Retiring BBC royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell has revealed that Charles didn’t speak to him ‘for years’, after a story he’d written infuriated the then future king – and prompted those famous hot mic comments.
The veteran royal correspondent, who is stepping down next year, was the target of the then Prince of Wales’ irritation during a photoshoot with William and Harry in the Swiss Alps in 2005 just eight days before Charles was due to marry Queen Camilla.
The then Prince of Wales was angered when Witchell asked him how he was feeling about his upcoming wedding, prompting the future monarch to say under his breath: ‘Bloody people. I can’t bear that man. I mean, he is so awful, he really is.’
In an interview with The Sunday Times, the journalist has now explained exactly why Charles was so cross, saying a piece he’d written about a holiday he’d enjoyed with Camilla on a friend’s yacht had sparked the wrath.
Ex BBC royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell (pictured in 2016) said that he’d upset Charles so much with a piece he’d written about the future king on a yacht holiday with Camilla that the then Prince didn’t speak to him ‘for years’
He said: ‘I had compared it to holidays taken by a former Prince of Wales [Edward VIII] with his mistress [Wallis Simpson], and I know he really didn’t like that. He was very cross.’
The ex BBC man disclosed that Charles stopped speaking to him for several years, something the journalist said didn’t do his career harm because it proved he wasn’t ‘blowing smoke up the royal family’s rear end’.
Witchell said he and the monarch were eventually reconciled, and that king had even gone on to become patron of the Normandy Memorial Trust, which the journalist co-founded.
Earlier this year, Witchell revealed he had been ‘shocked’ when he realised exactly what Charles had said about him in 2005, saying his question to the royal had gone ‘horribly wrong’, adding: ‘I was shocked, but to be perfectly honest, we all mutter under our breath, don’t we?’
King Charles with his arms around Prince William and Prince Harry during the Royal Family’s ski break at Klosters, Switzerland on March 31, 2005
The journalist, who has covered the Royal Family since 1998, revealed last week that he will retire next year.
He joined the broadcaster as a graduate news trainee in 1976.
King Charles had been on holiday at Klosters resort when he hit out at Mr Witchell, who asked him: ‘Can I ask how you and Princes William and Harry are feeling at the prospect of the marriage?’
Speaking to The Telegraph, the journalist said he had hoped with his question to get Prince Harry and William to ‘endorse the wedding’.
‘But it just went horribly wrong,’ he said.
Witchell has admitted he was ‘shocked’ when King Charles called him ‘awful’ during a now-infamous TV interview
‘People weren’t in the best of moods that morning. It sounds the most inane and pathetic question really: “How do you feel about the wedding?’”
‘But if you sort of unpack that, as the then Prince of Wales immediately did… I could see that his face was somewhat changing colour.’
Charles initially interrupted before Mr Witchell had finished his question, saying: ‘You’ve heard of it have you?’
William politely said: ‘Very happy, very pleased. It will be a good day.’
Before embarking on his rant, Charles said again: ‘I’m very glad you’ve heard of it anyway.’
Aides suggested that Charles was annoyed about William and Kate Middleton – then just the prince’s girlfriend – being photographed the previous day.
Paddy Harverson, Charles’s press secretary at the time, said: ‘We recognise that we cannot stop photographers taking these pictures, but we hope every year that they will respect the privacy of the family and friends and their need to have a private holiday.’
In 2005, Prince Charles – as he was then – famously insulted the BBC’s royal correspondent, Nicholas Witchell
Mr Harverson later said: ‘Nicholas was in the firing line when the prince was expressing his general frustration at the paparazzi and it boiled over at the first person to ask a question,’ he said.
‘It wasn’t personal. He does regret saying it. He really didn’t mean to take it out on Nicholas.’
Mr Witchell said at the weekend that Charles did not apologise but he had not expected him to.
He said ‘for several years’ there was ‘no contact’ between the pair before they had a ‘rapprochement’ in Saudi Arabia.
Mr Witchell broadcast the confirmed news of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales on August 31, 1997 and provided live radio commentary from outside Westminster Abbey at her funeral.
The 70-year-old first joined the BBC after finishing a law degree at Leeds University, later becoming a BBC reporter in Northern Ireland in 1979, which included covering the assassination of Earl Mountbatten and the IRA hunger strikes.
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