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CNN Live At Daybreak
Royal Rumors
Aired November 11, 2003 - 06:08 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: On the somber note, we switch gears to the story we can't report, but everyone knows. There is better news for Prince Charles, a break from the press -- kind of.
Let's head live to London and Gaven Morris.
Good morning -- Gaven.
GAVEN MORRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Indeed, the tabloid newspapers here in London that have been pursuing this story so heavily for, really, the past 10 days have backed off today. Many of them are saying, look, let's leave the prince alone. Let's give him a break. There is no proof here to these allegations that have been swirling around the royal household for some 10 days or more. And so, what they're saying is, you know, we really need to give the guy a break.
What we can say is that there is still only the one allegation. It is difficult to talk about it for legal reasons over here. But it is a royal valet basically alleging that a sexual incident took place inside one of the royal palaces involving Prince Charles.
Now, no details can be spoken of in this country about what it is all about, but it has refused to go away for 10 days. No other voices have come out in support of this valet, and for the moment it seems really that he has few friends coming out in support.
We know that Paul Burrell yesterday, the former Princess Diana butler, spoke on CNN. He says he's a friend of George Smith, this valet, but not even he was ready to vouch for his story.
Let's have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL BURRELL, PRINCESS DIANA'S FORMER BUTLER: I know George very well.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: You do know him.
BURRELL: Yes.
KAGAN: What can you tell us about him?
BURRELL: He's a very good man. I like George. The princess liked George, too. And she tried to help him with all his problems. KAGAN: Do you consider him to be a credible source?
BURRELL: I think he's a very nice man, yes. But, you know, all...
KAGAN: There are lots of nice men, but that doesn't mean that they tell the truth.
BURRELL: True. We don't know, do we? It's just speculation. And George has told his story. It isn't actually evidence, because there's nothing to corroborate that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORRIS: Now, Carol, just to take you through a little bit of the background of this story, really this -- these little tapes, or tapes like these is what this is really all about. What happened was several years ago Princess Diana heard about these allegations that George Smith had and recorded them on tapes. Whether it's her voice or whether it's George Smith's voice, they are on these tapes.
Now, these ended up in the possession of Paul Burrell, who we just heard, and it became a huge storm about whether they would be handed over, whether they'd be used in evidence in a trial that Paul Burrell went through. Essentially, these tapes are now missing. Nobody knows where they are. Nobody knows if there are other allegations on them.
So, little tapes just like this one is what is causing all of the problems in all these scandals we've been hearing about for quite a long time now. And until those tapes are either found or until they're dismissed, there is no question that these sorts of scandals will go away completely -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, so just a little bit more on these tapes. Where exactly might they be, and when exactly might they be found and put all of this to rest?
MORRIS: That's a good question, isn't it? Because what happened was that these tapes were apparently in some possessions that Paul Burrell was meant to have taken away after Princess Diana's death, but they've disappeared since. Paul Burrell says he doesn't have them. No word from Diana's family whether she has them.
So, these audiotapes still may have other secrets on them that nobody knows about.
To add a whole other level of complexity, there are also some videotapes of some voice coaching sessions involving Princess Diana that apparently are in Scotland Yard's possession, the Metropolitan Police here, and we don't know what's on those either.
So, the problem is that there are these tapes circulating, and until they can either be dismissed or found, we don't know what is still out there -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Gaven Morris reporting live for us from London this morning.
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, 2003 - 06:08 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: On the somber note, we switch gears to the story we can't report, but everyone knows. There is better news for Prince Charles, a break from the press -- kind of.
Let's head live to London and Gaven Morris.
Good morning -- Gaven.
GAVEN MORRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Indeed, the tabloid newspapers here in London that have been pursuing this story so heavily for, really, the past 10 days have backed off today. Many of them are saying, look, let's leave the prince alone. Let's give him a break. There is no proof here to these allegations that have been swirling around the royal household for some 10 days or more. And so, what they're saying is, you know, we really need to give the guy a break.
What we can say is that there is still only the one allegation. It is difficult to talk about it for legal reasons over here. But it is a royal valet basically alleging that a sexual incident took place inside one of the royal palaces involving Prince Charles.
Now, no details can be spoken of in this country about what it is all about, but it has refused to go away for 10 days. No other voices have come out in support of this valet, and for the moment it seems really that he has few friends coming out in support.
We know that Paul Burrell yesterday, the former Princess Diana butler, spoke on CNN. He says he's a friend of George Smith, this valet, but not even he was ready to vouch for his story.
Let's have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL BURRELL, PRINCESS DIANA'S FORMER BUTLER: I know George very well.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: You do know him.
BURRELL: Yes.
KAGAN: What can you tell us about him?
BURRELL: He's a very good man. I like George. The princess liked George, too. And she tried to help him with all his problems. KAGAN: Do you consider him to be a credible source?
BURRELL: I think he's a very nice man, yes. But, you know, all...
KAGAN: There are lots of nice men, but that doesn't mean that they tell the truth.
BURRELL: True. We don't know, do we? It's just speculation. And George has told his story. It isn't actually evidence, because there's nothing to corroborate that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORRIS: Now, Carol, just to take you through a little bit of the background of this story, really this -- these little tapes, or tapes like these is what this is really all about. What happened was several years ago Princess Diana heard about these allegations that George Smith had and recorded them on tapes. Whether it's her voice or whether it's George Smith's voice, they are on these tapes.
Now, these ended up in the possession of Paul Burrell, who we just heard, and it became a huge storm about whether they would be handed over, whether they'd be used in evidence in a trial that Paul Burrell went through. Essentially, these tapes are now missing. Nobody knows where they are. Nobody knows if there are other allegations on them.
So, little tapes just like this one is what is causing all of the problems in all these scandals we've been hearing about for quite a long time now. And until those tapes are either found or until they're dismissed, there is no question that these sorts of scandals will go away completely -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, so just a little bit more on these tapes. Where exactly might they be, and when exactly might they be found and put all of this to rest?
MORRIS: That's a good question, isn't it? Because what happened was that these tapes were apparently in some possessions that Paul Burrell was meant to have taken away after Princess Diana's death, but they've disappeared since. Paul Burrell says he doesn't have them. No word from Diana's family whether she has them.
So, these audiotapes still may have other secrets on them that nobody knows about.
To add a whole other level of complexity, there are also some videotapes of some voice coaching sessions involving Princess Diana that apparently are in Scotland Yard's possession, the Metropolitan Police here, and we don't know what's on those either.
So, the problem is that there are these tapes circulating, and until they can either be dismissed or found, we don't know what is still out there -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Gaven Morris reporting live for us from London this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
