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Royal Ruckus
Aired November 10, 2003 - 13:42 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: For more on the rumor mill that has run amok in Britain, we go to CNN's Diana Muriel who is live in London.
Diana, we should probably tell viewers your hands are a little bit tied here in reporting this story, correct?
DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, yes, absolutely. My hands are behind my back, miles. I'll have to be very, very careful what I say here.
What I can tell you is that these allegations of an alleged sexual incident that took place, these are allegations that have been made by a former valet to Prince Charles who's been named as George Smith, and these allegations are the subject of an injunction, that is a court-ordered ban on their reporting, which was brought by another former member of the royal household, a man called Michael Forcet (ph), who used to be a personal aide to Prince Charles.
Now Prince Charles has come back from his state visit to Amman. He arrived back in Britain on Sunday, looking rather dejected. He went straight to his country residence, Clarence House, in Gloucester, and there he had meetings and telephone calls with some of his senior advisers over the best course of action.
Now we've been told by Clarence House -- Clarence House is the prince's official residence in London and acts as his office. We've been told by them that the prince is not planning to take any legal action on this issue and that he will not be making a televised appearance or making any televised statement on this issue, which some of the newspapers have been reporting over the weekend.
The newspapers, for their part, still haven't left the story alone. "The Sun" newspaper still has the story, "Charles' Moment of Truth" on its front headline today, although some of the broad sheets, the more, perhaps if you would like, conservative market newspapers are starting to ignore the story. But nonetheless, the story is still out there, and the details of the story are out there on the Internet and in some of the international newspapers as well -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Diana, you can, I can quote a little Shakespeare here, "Me thinks he doth protest too much" here. Why is he denying allegations that you can't even report on?
MURIEL: Well, Miles, you have to flip it on its head really. The prince lives in the real world, and he knows that in the real world, the media is going to get hold of the story, as indeed they have done, and they have published it on the Internet, and they've published it in various newspapers, including the Scottish newspaper, which is not bound by the same laws as England and Wales. And so he knew that that was going to happen. And his advisers said the best thing for him to do was to put out a denial to go with those allegations when they print them, because it's a question of time, as much as anything else, and indeed it could still be a question of time before British newspapers, English newspapers, break the law and print the details of the story.
So some people consider it to be a clever, preemptive move on the part of the prince. Others say that he should have done what all royals have always done, which is never complain and never explain. And by making this move, he has given the stories legs -- to quote one media lawyer that I spoke to -- and the story is going to run and run -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: All right, Diana Muriel. I guess we can second-guess this one from now to kingdom come, and we probably will. But thank you very much for spending a little time with us. We appreciate it.
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 10, 2003 - 13:42 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: For more on the rumor mill that has run amok in Britain, we go to CNN's Diana Muriel who is live in London.
Diana, we should probably tell viewers your hands are a little bit tied here in reporting this story, correct?
DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, yes, absolutely. My hands are behind my back, miles. I'll have to be very, very careful what I say here.
What I can tell you is that these allegations of an alleged sexual incident that took place, these are allegations that have been made by a former valet to Prince Charles who's been named as George Smith, and these allegations are the subject of an injunction, that is a court-ordered ban on their reporting, which was brought by another former member of the royal household, a man called Michael Forcet (ph), who used to be a personal aide to Prince Charles.
Now Prince Charles has come back from his state visit to Amman. He arrived back in Britain on Sunday, looking rather dejected. He went straight to his country residence, Clarence House, in Gloucester, and there he had meetings and telephone calls with some of his senior advisers over the best course of action.
Now we've been told by Clarence House -- Clarence House is the prince's official residence in London and acts as his office. We've been told by them that the prince is not planning to take any legal action on this issue and that he will not be making a televised appearance or making any televised statement on this issue, which some of the newspapers have been reporting over the weekend.
The newspapers, for their part, still haven't left the story alone. "The Sun" newspaper still has the story, "Charles' Moment of Truth" on its front headline today, although some of the broad sheets, the more, perhaps if you would like, conservative market newspapers are starting to ignore the story. But nonetheless, the story is still out there, and the details of the story are out there on the Internet and in some of the international newspapers as well -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Diana, you can, I can quote a little Shakespeare here, "Me thinks he doth protest too much" here. Why is he denying allegations that you can't even report on?
MURIEL: Well, Miles, you have to flip it on its head really. The prince lives in the real world, and he knows that in the real world, the media is going to get hold of the story, as indeed they have done, and they have published it on the Internet, and they've published it in various newspapers, including the Scottish newspaper, which is not bound by the same laws as England and Wales. And so he knew that that was going to happen. And his advisers said the best thing for him to do was to put out a denial to go with those allegations when they print them, because it's a question of time, as much as anything else, and indeed it could still be a question of time before British newspapers, English newspapers, break the law and print the details of the story.
So some people consider it to be a clever, preemptive move on the part of the prince. Others say that he should have done what all royals have always done, which is never complain and never explain. And by making this move, he has given the stories legs -- to quote one media lawyer that I spoke to -- and the story is going to run and run -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: All right, Diana Muriel. I guess we can second-guess this one from now to kingdom come, and we probably will. But thank you very much for spending a little time with us. We appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
