“My Husband Is in Love With His Valet” Diana’s Claim Reopens Questions About Charles’s Household

Charles Spencer is not an outsider suddenly cashing in on royal scandal. An Oxford-educated historian and author from one of Britain’s oldest aristocratic families, he says his latest account is intended to place his sister’s experiences on the historical record. The revelations appear in his forthcoming book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which is being serialised by the Daily Mail ahead of publication.

One revelation has attracted particular attention. Spencer writes that, as Princess Diana’s marriage to the then-Prince Charles was collapsing, she told him quietly:

She looked up at me, nodded, and said quietly: ‘But, Carlos, my husband is in love with his valet.’

I gulped. ‘Well, I guess, in that case, you really don’t have a choice.’

She did not name the member of staff, and I never asked her who it was, or why she would believe such an improbable thing.

– Charles Spencer, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, Part One, serialised in the Daily Mail

Spencer says Diana never identified the valet. There is therefore no evidence that she was referring to Michael Fawcett.

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Michael Fawcett walks behind Diana and Prince William at Cartier International Polo Day in 1989, while serving as Charles’s valet.

Michael Fawcett Was More Than a Valet

Fawcett entered royal service in 1981 as a Buckingham Palace footman before rising to sergeant footman and assistant valet to Charles.

His duties reportedly included laying out Charles’s clothes and attending closely to his personal needs. His influence eventually extended far beyond dressing the prince.

Charles was famously reported to have said: “I can manage without just about anyone, except for Michael.”

When three members of staff complained about Fawcett’s behaviour in 1998, he briefly left before returning and becoming Charles’s personal assistant.   That loyalty would become important as more serious controversies emerged.

A Black Employee Accused Fawcett of Racist Abuse

Fawcett’s record also included a serious racism allegation. In 2001, former Highgrove secretary Elizabeth Burgess alleged at an employment tribunal that he had used an extreme racial slur (“fucking nigger typist.”) against her. Burgess ultimately lost her racial discrimination and constructive dismissal case, so the allegation was not established by the tribunal. Even so, the controversy did not end Fawcett’s relationship with Charles.

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Then Came the George Smith Scandal

In 2002 and 2003, another former royal servant brought Charles’s household under even more intense scrutiny. Former valet George Smith alleged that another royal servant had raped him. According to contemporary reporting, Princess Diana had previously recorded Smith discussing his allegations.  

Smith also made a separate, unproven allegation that he had witnessed a sexual incident involving Prince Charles and another male member of staff. Clarence House categorically denied the claim.

The Guardian later identified Michael Fawcett as the former royal aide who went to court seeking to prevent the Mail on Sunday from publishing material connected to the allegation. They later reported that Smith struggled with alcohol and memory problems and said there was no reason to believe his sexual allegation was true. The Guardian also reported that Smith struggled with alcohol and memory problems and said there was no reason to believe his sexual allegation was true.

But the response from Charles’s camp is historically significant. Fawcett obtained an injunction against publication, while Clarence House took the unusual step of publicly denying an allegation British newspapers were largely unable to describe. The legal battle itself helped turn what had been private establishment gossip into an international media story.  

By 2003, British newspapers were openly hinting at an unproven allegation involving Charles and a male servant, but a court order prevented publication of the details. Al Jazeera reported that the Mail had known about George Smith’s claim for around a year and previously considered it too unreliable to print.

An Inquiry Followed and Fawcett Left Again

The controversy helped trigger a broader inquiry into Charles’s household led by Sir Michael Peat. The investigation examined several issues, including Smith’s rape allegation, whether it had been improperly handled, allegations surrounding royal gifts and whether household staff had received improper payments.

The inquiry found no evidence of serious wrongdoing but concluded that household procedures were weak and required substantial improvement. It also found that Fawcett had bent palace rules regarding gifts and hospitality.  

Fawcett resigned in 2003. Except he did not really disappear. Charles guaranteed work for Fawcett’s new event-management business, allowing one of his closest aides to continue working for him on a freelance basis. Once again, controversy had not ended their relationship.

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Harry and Meghan Wanted Nothing to Do With Him

That history makes a largely forgotten report from 2018 particularly interesting. Ahead of Prince Harry and Meghan Sussex’s wedding, Charles reportedly suggested that Fawcett help organise the Windsor reception.

According to reporting at the time, the idea “went down like a lead balloon” with Harry and Meghan, who were said to want nothing to do with him. Later accounts also described Charles as unsuccessfully pushing for Fawcett to have a role in the wedding arrangements.  

But the chronology is striking. Years before Harry and Meghan publicly accused the royal institution of mishandling issues involving race, they reportedly rejected the involvement of an aide who had already faced a serious racism allegation from a Black employee.

Fawcett Finally Left in 2021

And then, in the same year, Michael Fawcett’s decades-long association with Charles finally unravelled. This time the controversy concerned money, not race.

Fawcett stepped aside as chief executive of the Prince’s Foundation in September 2021 amid allegations that he had offered to help Saudi donor Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz obtain an honour and British citizenship after substantial donations to Charles-linked projects.  

He resigned permanently that November, and Clarence House confirmed that neither Fawcett nor his company would continue providing services.  

A subsequent independent investigation found evidence that Fawcett had coordinated with intermediaries over an honours nomination, although it found no evidence that the charity’s trustees knew about those communications.  

Diana’s Comment Now Lands Differently

None of this proves Michael Fawcett was the valet Diana meant when she told Charles Spencer that her husband was “in love with his valet.” Nor does it establish George Smith’s sexual allegation or Elizabeth Burgess’s tribunal allegations as fact.

What Spencer’s revelation does is put Charles’s household, and one of its most enduring figures, back under scrutiny.

Fawcett rose from valet to one of Charles’s most trusted aides, survived repeated controversies, resigned more than once, continued working for Charles and eventually became chief executive of the Prince’s Foundation before finally leaving in 2021 amid the separate cash-for-honours scandal. Nearly four decades of loyalty make that history worth examining again.