Royal charity splits with Charles’s divorce lawyer

SHARP-TOOTHED divorce lawyer Fiona Shackleton was dubbed the ‘Steel Magnolia’ after securing Prince Charles a divorce settlement in which Princess Diana lost her HRH title.

Now, however, Baroness Shackleton of Belgravia is the subject of a royal split herself. I can reveal that she has parted company with the charitable foundation run by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry.

Lady Shackleton, 60, who memorably had a glass of water thrown over her by a furious Heather Mills during her divorce from Sir Paul McCartney, had been a trustee of the Royal Foundation since it was established in 2009.

‘It’s the end of an era,’ a courtier tells me. ‘William, Catherine and Harry are keen to shape the foundation in their own image, and Fiona is very much the Prince of Wales’s era.’ As part of the radical shake-up, the foundation recently appointed Demetra Pinsent, 42, the glamorous wife of Olympic rowing hero Sir Matthew Pinsent, to its board of directors.

A courtier told me at the time that the appointment of Lady Pinsent, who is chief executive of make-up company Charlotte Tilbury Beauty, was ‘ very significant’. Lady Shackleton is not the only major departure from the foundation, which was established to distribute money to 26 causes ‘ close to the hearts’ of William and Harry, focusing on the military, young people and conservation. The Princes’ senior adviser Sir David Manning, who was Tony Blair’s foreign policy aide in the run-up to the Iraq War, has also stepped down. Like Shackleton, he was on the board since the charity’s creation.

Lady Shackleton (right), a partner at the law firm Payne Hicks Beach, acted as Charles’s personal solicitor until 2005, and continues to work with William and Harry on their legal affairs.

‘ I like sticking up for people and making sure they are not taken advantage of,’ she has said in the past. ‘It helps to have a rod of steel through your back.’ As soon as Kate Middleton married into the Royal Family, William and Harry added her title to their foundation — and the ‘Kate effect’ duly saw donations soar. Money has continued to roll in, with income rising to a staggering £4.28 million in 2015. A spokesman says Lady Shackleton and Sir David stepped down from the board in line with ‘normal governance standards’. However, its rules make clear that its trustees can be reappointed annually ‘without limitation’.