Controversial aide prince can’t do without

HE was reportedly trusted to squeeze toothpaste on to Prince Charles’s brush when the heir to the throne was nursing a broken arm from a polo match.

So it is no surprise that Charles is said to remarked of his former valet Michael Fawcett: ‘I can manage without just about anyone except Michael.’

During more than 20 years working for the prince, Mr Fawcett, 56, has established himself as his right-hand man and trusted aide.

He began his royal service in 1981 as a footman to the Queen, becoming sergeant footman and then Charles’s assistant valet.

He resigned in 1998 when a number of the prince’s staff complained to Charles about his bullying attitude. But he was reinstated and promoted within a week.

In 2003, he was again forced out for supposedly selling official gifts on Charles’s orders. He was cleared of any financial misconduct by an internal inquiry, having been awarded a £500,000 severance packet.

Yet, remarkably, in 2018 he was appointed to the £95,000-a-year role as chief executive of Charles’s charity The Prince’s Foundation.

Premier Mode, the events firm Mr Fawcett runs with his wife Debbie, 57, has received hundreds of thousands from the prince’s charities to help run events. The couple live in a £990,000 house in Hampton, west London.

Mr Fawcett reportedly played a key role in organising Charles’s lavish 70th birthday, a Buckingham Palace event hosted by the Queen.

Last year, he was appointed a director of the Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts in east London.

He has previously worked as chief executive of Dumfries House Trust.