Prince William gave one of the Queen’s most important officials “a piece of his mind” after a palace coup led to the ouster of the only courtier who experts believe could have prevented ‘Megxit’.
The man in the center of the row was Sir Christopher Geidt, a former military intelligence officer, who served the Queen loyally for 15 years as her private secretary.
He was sensationally forced to resign in 2017 after falling out with King Charles and Prince Andrew.
A new book claims that the ‘unkind’ way in which Sir Christopher, now Lord Geidt, was treated so outraged William that he spoke to the monarch’s head of household, then Lord Chamberlain Earl Peel, and made his feelings.
Lord Geidt’s fall from grace left such a hole in the Palace machinery, particularly in dealings between the Queen’s office and other members of the family, that it paved the way for Harry and Meghan’s acrimonious departure from the Royal Family. multiple sources told the Mail.
The crisis is revisited in journalist Valentine Low’s fascinating new book Courtiers, detailing the inside story of the people who work for the Royal Family and the power they wield.
The fall from grace of Sir Christopher Geidt (pictured with the Duchess of Sussex) left such a hole in the Palace machinery that it paved the way for Megxit, multiple sources have told the Mail.
The queen’s private secretary was forced to resign in 2017 after falling out with King Charles and Prince Andrew. But a new book claims Prince William was outraged at the ‘unkind’ way Sir Christopher, now Lord Geidt, was treated.
Low describes the imposing ex-army officer Lord Geidt as having “something of the Bond villain in his looks”.
He joined Buckingham Palace in 2002 and quickly rose through the ranks to become the monarch’s right-hand man and conduit with the government.
He was considered hugely successful in his work and made a point of stalking the corridors of the palace, speaking to as many members of the household as possible in order to be the eyes and ears of the monarchy in all personal and professional matters.
‘When you were talking to Christopher, you knew I didn’t have to go check it out. Either he knew that was what the Queen thought, or it is what she would want anyway, because he was so enmeshed in her thinking,” a source quoted in the book says.
A source told the Daily Mail yesterday: “Christopher’s effective dismissal was a huge shock and many are of the opinion that if he had still been around, the Megxit debacle would not have happened.” In the photo: the Duke and Duchess of Sussex during an interview with Oprah Winfrey
Lord Geidt (pictured) joined Buckingham Palace in 2002 and quickly rose through the ranks to become the monarch’s right-hand man and conduit for government.
He says that although he once enjoyed a good relationship with King Charles, the two men fell out over a number of issues.
He also developed a prickly relationship with Charles’s own private secretary, Sir Clive Alderton.
One point of contention was that he did not back the then Prince of Wales’s plan to form a consortium to buy Dumfries House, an 18th-century estate in south-west Scotland, as the headquarters for his charity.
Lord Geidt thought that this move would leave the heir to the throne financially exposed.
It has been suggested that Meghan and Harry might not have regressed as senior members of the Royal Family were it not for Lord Geidt’s departure. Pictured: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s announcement on Instagram
Journalist Valentine Low’s new book Courtiers claims that Prince William (pictured with Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, Catherine, the Princess of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the queen’s funeral last month) left clear his feelings about Sir Christopher’s departure. head of the monarch’s household: the then Lord Chamberlain, Earl Peel
He was also believed to have overstepped his bounds when, in 2017, he called a meeting of all the royal houses in the palace ballroom to announce the Duke of Edinburgh’s retirement from official duties, a story picked up by the Daily Mail. .
He also took the opportunity to address his audience about the future of the family, emphasizing how the three homes – Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and Kensington Palace – would have to start working together in the future, which it worked fine internally. She lost her job three months later.
Prince of Wales? Not in my county, says council
A Welsh council refuses to accept William as the new Prince of Wales after voting to abolish the title.
Councilors in Gwynedd, the local authority that includes Caernarfon, where William’s father King Charles became Prince of Wales in 1969, described the monarchy as an “oppressive archaic tradition”.
Members of the council, which is led by Welsh nationalists Plaid Cymru, voted 46 to 4 in favor of abolishing the title of Prince of Wales and keeping any future investiture of William ‘off Welsh soil’. Four councilors abstained in the vote.
Prince William and his wife Kate were appointed Prince and Princess of Wales by the King in his first address to the nation after the Queen’s death last month.
The couple received a warm welcome from the public when they visited Anglesey, North Wales, for the first time since taking on the roles ten days ago.
Plaid Cymru councilor Elfed Wyn ap Elwyn moved to oppose the “continuation” of the title, saying the monarchy was a “plague on our nation”.
Royal sources have previously said that William does not plan to have a grand investiture like his father and may not have one.
Sam Rowlands, a Tory Senedd member, said Gwynedd’s move was “misplaced”.
Councilors in Gwynedd, the local authority that includes Caernarfon, where William’s father King Charles was inaugurated as Prince of Wales in 1969 (pictured), described the monarchy as an “oppressive archaic tradition”.
Prince Andrew, meanwhile, had long held a grudge against his mother’s closest assistant for keeping him from family duties.
He was furious at Lord Geidt’s pivotal role in helping the former Prince of Wales emphasize his plan for a scaled-down monarchy by ensuring he was not on the palace balcony at the Queen’s 2012 Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
Before the celebrations, the book states, Andrew was very “unsettled” at being excluded from the traditional flight, telling an attendee, “You need to talk to Christopher Geidt.” I want to be on that balcony. We have worked very hard all year supporting the Queen. It is scandalous.
In the end, however, only the Queen, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince Harry showed up to watch the RAF flight.
But in 2017, Lord Geidt’s enemies finally moved against him. Surprisingly, given the late queen’s confidence in her private secretary, he agreed.
At the time, multiple sources suggested the then-91-year-old sovereign simply wanted “a quiet life” and to avoid a dispute with her children.
But William, with whom Lord Geidt had always enjoyed a good relationship, was furious and went to the Lord Chamberlain to ‘give him an opinion’.
The book quotes a source as saying: ‘William was furious. He talked to his grandmother and his father. He felt that Christopher had worked to modernize the institution and bring it closer together. He was concerned about the way he had handled himself and how Christopher had been treated.
“I was really mad about it, not necessarily because it was the wrong decision. He just thought it was handled very unkindly for a man who was a pillar of the institution of the monarchy, but had also played an incredibly important role when the coalition government was formed.
“It seemed like the wrong thing to unceremoniously kick someone out for a reason that had nothing to do with what was the core of Christopher’s job, which he was still doing very, very well.”
‘[Prince William] i told willy [Lord] Pele how he felt about it, and in particular how he felt about the way it had been carried out, which he thought was very unpleasant.
A source told the Daily Mail yesterday: “Christopher’s effective dismissal was a huge shock and many are of the opinion that if he had still been around, the Megxit debacle would not have happened.”
“He had his finger on the pulse and people think he would have found a way to preempt the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s departure, or at least find a way to make things work more amicably.”
Lord Geidt entered the Lords after leaving his position in the royal house, becoming Baron Geidt de Crobeg.
He then became Boris Johnson’s ethics adviser, a post he resigned from in June this year.