Almost like every week, there's something new. One thing before we let you go, I'm being told that Paul Burrell, the butler for Princess Diana, who was in the news all of last week, he is now in New York on a publicity tour. Do you know anything about that?

ROBERTSON: He is, some of the papers here again, all this is speculation, allegations in the British papers here, that he has been having a difficult time trying to explain some of the allegations that have surfaced in newspapers over the weekend, allegations about his own background, some homosexual relationships that he may have had. That was the allegations in some newspapers. That is the latest on Paul Burrell from here. So he's not having an easy ride at this time either.

HARRIS: All right, well more to come. Thanks Nick. Nick Robertson reporting to us live from the streets of London. Daryl.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com