Royal ‘spin doctor’ Prince Harry mentions in his memoir is widely believed to be Mark Bolland
Fri 24 Feb 2023 16.00 GMTAs Camilla is crowned alongside the king at Westminster Abbey on 6 May, might she cast her mind back some 20 years and reflect on the debt of gratitude she undoubtedly owes to one man in particular?
Bolland, described in Valentine Low’s book Courtiers as “clever, charming, manipulative” and “one of the most colourful and interesting players in the royal drama of the last 30 years”, is now long gone from palace life. He departed St James’s in 2002, after six years as assistant then deputy private secretary, to set up his own PR consultancy, initially with Charles and Camilla as star clients until ties were severed in early 2003.
And the way they were dealt with caused concern. The Earl of Wessex found himself trounced. And Harry has lamented being spun “right under a bus”. Reportedly called “Lord Blackadder” by William and Harry – another sobriquet for the smooth operator was, apparently, “Lip Gloss” – Toronto-born Bolland, who was schooled at a Middlesbrough comprehensive, was definitely different from the traditional idea of a courtier. Depicted in the latest season of The Crown as young, dynamic and decisive, he was lured to St James’s, aged 30, in 1996 from the Press Complaints Commission, where he was director, and enjoyed easy access to Fleet Street editors.
Harry’s conclusion is he was spun “right under a bus” in order to portray Charles as a “harried single dad coping with a drug-addled son”. After his consultancy contract expired, he maintained links with Camilla for several months, until it became too difficult. “That’s when I said to Camilla: ‘I love you dearly, let’s have lunch or dinner a couple of times a year, but I can’t be at the end of a phone any more,’” he said in a 2004 interview for the British Journalism Review.
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