Who holds the power behind the throne?
Eleanor Steafel on the trusted and influential courtiers shepherding the royals through these turbulent times
Being a royal aide can be a thankless task. Get it right and the boss may resent you. Get it wrong and you’ll be sent to the Tower.
The job used to be a shoo-in for titled ex-military types with the confidence to manoeuvre internal palace politics. You had to be able to foresee which embarrassments could become scandals, and which feuds could become national crises. You had to get your “principal” – as the royals are referred to within palace walls – to like you, but not be afraid to put your foot down.
That’s the way it worked for centuries. In fact “courtier” conjures up images of Sir Walter Raleigh whispering into Elizabeth I’s ear or the imperious Tommy Lascelles, referred to by Princess Margaret as “the man who ruined my life”. But these days, the job is a rather different beast, and requires a different sort of courtier.
There is a new world order when it comes to the aides shepherding the Royal family through these times of turmoil. Two of the most senior members are being advised by Hollywood publicists, while the past five years has seen unprecedented turnover. And with whispers that private secretaries no longer wield much influence over their principals, it may be no coincidence that three members of the firm have stepped back from duties in as many months.
So who, then, is steering – or at least attempting to steer – the Good Ship Windsor?
Buckingham Palace
Since the retirement of her father’s man, Captain Lascelles, in 1953, the
Queen has been served by eight private secretaries. Her most trusted, Lord Geidt, was forced out three years ago, after a decade in charge. A former Scots Guard, straight-talking Lord Geidt’s influence was reportedly resented by the Prince of Wales. Many in the family – including the Princess Royal and the Earl of Wessex – now blame his absence for the fraught period that has ensued.
His replacement, Sir Edward Young, is liked, but said to lack Lord Geidt’s strength of personality. That is the fine line private secretaries have to tread – you must be strong enough to earn respect and make unpopular decisions, but anyone with a strong will, say insiders, “doesn’t last long”. Equally it doesn’t do to become so devoted that all objectivity is lost – a condition some feel Prince Andrew’s ultra-loyal former private secretary Amanda Thirsk fell victim to before his Newsnight interview.
There is a definite “hierarchy of courtiership”. But although the royals consider private secretaries to be “their man on earth”, in reality more lowprofile aides can have the most influence. Angela Kelly, a Liverpudlian docker’s daughter who has served as personal assistant and dresser to the Queen since 2002, is said to be her closest confidante. “The idea of someone lower down the pecking order trying to tell Angela what to do… let’s just say she might feed it back to the Queen, and the Queen might take action on her behalf. That’s how intimate the relationship is,” one source says.
Buckingham Palace’s PR machine is also a delicate business and is run by Donal McCabe, a former director of communications at Ladbrokes, who took on the role last year, shortly after the Duke of Edinburgh’s car crash.
But despite staffing changes, things are run much as they always have been, though there is one notable addition to duties – finding out about The Crown. Peter Morgan, the series’ creator, recently disclosed that he meets with courtiers four times a year to allow them to “brace themselves”.
Clarence House
The other senior Royal houses have, I’m told, been operating in silos for some time – which many believe to be part of the problem. “If one household is in trouble,” one insider says, “the others think ‘thank God it’s not us’.”
Clarence House has typically been “the difficult one”. As Tom Bradby, the ITV broadcaster and friend of the Duke of Sussex, revealed last week, the Prince of Wales is keen to have the newspapers on side. After all, the future of the monarchy relies on the king being popular and respected.
His private secretary, Clive Alderton, was one of four top aides present at Monday’s Sandringham summit to hammer out the Sussexes’ future. A former ambassador to Morocco, Alderton joined Clarence House in 2015 and is said to be helping the Prince plan what kind of monarch he wants to be. Liaising with the other households is also an important part of his job, and one that has caused tension as the Duke of Cambridge and, until now, the Duke of Sussex, have taken on bigger roles.
Dickie Arbiter, the Queen’s press spokesman from 1988 until 2000, says that the trickiest times come when your principal does something – such as attending an event or backing a cause – and doesn’t tell you about it. “I would phone up Princess Diana and say, ‘What’s this I’ve read in the tabloids?’ She’d say, ‘I forgot to tell you’,” he recalls. “It still happens and I think the poor communications department gets it in the neck because they hadn’t got a grip on it. But you can’t get a grip on something you didn’t know was going to happen.”
As a senior aide, you are, he says, “only as good as the advice your principal takes”. He adds: “If they don’t take the advice, there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Kensington Palace
When Prince William g got married in 2011 and established his own household, “The Way y Ahead Group” was set up to ensure everyone was on the same page when it came to diary y and messaging clashes. “The The idea was to ensure that no o one got in the way of what someone meone else was doing,” says Arbiter.
It seems that system m has broken down somewhat, what, with the Cambridges and Sussexes competing for column inches in recent ent months. On Dec 31, for or instance, Prince William iam announced a climate change initiative. That at same day, the @sussexroyal Instagram account posted a picture of Prince Harry cradling his son, Archie, and stole his brother’s thunder.
However, one insider insists the houses have pulled together since the furore over the Duke of York’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted paedophile. “They had to come up with a combined solution to the Andrew problem,” the source says.
In a sign of the Duke of Cambridge’s increasingly senior role, his team has also undergone an overhaul. It’s now headed-up by Simon Case – who was also at the Sandringham summit – an experienced civil servant, previously tasked with trying to solve the Northern Ireland border issue in Brexit discussions. The Cambridge graduate also worked as principal private secretary to former prime ministers David Cameron and Theresa May. The Duke’s communications secretary, y, C Christian Jones, also has a background in government g – he was a speech-write speech-writer for David Davis, the former Brexit Bre secretary. All good training for f Megxit, then. The Duche Duchess of Cambridge’s private secretary, se Catherine Quinn, Quinn is stepping down any day d now after two years year – an early departure, dep which caused cau some surprise. But Bu they are said to be parting par amicably, with Quinn Qu – who helped the Duchess establish her “Early Years” initiative initi – wanting to return retur to the charity sector. secto No replacement has been b announced – too late l to apply?
Frogmore Cottage
The events of the past week have made it clear that the Sussexes have a different approach. Sara Latham, their press secretary, has been with them for a year, and her hire – when the Cambridges and Sussexes split their households last year – was seen as a departure, with the American having worked on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Their private secretary is Fiona Mcilwham, a diplomat who joined from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Last week, after the couple’s announcement, she is said to have joked: “I was offered the Iran desk [at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office]. That might have been easier.”
The Sussexes are also said to be taking advice from the Duchess’s US-based team. It has been reported that she still employs her Hollywood agent, Nick Collins, as well as a business manager and a lawyer.
The couple were also revealed to have hired crisis PR firm Sunshine Sachs – which once represented Harvey Weinstein, and counts Leonardo DiCaprio as a client. Its founder, Kenny Sunshine, reportedly shares the Duke of Sussex’s dislike of photographers, labelling them the “stalkerazzi”. The firm’s publicist, Keleigh Thomas Morgan, is said to be masterminding a charity fundraising drive for the Sussex Royal initiative.
All this has led to concern that the couple have left themselves exposed by taking advice outside the palace machine. “Palace spinners are paid by the royals to keep stuff out of the papers,” says one source, “whereas Hollywood spinners take a 10 per cent cut to get them in the papers.”
‘I was offered the Iran desk at the Foreign Office. That might have been easier’