Prince Charles has blasted a former close aide for “betraying” him in an explosive new book.
The Queen’s ex-Press Secretary Dickie Arbiter is set to reveal secrets about Charles’ relationship with Diana and the breakdown of two other royal marriages.
A palace source said: “Charles is furious. This man was a trusted friend.”
For 12 years, Buckingham Palace Press Secretary Arbiter was regarded by Prince Charles as a man he could trust with his deepest secrets.
Every inch the tight-lipped loyal aide, Arbiter stood by him during the bitter breakdown of his marriage to Diana and his affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles.
He was also in office when Diana was killed and witnessed the breakdown of two other royal marriages during his turbulent time in office.
And he watched as the prince formed a close friendship with Jimmy Savile.
Nicknamed Sticky Arbiter, he will claim in his book that he was so close to the Queen they once did the washing up together.
But the 73-year-old is set to hang out the Royal Family’s dirty laundry – and be the first Buckingham Palace press officer ever to spill the beans on what he witnessed behind closed doors.
Speculation over what lies inside his upcoming biography has sent shock waves through the regal corridors.
It is understood officials have been taking legal advice in a desperate attempt to halt its publication.
A Palace source said: “He is raking over the breakdown of the marriage and the Prince has been asking aides ‘Why do we have to go through this all again?’
“It is just a case of a man who he thought was a friend and who could be trusted cashing in on the misery of that time. It is disloyal.
“Arbiter has been told that he does not have official permission to write this book and a legal team has reviewed all his old contracts in a bid to try and find a way to stop it.”
Last night Arbiter admitted he had signed the Official Secrets Act and left a “note” with the palace to say he was writing the book.
The ex-aide, who has previously blasted others for selling royal secrets, stands to rake in around £250,000 from publishing advances and serialisation fees. He still receives lucrative pension payments from the Royal Family.
He admits having signed a confidentiality agreement while working as an official spokesman for the Queen between 1988 and 2000 – but claims his book will not break any confidentiality.
Last week Arbiter was busy on Twitter promoting the upcoming release, tweeting: “Doing a big publicity shoot today for my book On Duty With The Queen.”
It is understood Arbiter’s shock disclosures will detail how rincess Diana felt “humiliated” by her husband’s affair with Camilla and her “dark days” as an unhappy wife.
The book is said to reveal how the relationship went “sour” after Diana had been “madly in love with Prince Charles at the start of their marriage.”
A source said Arbiter will also “delve into the dark days” of Diana’s “isolation” and “humiliation” as Charles’ affair with Camilla first came to light.
His story will reveal how the troubled Princess never expected the public backlash she faced over an infamous interview she gave speaking out about her husband’s betrayal for the first time and the effect it had on her young sons.
The possible tone of the book is also worrying palace officials. Arbiter was once quoted as saying: “We would all have loved to rip Diana’s knickers off.”
And he is said to have tried to ignore a ghost writer who helped him pen the memoir so he could overplay his role at the palace.
He will give his account of the Queen and Prince Charles’ reaction to Diana’s relationship with Dodi Fayed and her death in a car crash in Paris in 1997.
The book, to be published in October, will also cover Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson’s separation and eventual divorce in 1996 and Princess Anne’s split from Mark Philips in 1992.
Arbiter is also set to speak out about the Queen’s heartbreak over the Windsor Castle fire and his personal dealings with the Duke of Edinburgh.
Arbiter, who claims to have turned down countless previous offers to write his memoirs, said: “This is not just a memoir of an intense dozen years but is a story of a life, my life and it’s been quite an extraordinary one.”
He says his book is a “candid look behind the scenes of the most sensational and salacious royal stories.”
It is believed it will also give a rare insight into the Queen’s private opinion of her Prime Ministers, world leaders and controversial Egyptian business magnate Mohamed Fayed.
A source close to Arbiter said: “Dickie was there a long time and all the major events involving the royals that took place while he was there will be covered. This is his take on what happened and he believes he is allowed to reveal the secrets of the time he worked at the palace.
“It will be interesting to see if the palace has a different view.”
Arbiter, who has made a living as a royal commentator, historian and lecturer on several television networks worldwide, was responsible for the operational media requirements for Diana’s funeral.
He markets himself as the only royal commentator to have been present at the Queen’s Coronation and her Silver, Golden and Diamond Jubilees.
He has been secretly planning to pen his controversial account of life in the royal household since 1998.
The ex-aide’s book is also said to reveal how Jimmy Savile’s behaviour when he visited Prince Charles’ official home at St James’s Palace was a cause for “concern and suspicion”.
He claims the paedophile used to rub his lips up the arms of the prince’s young female assistants as a greeting.
Savile is understood to have visited Prince Charles’ official London residence several times in the late 1980s when he was acting as a ‘marriage counsellor’ between Charles and Diana.
A spokesman for the Prince of Wales previously confirmed he and Savile formed a friendship in the late 1970s through their work with wheelchair sports charities. Charles led tributes to Savile when he died.
Arbiter once said of Savile: “He would walk into the office and do the rounds of the young ladies doing secretarial work, taking their hands and rubbing his lips all the way up their arms if they were wearing short sleeves.”
Arbiter has previously attacked Diana’s former butler Paul Burrell publicly for selling his story about life with the Princess.
He also accused writer Tina Brown of cashing in on Diana’s tragic death with the publication of her book The Diana Chronicles in 2007.
He said: “Everyone who writes a book is just cashing in.
“Frankly there is nothing more to write on Diana.”
Arbiter was born during the Blitz but moved as a teenager to the former Rhodesia, where he trained as an electrician.
He previously worked in theatre and broadcasting in the 70s before being invited to join the palace staff in 1988.
Today Arbiter confirmed he had signed both the Official Secrets Act and a confidentiality agreement when going to work at Buckingham Palace.
He said: “It is an autobiography - it is about my life. There aren’t any revelations.”
Asked if he had been granted official permission to write about his time at the Palace, he replied: “I left a note at the palace telling them I was doing it. I am not breaching anything.”
In a promotional video for the book available on the Blink publisher’s website, Arbiter brags that he was at the palace during “probably the most turbulent in the history of the modern British monarchy.
“In On Duty with the Queen I’ll convey what life was like behind the scenes.”
A Palace spokesman said: “We wouldn’t comment on the contractual obligations of employees, past or present, of the Royal Household.”
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What the publisher says
The publisher’s description of the book says: “In this wonderful and honest book, former press secretary to the royal family Dickie Arbiter reveals the inner-workings of everyday life inside Buckingham Palace and what it’s really like to be On Duty with the Queen.
"With over three decades of experience covering royalty as a journalist and as one of Her Majesty’s press secretaries, Dickie Arbiter has had unprecedented access to the inner circle of some of the most intriguing news stories over the years and is the only royal commentator to have witnessed the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and covered her Silver, Golden and Diamond Jubilees.
"From sailing in the Royal Yacht Britannia, escorting Prince Charles on far-flung trips across the globe and the Commonwealth and joining Her Majesty for washing-up duties following a picnic in Balmoral Castle, to becoming one of Princess Diana’s most trusted confidantes before briefing the world’s media of her untimely death, Dickie was at the forefront of the decision-making at the Palace during the most turbulent decade in the monarchy’s reign.
"Open, entertaining, enlightening and surprising, On Duty with the Queen is a wonderful account of a truly unique service to the crown.”