King held Windsor Castle 'farewell' for 'closest aide' Michael Fawcett after quitting over cash-for-honours claims
King Charles held a farewell audience with his former most trusted aide Mr Fawcett who quit over cash-for-honours claims
The King held a farewell audience with his former most trusted aide Michael Fawcett who quit over cash-for-honours claims, it has emerged.
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The King held a farewell audience with his former most trusted aide Michael Fawcett who quit over cash-for-honours claims, it has emerged.
Charles reunited with his controversial ex-valet and one-time closest confidante in a secret Windsor Castle meeting.
Mr Fawcett resigned as chief executive of Charles’s charity The King’s Foundation, then The Prince’s Foundation, in 2021 over allegations he promised to help secure a knighthood and British citizenship for a Saudi billionaire donor.
The Metropolitan Police launched an investigation into the alleged cash-for-honours scandal but announced in 2023 that detectives would be taking no further action.
Mr Fawcett was “welcomed back into the King’s charmed circle once again” and smuggled in and out of the royal apartments in a “military-style operation,” according to the Mail on Sunday.
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It is understood the meeting, which happened several months ago, was a final courtesy goodbye audience which the King holds as standard practice for departing senior staff, rather than Mr Fawcett being back in the royal fold.
A Palace source said: ‘While we wouldn’t comment on individual private meetings, His Majesty often holds farewell audiences for departing senior staff.
“Some of these can been subject to delay, due to diary pressures, circumstance or ill health.”
Mr Fawcett, who began his career as a Buckingham Palace footman, went on to become Charles’s most indispensable aide over the decades, with the prince once saying: “I can manage without just about anyone, except for Michael.”
The former royal valet quit twice before, including in 2003 when, as Charles’s personal assistant, he was accused and cleared by an inquiry of selling royal gifts, but was revealed to have accepted valuable gifts from outsiders.
He continued to have the prince’s patronage as a freelance fixer and party planner, and picked up an undisclosed cash severance package as well as an agreement to work as Charles’s events manager.
Mr Fawcett was appointed to the role of chief executive of the then-Prince’s Foundation in 2018 amid a reorganisation of Charles’s charities.
An independent investigation in 2021 found Mr Fawcett co-ordinated with “fixers” over honours nominations for Saudi billionaire donor Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz.
In January this year, an inquiry by the Scottish charity regulator found Mr Fawcett exposed The King’s Foundation to “substantial risk”, but his actions did not amount to misconduct, over his failure to make sure high-value paintings loaned to the charity were insured.