Peter Mandelson’s warning to Charles: Disgraced peer told the royal that the public didn’t like him after Diana divorce because he was ‘glum and dispirited’ and ‘rather sorry for himself’

Disgraced Peter Mandelson told now-King Charles that the public didn’t like him after his divorce from Diana because he seemed to ‘feel rather sorry for himself’, a royal author has claimed. 

Mandelson – currently under investigation for misconduct in public office – wrote in his memoir, The Third Man, how Charles’s former aide Mark Bolland invited him to a private lunch with the then-Prince of Wales at Highgrove ‘three weeks before Diana’s death’ in 1997.  

In the wake of his divorce, Charles became fixated on two things, wrote royal biographer Tina Brown in her landmark book, The Palace Papers.

Breaking the heart of the ‘People’s Princess’ had grievously hurt Charles’s reputation, as Ms Brown reported ‘overhauling perceptions of his deeply unpopular self was top of his agenda’. 

The second problem was ‘closely intertwined’ with the first, as Charles reportedly became ‘obsessed’ with how to rehabilitate his then-mistress’s public image and bring her ‘out of the shadows’. 

Against this backdrop, Charles hired ‘Blackadder’ Bolland – the infamous Palace ‘spin doctor’ who was 30 when he accepted the post of deputy private secretary. 

Bolland ‘summoned’ the Labour Party’s ‘Prince of Darkness’ for lunch at Highgrove, where Charles asked Mandelson how he was viewed by the public. 

During their meeting, the ex-MP told Charles that ‘people had gained the impression you feel rather sorry for yourself, that you’re rather glum and dispirited’, adding: ‘This has a rather dampening effect on how you are regarded.’ 

Three weeks later, on August 31, 1997, Diana died during a car crash in Paris as the world was plunged into mourning. 

Although Charles and Camilla are now widely seen as a loving couple and dutiful King and Queen, it wasn’t always that way.

After his divorce from Diana was finalised, Camilla was branded a ‘Rottweiler’ and became known as ‘the most hated woman in Britain’.

The pair’s PR efforts proved no match for the glamorous, doe-eyed Diana, who was a master at pulling the media strings to get sympathetic coverage, according to Ms Brown. 

‘Diana’s media moves always predicted the zeitgeist,’ she wrote. ‘Her bombshell interview with the BBC’s Martin Bashir in November 1995 was an Oprah confessional without Oprah.

While the disgraced journalist secured the interview with Diana by deceiving her, Ms Brown suggested ‘Diana was adept at deception herself’ while highlighting how she snuck TV equipment into the Palace and swayed public opinion through carefully-constructed answers. 

Quoting Gulu Lalvani, the British, Pakistani-born entrepreneur who ‘dated’ Diana briefly, Ms Brown wrote that the princess ‘realised [the interview] had served her purpose’. 

Charles’s popularity was at an all-time low, and Diana ‘had the public in the palm of her hand’.

Before joining Charles’s team, Bolland worked at the Press Complaints Commission, now the Independent Press Standards Organisation, where he was director, and enjoyed easy access to Fleet Street editors.

He was close with Camilla, whose former divorce lawyer allegedly recommended his name for the post. 

‘William and Harry referred to him as “Blackadder”, sensing his assassin’s skill at planting and killing stories with only one beneficiary in view: The Prince of Wales,’ wrote Ms Brown. 

After he joined the ranks of Palace staff, Bolland quickly launched a strategic makeover campaign as he ‘remade Camilla for the public’ – one carefully-chosen photo op or charity event at a time. 

Bolland was ‘effective’, according to Ms Brown, but the prospect of Britain’s divorced future King – and Head of the Church of England – remarrying a fellow divorcee seemed bleak. 

‘The Church of England, which was founded by Henry VIII for the specific purpose of securing a divorce from his first wife in order to marry his second, is opposed to the idea of a Queen Camilla,’ British columnist Allison Pearson wrote in The New Yorker. 

Her comments were published in August 1997, as Ms Pearson wrote how Camilla went ‘straight from anonymity to being the most hated woman in England’ who was ‘judged on her appearance alone’. 

While Camilla ‘took this in her stride’, Ms Brown noted, Charles had a harder time with this – especially as he worried he may never be able to wed the woman he loves. 

Charles told Mandelson, then Tony Blair’s trusted spin doctor, that he simply wanted to ‘lead a normal life’ with Camilla as he ‘unburdened himself about the media pressure’ they were suffering. 

When asked how the public viewed him, Mandelson told Britain’s future King that ‘he was more admired than he might expect for his championing of so many worthy causes’ but there was a problem. 

‘People had gained the impression you feel sorry for yourself, that you’re rather glum and dispirited. 

‘This has a dampening effect on how you are regarded,’ the former Labour grandee told the future King. 

Ms Brown suggested Mandelson was essentially telling Charles that ‘the public didn’t want a Prince Eeyore’. 

Charles was ‘momentarily stunned’, Ms Brown revealed, but is said to have appreciated Mandelson’s ‘candour’. 

The ex-politician was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office – just like the King’s disgraced younger brother, Andrew. 

Their respective arrests came within one week of each other, after the US Department of Justice released millions of photos, emails and documents about the paedophile financier collectively known as the Epstein Files. 

Buried within the paperwork is a shocking photograph of Andrew and Mandelson, barefoot and wearing robes, with Epstein at Martha’s Vineyard – an island in Massachusetts. 

The image is very similar to a second photograph of Mandelson and Epstein included in the convicted paedophile’s ‘birthday book’, which was released last year.

In the book, Mandelson is said to have written a letter to Epstein and called him his ‘best pal’.

Epstein was convicted of child sex offences in 2008. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail in July 2009, but he was released under house arrest at his Palm Beach mansion for a year.

The photo is thought to have been taken between 1999 and 2000, ITV reports. 

Earlier this week, it was revealed Charles’s younger brother was enthusiastically championed for the role of UK trade envoy by Mandelson. 

Mandelson dismissed concerns about Andrew’s suitability from a number of critics – including his older brother.

Charles, then the Prince of Wales, was worried his errant sibling would ‘use the post’ to ‘cultivate friendships with the wealthy, chase women and play golf’, according to Private Eye.

But in 2001, when Andrew was put forward to replace the Duke of Kent, Mandelson said the then Duke of York was ‘well qualified’ for the role.

‘As a former trade secretary I know of the great importance of trade missions,’ he reportedly said.

‘With a royal association they can achieve a reach into overseas foreign markets which is of immense value to the economy of the country.

‘In that context, the Duke of York will have a very important role for which he is well qualified.

‘This activity on behalf of the nation should not be confused with the commercial activities for personal gain which is associated with certain other members of the Royal Family.’

Despite Charles’s concerns, the late Queen Elizabeth II is said to have overruled him with such backing from Mandelson, and Andrew was given the role of special representative for international trade and investment in 2001. 

The Guardian reported that Andrew responded at the time about his new position: ‘I am thoroughly looking forward to it.

‘It will be a complete contrast to my role in the navy, where I am necessarily working behind closed doors. Now I will have to deal with the press.’

The Telegraph reported that Mandelson and Andrew knew each other by then, both having worked on an NSPCC campaign together.

They were also both connected to Epstein through their mutual friends Ghislaine Maxwell and Evelyn de Rothschild, the City financier, and his wife Lynn, who were all acquainted with or friends of Epstein.

Maxwell was personally connected to both Mandelson and Andrew.

Mandelson had served as a consultant for her father Robert Maxwell, the media magnate and former owner of the Daily Mirror.

She had been photographed with Andrew at a ‘hookers and pimps’ Halloween party in New York before he was given the trade envoy position.

In 2000, one year before Andrew was given the role, the Telegraph reported that Andrew and Mandelson both attended the wedding of the de Rothschilds.

Lynn Rothschild is named by Maxwell as being the first to introduce Andrew to Epstein in the early 2000s.

The Rothschilds’ summer house in Martha’s Vineyard on a Massachusetts island is also reported as the meeting place for Epstein and Mandelson’s first introduction in 2001.

But in 2011, ten years later, Andrew was forced to give up his trade role over his connections to Epstein.

Embarrassing images from the files see the former Duke of York leaning over a young woman, whose face is redacted to protect her identity, and placing his hand on her stomach.

Last month, the eighth-in-line to the throne was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office over allegations he provided Epstein with sensitive information during his time as a UK trade envoy.

He has always denied any wrongdoing in relation to his friendship with Epstein.

It is believed that King Charles III discussed removing his younger brother from the line of succession at a meeting with Commonwealth leaders this week.

Shortly afterwards, Mandelson was also arrested on suspicion of the same offence, having been accused of passing sensitive information on to Epstein during his time as business secretary.

He was subsequently bailed, but later released from his bail conditions, although he remains under investigation.

Mandelson is understood to deny any criminality or suggestions he acted for financial gain. His lawyer said after his arrest that his ‘overriding priority is to cooperate with the police investigation, as he has done throughout this process, and to clear his name.’