‘Charles saw Kate and William as the new stars and feared he’d be in trouble,’ recalls Robert Higdon, chief executive of Charles’ charity foundation in America.
Charles allegedly snubbed the Middletons, as he felt ‘usurped’ by Kate and Wills’ relationship with them and ‘decided to ignore Carole Middleton on social occasions’.
According to author Tom Bower, Charles’ actions ‘so infuriated William that he consulted his grandmother. To counter the hurtful snubs against Carole Middleton, the Queen made a point of inviting a TV cameraman to film her while driving the former air hostess around the Balmoral estate’.
Not only was Charles paranoid about his son’s in-laws, the tome reveals Charles suspected Diana and her sister-in-law Fergie were secretly plotting against him.
‘Charles convinced himself that Diana and Sarah, Andrew’s estranged wife, were hatching plans to replace him as heir – by announcing that on the Queen’s death, or abdication, Andrew would be Regent until William was 18, when he would take over,’ writes Tom.
Adding to the scandal, the book has exposed the Queen’s distaste for Camilla, with revelations Her Majesty once called her now daughter-in-law ‘that wicked woman’. And in a family where feuds runs deep, Camilla was embroiled in a slur campaign against Princess Diana, with the then-mistress referring to her rival as a ‘mouse’ and a ‘mad cow’.
According to the book, Camilla has remained unperturbed by the Queen’s dislike of her and – despite recent polls suggesting only 19 per cent of Britons believe she is fit for the role of Queen – has been bragging that Kate won’t be the first commoner Queen, insisting: ‘That’ll be me!’
Read the full story in this week's issue of New Idea, on sale now.
