New aide ‘is safest pair of hands you’ll get’
HIGH-FLYING diplomat Fiona Mcilwham was the ‘obvious choice’ to help rescue Harry and Meghan’s reputation after a string of gaffes and controversies, Royal sources claimed last night.
Ms Mcilwham clinched her new job as the couple’s private secretary after impressing them with her achievements as one of Britain’s youngest-ever ambassadors.
She was appointed the UK’s Ambassador to Albania in 2009, aged just 35, at a time of mounting political crisis and amid the threat posed by organised crime.
Sources say she made an instant impression by shunning chauffeurdriven limousines and bodyguards and instead walking to meetings in the capital Tirana and speaking to the country’s leaders in their own language. Before taking up her position, she spent a month living with a family in the north of the country. Muhamed Veliu, a political correspondent with Albanian broadcaster Top-Channel, said: ‘She quickly gained huge respect.’
The hunt for a private secretary for Harry and Meghan was led by a group of senior officials including Sara Latham, the couple’s US-born PR chief, who helped draw up a shortlist. It is understood the Duke and Duchess were present during Ms Mcilwham’s final interview.
A Royal source said the diplomat ‘is the safest pair of hands you can get and that is what the couple really need right now’.
Ms Mcilwham, who has just completed a strategic leadership course at the Royal College of Defence Studies, lives in a £1 million house in North London with husband Daniel Korski, a former senior aide to David Cameron, and their son.