The Queen will never give the Prince of Wales her full approval because she finds him “too needy” and “too emotional”, a bombshell new book on the royal family alleges.
The claims, documented by former Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown, detail how the prince is “desperate for his mother’s approval” but may never get it because of his “vulnerable, self-centred” character.
The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor, the Truth and the Turmoil spans the past 25 years of betrayals, love affairs and scandals that have rocked the royal family.
Brown begins where her 2007 book The Diana Chronicles left off, with the death of the Princess of Wales, and concludes with Prince Andrew’s lawsuit with Jeffrey Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre.
Brown has talked to more than 120 people who are intimately involved in the lives of the senior royals – including regular visitors to Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall’s Highgrove residence.
One such insider gives Brown a revealing account of the relationship between the Queen and Charles.
Charles is “the wrong sort of person for [the Queen]”, the source said. “Too needy, too vulnerable, too emotional, too complicated, too self-centred, the sort of person she cannot bear.”
They continued: “Arts, charitable causes that aren’t wrapped in a rigid sense of duty – it’s all anathema to her.”
Prince Philip too didn’t believe that Charles was “king material”, according to The Palace Papers, especially once the Tampongate scandal unfolded in 1993.
According to Brown, the Queen was “frozen with disgust” at the leaked tapes, in which Prince Charles said he wanted to be a tampon to get close to his then mistress Camilla.
One Highgrove regular told Brown: “Charles is absolutely desperate for his mother’s approval and knows he’ll never really get it.”
This may be, the book alleges, because the Queen often feels more compassion for animals than people.
In one memorable anecdote, Brown recounts how, on the death of one the Queen’s favourite corgis, Lady Pamela Hicks sent her a sympathy note and received a six-page letter back from the Queen.
Brown notes that when Lady Hicks’s father, Earl Mountbatten, was murdered by the IRA neither she nor her sister received a letter of condolence from Her Majesty.
“A dog isn’t important, so she can express the really deep feelings she can’t get out otherwise,” Lady Hicks observed to Brown.
However, Brown comments that it is more likely that the Queen can show such a depth of feeling for dogs and horses because they are her emotional peers. They love her for who she is and not for the rank she holds, Brown writes.
The Queen’s passion for horses was showcased in a recent photo released to commemorate her 96th birthday. In the picture, she stands between two of her favourite fell ponies, Bybeck Nightingale and Bybeck Katie.
The Independent has contacted Buckingham Palace for comment.
‘The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor,The Truth and the Turmoil’ is available from 26 April
