It’s been a minute since the Windsors brought up the fact that they’re BIG MAD about Netflix’s The Crown. The Crown producers and writers are just minding their business, filming the new season and not saying much of anything. Meaning, Prince Charles can’t stop himself from running to every friendly journalist to smear his dead ex-wife and issue third-party threats to sue Netflix. None of these people has ever heard of the Streisand Effect, and they’re just giving away millions of dollars in free publicity to The Crown and making the upcoming fifth season sound so dangerous and scandalous. LOL. Anyway, the fun’s over, because now Charles’s former protection officer Allan Peters is telling everyone that Diana cheated on Charles first, ipso facto Charles is simply a misunderstood hero and The Crown is full of slanderous lies!
Viewers of Netflix hit The Crown are left in no doubt who was to blame for the collapse of Prince Charles and Diana’s marriage: he’s shown sneaking off to renew his love affair with Camilla Parker Bowles while the Princess is left crying at the Palace. Now, however, one of the couple’s former royal protection officers has come forward to present a startlingly different version of events.
Allan Peters claims Charles did not start seeing Camilla romantically again (they had first met in their early 20s) until after he discovered Diana had been having a fling with fellow protection officer Barry Mannakee. And Peters was the one who informed Charles of his wife’s affair.
‘The popular perception is that the Prince of Wales was straying all the way through his marriage — and that is definitely, unequivocally, not the case,’ insists Peters, who worked for Diana for almost a decade. ‘The first person that strayed was the Princess. He went back to see Mrs Parker Bowles after he learned about her affair with Mannakee.’
This backs up Jonathan Dimbleby’s version of events. In his authorised biography of Charles, published in 1994, Dimbleby stated that Charles and Camilla renewed acquaintances in 1986. Mannakee had started protecting Diana in 1985. Their affair is said to have begun during a fishing expedition at Balmoral that year. In 1986, he was transferred from his royal role to the Diplomatic Protection Squad. A year later, Mannakee, then 39, was killed in a mysterious road accident. He was reported to have been struck by a 17-year-old driver while riding on a motorbike in East London, leading Diana to suggest he’d been ‘bumped off’.
Speaking in a new CNN documentary, Peters says of Diana: ‘I started to notice her behaviour was unusual whenever we were anywhere near Mannakee, so I decided to talk to her about it. For the first 20 minutes, she categorically denied it. But then she told me exactly what was going on: she was having some sort of relationship with Mannakee. The Prince of Wales approached me and said: ‘Why is the Princess behaving in the way she is? What on earth is the matter?’ So I said: ‘You’ve got to talk to her.’ And he said: ‘Well, I’ve tried all that, and the only thing that seems to be upsetting her is that Barry Mannakee is going back to uniform. And, if she’s that upset, Barry can stay.’
‘At that stage, I was forced to say: ‘Well, Sir, if he stays, then I’m afraid I’ll have to leave.’ And, I think, at that point the penny dropped. He was utterly shocked and was clearly very upset.’
Peters adds of the finger-pointing of blame: ‘Nobody is the villain. In my view, everyone is the victim. [Charles] was under a lot of pressure to get married and she, too, was the victim of this whole process.’
The Barry Mannakee saga was already detailed in numerous books throughout the ‘90s. Even Diana had a lot to say about Mannakee, although she never said that they had an affair. By Diana’s account, he was a shoulder to cry on, a fatherly figure who complimented her and made her feel special because Charles couldn’t be bothered. Diana also believed that Charles had something to do with Mannakee’s mysterious death, for what it’s worth. All of that is beside the point though – it’s simply untrue that Charles was magically committed wholeheartedly to his marriage up until “Diana cheated first.” Charles was still seeing and sleeping with Camilla during his courtship with Diana. Charles continued having an emotional affair (if not a physical affair) with Camilla in the first years of his marriage to Diana as well. And Camilla was not the only one he was seeing. Kanga, anyone? I wonder if The Crown will deal with Kanga. They didn’t do anything with Barry Mannakee.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Getty.
Hey Charles- STOP SMEARING YOUR EX-WIFE. She died 24 years ago you arse, let her be. This family needs to STOP relitigating her life to serve their own narratives. It’s so disgusting.
@ MipMip, Chuck don’t forget who went off to see his mistress just before the marriage ceremony and gave his precious mistress a beautiful bit of jewelry to show your devotion to. Mrs. Parker Bowles. Did you also think we would forget how you cried to Camilla the day on your wedding? Or the fact that you had invited her? How utterly heartbroken you pined for Camilla?
How convenient that a staff of Chaz come forward after almost 3 decades to put the story straight.
And the pictures of her that fell out of his diary on his Honeymoon? And who’s cufflinks he wore on his Honeymoon?
He NEVER stopped his emotional affair with COWmilla. NEVER. The physical may’ve stopped for a year or two, but that’s all.
He was ALWAYS tied to that Rottweiler; she literally had him by his short-hairs from the very start. His very own Mummy substitute. Remember, this man LITERALLY wanted to CRAWL BACK INTO HER in the form of her tampon!! DEEP psych issues here, folks!
And how convenient that both accused parties can’t defend themselves now.
Charles never stopped cheating so how could Diana have cheated first?
I’ve always thought emotional affairs were far worse than physical ones.
He was cheating before he married. The whole world knows it.
They keep trying to rewrite Princess Diana’s history and it is disgusting, let this poor woman Rest In Peace. Is it not enough that they destroyed her life and hounded her until she was literally dead? They all have blood on their hands where she is concerned. Shame on them all.
I’m really sick of seeing the palace slut shame a dead woman. Leave her alone.
Any time Charles wonders why his relationship with his sons is distant and strained, it’s crap like this.
Seriously. They made this poor woman go through a physical exam to prove she was a virgin before she could marry him. There were all these awful headlines about the blushing English Rose… who was hand-picked by his best chum Camilla.
And gaslighting a dead woman. WTaF?? Diana entered that marriage as a doe eyed naive teenager, and it was never her intent to cheat as she spoke her vows. I’m not saying any man could’ve lived up to Di’s dreams of a Prince Charming, but half the hetero men of marrying age at that time would’ve been happy to try harder than Charles did.
Wow Charles was cheating during their engagement, while they were married, all with many women not just Camilla. This whole attempt to fix his image while smearing his dead wife and rewriting history with his paid hacks just makes him looks so much better a person (saracasm).
Of more importance, I wish the Protection Officers who worked for Andrew would spill the beans. It’s interesting that Charles never asked the press, for the sake of his sons, to stop maligning Diana after she died.
+1
Does anyone believe anything the RF says anymore? This has turned into the boy who cried werewolf.
Where is The Other Brother’s rage that they are not leaving his mother’s memory at peace? Where is his fake concern this time?
I was just about to say….is William going to rage until Charles’ bodyguard shuts up? Slam the publication for publishing about his dead mother once again?
I kind of wish she did step outside of the marriage before him because it’s what Charles deserves. That an used Diana because he thought that he would get to the throne faster. He cheated on her from their courtship on. He deserves to be disrespected and looked down upon for the way he treated his former wife and her sons…even rage-a-holic Willnot. Trash man. Trash husband. Trash father.
The Kanga story is just so, so sad. There is a documentary with the whole story, including her angry friends on camera. It was on Prime at one point. Usually bits and pieces up on YouTube. Her name was Dale Tyron is you want to search. She was paralyzed after a suspicious fall at a treatment center and died of septicemia after seeing a homeopathic practitioner recommended by Charles instead of an actual doctor. (Far more complicated, of course, but I stand by this as a short version.)
Kanga’s story really is quite sad. Also I still gasp at how common it was in those circles to make your lover the godfather of your baby/name you kid after them. *Clutches pearls tightly*
Wait, so Charles is the father of the baby in the picture above? I have never heard about that!
She suffered from Perthes disease (which affects the hips) and spina bifida. Shed had all kinds of painful childhood treatments. She’d become addicted to painkillers (the reason for rehab) after this (multiple surgeries for her conditions) and then battling uterine cancer. She didn’t want to risk a relapse after that terrible fall which fractured her skull and left her paralyzed with neck and spinal issues (and maybe memories of all her prior surgeries and treatments) so she went homeopathic. She had been getting hospital care though and then there was an issue that led to her breakdown and forced hospitalization. She then saw a practitioner in India who Charles introduced her to. But it didn’t work and she came home with bed sores from being confined to a wheelchair for the previous 18 months. She was admitted to the hospital upon her return for surgery treatment for them and then developed septicemia. It’s an awful story.
Charles would not even come to the phone to talk to her when she was dying.
I think it’s safe to say “LONDON BRIDGE IS FALLING DOWN!” QE knew Charles and William are losers! Harry is the only one capable of maintaining that sewer of a family. Diana sent Meghan to rescue Harry from those vultures. The American tour won’t happen. These nothing royal about these idiots! That family is holding on for dear life! Get your popcorn!
Popcorn ready and loaded!
The woman is dead, for over 2 decades! Show some self respect BM and leave her name out of your rotten mouths. Enough is enough!
Even if she did cheat before Charles, how does that excuse how Charles treated her from the start of the marriage? People really show their asses when they think that the only reason everyone’s angry with Charles is bc he cheated on Diana with a string of women before and throughout his marriage.
Newsflash: it’s not just cheating on it’s own that makes what Charles did so unforgivable. It’s how he conducted himself in addition to the callous infidelity. He was 10 years older than her, and had the weight and power of the royal institution behind him. He was not honest to her about his intentions going into the marriage. He wanted to marry her bc she was the nice “inexperienced girl” his uncle had recommended.
He berated and humiliated her out of jealousy, did little to alleviate the isolation she was experiencing from her entrance into the institution, and at the end of the freaking day, he neglected to tell her the truth about the fact that he did not love her. Who he loved, and whether he was cheating with them at the time or not is beside the point–although most people who are actually in possession of the facts know full well that he was. How he treated her as a person is what counts. And in that, he was deeply unkind and hurtful towards a 19 year old whose only sin was that she didn’t know any better, and was coming into all of this as an incredibly naive individual.
The way people insist on punishing Diana, long after her death, all bc she was 19 and somewhat stupid in what she expected out of Charles, is appalling. She lashed out and she didn’t exactly have the best coping mechanisms for her pain. But Charles, who was 10 years older than her, didn’t have any of that either. And he gets plenty of excuses made for him bc “his parents didn’t love him you see”. But Diana is the lying, vindictive, manipulative jezebel all bc she was better at the press game than Charles and the RF, was capable of being better liked than Charles and the RF (although this REALLY isn’t even that difficult!). She used the tools she had at her disposal, her ability to liaise with the tabloid press, to create an image of herself that became her armour, that enabled people to feel empathy for her and her plight, and Charles has NEVER gotten over it. He’s never gotten over it for many reasons, but also bc he feels that that public empathy rightfully belongs to HIM, bc HE’s the Prince of Wales, and also bc HIS mummy didn’t love him, and WHY can’t ANYONE understand that?!?! /sarcasm
Charles, at 29 years of age, had a responsibility to get his sh-t together. He had a responsibility to recognize how harmful and stupid his uncle’s advice to him was. He had a responsibility to recognize that his wife isn’t a mother substitute. He had a responsibility to stop f-cking around, grow tf already, and try to have a healthy, decent relationship to someone else. Instead, he decided to be a whiny, entitled little brat, doing as he pleased, complaining how it’s just that no one understands him. F-ck off Charles.
This!! Well said.
Charles is the master of his own disaster which continues to this very day due to his entitlement, callousness, and fundamental inability to shoulder emotional responsibility. In his mind, there is always someone to blame for his actions. If Diana had not come along, there would have been someone else who would have been treated like this. Diana was thrown to the wolves when she recognized that she needed more from her husband than he was ever willing to give.
Charles and William are so alike, its frightening. I hope George manages to escape this.
Every damn word of this!
what I find really absurd is that his defenders go on about well he was only with ONE woman Which is not true, because Charles had women he was involved with besides Camilla. Like Dale Tryon whom Camllla loathed and Janet Jenkins and there were others. His great Uncle Mountbatten in a letter that became public, chided him about the way Charles was leading his life.
Charles publicly humiliated Diana. Jephson told the story in the CNN documentary that he was sitting in on a briefing with C and D before they were going on tour. One person at the meeting asked Diana what she was planning on doing on the tour (appearances) and Charles cut in and said shopping isn’t it darling. Diana’s face fell. As early as 1983, at a banquet (this is on Youtube), Charles in front of Diana said he needed TWO wives.I can only imagine what went on behind the scenes.
Oh how convenient they shifted the blame on 2 dead people who are not here to defend themselves these people are disgusting! the whole world knew that prince tampons had many side pieces before& after the wedding and most likely after he married Camilla too.
Dear God let this woman Rest In Peace already! They just keep using and abusing her even now, when she’s been dead for over 20 years. Shame on them! Charles, Camilla, this person quoted, the Rota, the whole rotten lot of them.
Even if one believes that Charles was physically faithful until Diana cheated – which I don’t; I mean, this is a man who insisted on having William’s birth induced so that the timing didn’t fuck with Charles’ polo schedule – the “Diana cheated first” narrative could only possibly be true if you think that physical cheating is the only kind of cheating. Charles was emotionally entangled with Camilla before he was even engaged to Diana, so he was at the very least having an emotional affair from the start of their marriage.
Laying all that aside, I think it’s hilariously out of touch of Charles’ team to even think anyone cares who cheated first. Fact is, a lot of people liked Diana and a lot of people don’t like Charles. Her being unfaithful first isn’t going to change that. He could offer up proof that it was true and people would still be like, “Yeah, but Charles, though…” He needs to let this shit go.
Diana was asked by Settelen in what were supposedly interviews never to see the light of day: if she had an affair with Mannakee in the physical sense. She said loud and clear NO. Ingrid Seward said Diana cheated first but had to retract it after the Settelen tapes.
Charles really had an opportunity to rehabilitate his image after Harry and Meghan’s wedding. He got A LOT of goodwill by walking her down the aisle. And he’s thrown it all away! How dumb.
Balls, and we all know it. Charles was cheating from Day 1. Come off it. Gawd, the finger-pointing, even now.
“I decided to talk to her about it. For the first 20 minutes, she categorically denied it”
I’m trying to imagine the world in which an employee questions the boss about their private life, WTF was this guy to ask her anything? These people truly had no respect for her then or now. It’s good that they keep chatting shite about Diana because people always defend her and drag the royals for filth. I’m honestly enjoying how they can never get away from her energy, Diana’s still tormenting these clowns.
Exactly! This guy also seems to suggest that Charles asked him for marriage advice (?), and that he gave Charles an ultimateum about whether or not he would stay as a body guard in his employ. Sounds like a complete blowhard to me, not a very trustworthy source, but maybe an interesting indicator.
I certainly hope nobody in the Charles camp thinks that rehashing accusations against Diana will make him look good, or that anybody has an appetite to hear a detailed chronology of the why’s and wherefores of his ongoing relationship with Camilla. No thank you!
I think the man knew all about Camilla and perhaps was trying to score points with Charles. Charles had the heir and spare with Diana and was through with Diana .He refused Diana’s offers of reconciliation and perhaps their having another baby. Allegedly Camilla advised him not to have another child.
The Meghan situation let me know that they will lie and smear to make whichever heir they are connected to look good. So no Chuck I don’t believe your 30 something year old self was faithful to your teenage bride. The fact that Diana who has been gone from this earth for 25 years now is still getting smeared let’s me know Meghan will never know peace if the Windsors have something to say about it. I don’t care how you feel about Diana so save it. Chuck grown 30 something self had no business marrying a teenager period! I don’t care if she was legal it’s still nasty.
what’s worse he mentioned in the engagement interview how he was attracted to the 17 year old Diana before she was “of age.”
Whether or not Charles actually had intercourse with Camilla during the period between his wedding day and whenever Diana first cheated (of course he did), he was cheating on her during their engagement and didn’t enter into the marriage with any intention of being physically or emotionally faithful.
No one believes him, and dragging the corpse of his first marriage out into the public eye again just reminds everyone how badly he behaved. If he were smart, he’d let it rest. His second marriage is by all accounts more successful than his first, and people will usually stop dwelling on old sins if they aren’t continually repeated or discussed. (Not that I think he’s always been faithful to Camilla, either, but it seems pretty clear that she’s satisfied with whatever their arrangement is.)
Even if C and C are totally leading separate lives, Charles cannot afford another divorce lest it hurt his chances of gaining the throne. He also spun the Great Love Myth of two star crossed lovers who were forbidden to marry. But in 1994, Charles told his biographer he did not want to marry Camilla when he first met her. How successful the C and C marriage is subject to speculation, she kept her home to retreat to and spends time away. I think she likes the perks and privileges of first, being the mistress then the wife, and I think she did want what Diana had.
I guess the only thing interesting about the RF is when they behave in an unroyal way.
Charles and team were actually doing pretty well for awhile with making people like Camilla. They had a legit loving Christmas card, she’s charming with old vets at events, the pics coming out with him as a Grandpa and dad around his birthday were loving and sweet, etc.
Then the Crown starts Going There and he can’t help but light himself on fire. All the petty, thin-skinned, vindictive, revisionist history whining comes rushing back, and he reminds everyone why we never like him in the first place.
If his ultimate goal is King Charles and Queen Camilla with adoring subjects, he couldn’t be doing a worse job at the worse time.
If he were smart, he’d stick to the “never complain, never explain” bit, including these comments from people aligned with him. The Crown has been on for years, and at least in the US, isn’t one of those shows that’s universally watched and discussed. All this does is remind the many people who don’t watch the show what a twerp he was.
All he had to do was say: “Yeah, I hear it’s a pretty popular show. A fictionalized drama for sure, but they DID get the ears right.”
*easy chuckle, walk away*
Boom. Breezy, charming, states your position (fiction), gives the press the quote they need, and it’s self-deprecating enough to make people smile. THAT’S ALL HE HAD TO DO.
You hit the nail on the head. He is so thin-skinned and has no scruples even to the point of blaming the dead.
“Like” is a bit of a stretch I think. Begrudging accepted is more accurate on the whole.
Camilla’s not exactly a likeable personality by nature. She’s not very warm and inviting.
I did not buy it. Especially since 2017 when Junor’s book came out which raised Camilla to sainthood and slammed Diana. Junor is a good friend of C and C and said they cooperated on the book with her. So I was not buying into Charles spin and DOn’t like C and C.
I wasn’t even aware CNN was doing a series on Diana. But it’s not surprising that they would platform this lie. Their royals coverage led by Max Foster is decidedly royalist. So not surprised they would be trying to rehabilitate Charles.
The six part series was pro-Diana for the most part. I do believe the Mannakee stories though I think it was an emotional affair. I hope he was a support for her as she really needed it.
I think he was let go because Diana told him about the true state of the marriage. When Settelen asked Diana point blank if there were an affair she said NO. And the Settelen tapes were not supposed to be aired, once Diana died, Settelen put them on TV.
I found it hypocritical that there was “outrage” by Charles employee. Apparently there was no “outrage” about Charles’ involvement with Camilla Parker Bowles, even before he was dating Diana.
Even if Charles physically didn’t cheat until Diana did, he almost certainly was having emotional affairs (with Camilla, maybe Kanga and others) soon after marriage.
Janet Jenkins was involved with Charles on and off during the eighties as well.
Child. Looks like Chucky got the Fail to scrub the story about Kanga. The link goes to a blank Daily Fail page. However, here’s a link.
https://www.newidea.com.au/camillas-confession-prince-charles-aussie-mistress-murdered-new-idea-magazine
If I were married to Charlie I woulda cheated too…
I want to know what body guard confronts his employer about his employer’s infidelity? And when a husband asks his wife’s bodyguard if his wife is cheating, what bodyguard would tell the husband that he should talk to his wife himself? This story isn’t holding up for me.
It seems a rather desperate attempt by Charles to rewrite history. Diana herself told Morton that Charles “went back to his lady” as early as 1984. And C and C were seen together at the fox hunts which Diana did not attend. Some reporters place the time C and C resumed their affair as ca. 1983.
I always felt like 1984 was when SHE realized he “went back”, when it’s likely he never left Camilla.
Diana was asked point blank by Settelen if she had an affair with Mannakee, she said No. This story was put about back ca. 1998 by Ingrid Seward who had to retract it after the Settelen tapes came out. I find it despicable that this is brought up again as if some might buy into it, who have not seen the Settelen Tapes. And it seemed hypocritical about the outrage of Charles employee, should Camilla not been sent away since she should not have been around if she was a threat to the marriage.
I wonder how Camilla’s ex-husband views these events.
Chaz and his flying monkeys should just f#@k off already. He will never be able to rehabilitate that horse face’s reputation. My apologies to all the horses in the world.
Janet Jenkins account of her relationship with Charles is still on the Internet. She was involved with him when he was married to Diana and involved with Camilla. And this was in the early eighties. Charles cheated first no matter how it is spun.