Since bowing out of The Prince’s Foundation and ceasing all duties for King Charles four years ago, he has eschewed the chance to make a song and dance about his departure, still less publish a memoir detailing his time in royal service, and has instead quietly knuckled down to work at his own events company.
So Michael Fawcett who resigned as chief executive of The Prince’s Foundation following allegations that he’d discussed securing British citizenship – and a knighthood – for a Saudi tycoon, will be dismayed that his only son, Oliver, is now in line to suffer his own bucketload of opprobrium.
Things seemed bad enough when Olly’s company – specialising in ‘television programme production activities’ – went belly up in August last year, owing His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs more than £500,000, as I revealed at the time.
But it’s the manner in which 29-year-old Fawcett has responded to that crisis which will surely have taxpayers angry.
The clues are in the progress report just issued by the liquidator appointed to delve into the affairs of 303 London Ltd, the company which Olly precociously set up in 2013 when he was only 17.
After fees for the liquidation have been deducted, just £10,000 remains for HMRC which, according to a slightly revised calculation, is owed £550,000.
The position is just as gruesome for other creditors who, the liquidator now calculates, are owed more than £190,000. They can, in the vernacular, go and whistle for it.
Or, as the liquidator puts it more formally, ‘it is anticipated there will be insufficient funds… to pay [them anything]’.
Michael Fawcett, pictured above left with King Charles, who resigned as chief executive of The Prince’s Foundation following allegations that he’d discussed securing British citizenship
But it’s the disposal of company assets – and, in particular, the identity of their new owner – which will alarm some.
Camera and computer equipment, bits and pieces from an office and a Mini Clubman JCW have all been snapped up by a company called 97 Creative Ltd.
97 Creative has also splashed out £4,000 for the ‘goodwill’ of the company name – an unlikely outcome, you might think, for a firm that’s crashed and burned owing £700,000 in total.
So who’s behind 97 Creative? Step forward one Olly Fawcett, who incorporated the company, of which he is sole director – and, via a holding company, majority shareholder – in July last year, just a month before 303 London Ltd went into liquidation.
It will not be much of a surprise to learn that 97 Creative is engaged in ‘television programme production activities’ – or that the website for 303 London is still up and running, and promoting itself as ‘the Creative Performance Agency for Premium & Luxury Brands’.
Fawcett declines to comment. Taxpayers will, I trust, observe his future business career with interest…
The smart set’s talking about… Lady Lucia’s real romance
Those thirsting for a dash of nuptial glamour need thirst no more: Kate Middleton’s sister is heading to the altar.
I refer, of course, not to Pippa Middleton – happily married to James Matthews – but to Lady Lucia St Clair-Erskine, 31, younger daughter of the Earl of Rosslyn and sister of actress Alice St Clair who starred as the future Princess of Wales in the 2011 television film, William & Catherine: A Royal Romance.
Kate Middleton’s sister Lady Lucia St Clair-Erskine, 31, is engaged to Richard Stanton
Lucia, an alumna of £60,912-a-year Downe House – the Berkshire school where Catherine was so unhappy – has got engaged to Richard Stanton. Known as Dick – to differentiate him from his father Richard – he comes from a Norfolk family who’ve farmed for generations as tenants of the King’s Sandringham estate.
Presumably, the wedding will be held in Scotland at Rosslyn Chapel – of Da Vinci Code fame – which the earl owns.
Casual Kate is really so down with the kids!
Prince Harry moaned about the limited taxpayer-funded security that he and his family can have while in Britain, but the Princess of Wales takes such a robust approach to safety threats that her police protection officers struggle to protect her.
So suggests Chief Scout Dwayne Fields, who has met Princess Catherine a number of times in her role as joint-President of the Scout Association, including last month with US First Lady Melania Trump.
‘I wonder if her security have an easy job trying to mind her,’ he tells me at the Employee Network Awards at the London Hilton on Park Lane.
‘As soon as she arrives, she makes everyone feel comfortable. She’ll get down on the ground… to their level… physically their level.’
Dwayne, 43, adds: ‘If they’re sat down on the floor, reading maps or drawing or doing art, or being creative, she’s gonna sit on the floor as well.’
The Princess of Wales meets families of personnel serving at the base on a visit to RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire for her first official engagement at the station
The Princess of Wales, left, and First Lady Melania Trump are welcomed by Chief Scout for the Scout Association Dwayne Fields as they tour Frogmore Cottage in Windsor
Dwayne is not alone in worrying over the future Queen’s relaxed approach.
Earlier this year, I disclosed that William and Catherine insisted on shedding their protection officers on a sensitive engagement to a children’s shelter in the Indian capital, Delhi, despite fears that it would cause a ‘circus’.
Steel yourself for more drama
The topsy-turvy love life of comedians Mark Steel and Shappi Khorsandi is no laughing matter.
I hear they have split up again, months after being reunited.
Steel touchingly devoted a Nick Cave love song to Shappi on his Desert Island Discs last December and also performed an Abba hit with her on Valentine’s Day.
But, speaking at a gig this week in Leamington Spa, Shappi says: ‘I have been single since February.
‘I was saying it is just very difficult because my ideal man is someone that wants to see me once a month and in-between times just sends me the occasional emoji.
‘And that’s why I am single. [I] am not husband hunting.’
Steel was treated for throat cancer during their first separation when he had a fling with another comic, Cally Beaton, only to get back with Shappi, who dubbed him ‘the love of her life’.
Mark Steel and Shappi Khorsandi have split up again, months after being reunited.
He’s the celebrated photographer and film-maker who’s worked with Coldplay, U2, Bob Dylan and Sir Mick Jagger.
But Anton Corbijn failed to impress the late Duke of Edinburgh. ‘I got told off by Prince Philip at the Arts Club on Dover Street [Mayfair],’ Corbijn, 70, tells me at the Abbey Road Studios Music Photography Awards in north London, where he won the Icon Award.
‘Philip asked, ‘What do you do?’ I knew he didn’t like photographers, so I told him I’m a film-maker, which I am. Philip said, ‘You’re probably not a very good one because you can’t afford a tie’ – and walked off.’
Earl’s ex ‘surprise’ at wedding news
Was the Earl of Dartmouth’s recent wedding to Diandra Douglas, former wife of Fatal Attraction star Michael Douglas, society’s best kept secret – at least until I disclosed that William Legge, 76, the 10th Earl, had taken the plunge, very discreetly in Gibraltar two weeks ago?
That certainly seems to be the verdict of glamorous actress Alexa Jago, who speaks with fondness of Princess Diana’s stepbrother.
‘We were going out, on and off, for years,’ reflects Alexa, who tells me that she heard the news in the middle of the night.
‘I got a phone call when I was in Los Angeles. That was a surprise.’
Glamorous actress Alexa Jago has spoken with fondness of Princess Diana’s stepbrother
Les Mis lyricist to be remembered
The brilliant lyricist behind Les Miserables will be celebrated on Monday.
Friends and family of Herbert Kretzmer, who was given leave from his day job as TV critic of the Daily Mail to write an English version of the musical, will raise a toast to mark the centenary of his birth at the RAC Club in St James’s.
Herbie, to his friends, died in 2020 during the Covid pandemic so there was no commemoration.
This week, his widow, Sybil, donated his archive to Cambridge University.
Liz Savage, special collections assistant at Cambridge, says: ‘When I was asked if I would like to work on the archive, I called my mum and had a cry.
‘She introduced me to theatre at such a young age. Les Mis was the gateway to my lifelong love of theatre.’
Oliver pockets another seven-figure payday
Jamie Oliver recently said he ‘got the basics wrong’ when it came to the £83 million collapse of his restaurant empire six years ago.
But I hear that the TV chef’s numeracy struggles have not stopped him from pocketing another seven-figure payday from his remaining business interests.
Oliver, 50, netted £2.4 million in dividend pay last year, with his wife, Jools, picking up £100,000 in pocket money, according to Companies House.
Jamie Oliver recently said he ‘got the basics wrong’ when it came to the £83 million collapse of his restaurant empire six years ago
Tomlinson wants a Gleeson bedtime story
She’s married to handsome rugby player Will Owen, with whom she has a baby daughter.
But Poldark star Eleanor Tomlinson, 33, has declared that she finds another man attractive and ‘sexy’.
The lucky fellow in question is Oscar-nominated Irish actor, Brendan Gleeson, who, at the age of 70, is 37 years her senior.
‘I’d really love Brendan Gleeson to read me a bedtime story,’ she purrs.
‘I just think he’s absolutely magic, to be honest, and I think he’s very sexy… very, very sexy.’
The flame-haired beauty then made a bold proposition: ‘So, if you’re listening to this, Brendan, any time you want to read me a bedtime story, that would just be great.’