A former royal servant who wrote a book about
the Prince and Princess of Wales's marriage
breakdown could face jail after secretly
returning to Britain.
Wendy Berry defied a High Court injunction
against the publication of The Housekeeper's
Diary then fled the country five years ago.
But she has been traced to an address in
Merseyside by The Sunday Telegraph and
could be imprisoned for contempt of court or
have her assets stripped.
The tell-all book has earned her an estimated
£200,000.
Confidentiality agreement
A St James's Palace spokeswoman said: "We
were very grateful for the information on
Wendy Berry's whereabouts.
"We will pass it on to the appropriate people
here on Monday," she added.
St James's Palace must decide whether to
apply to a High Court judge to have Miss Berry
arrested.
Miss Berry worked for Charles and Diana at
their country home in Gloucestershire until
1993.
As a royal employee, she had to sign a
confidentiality agreement at the start of her
eight years in their service.
Charles obtained an injunction banning
publication of the book throughout the world in
January 1995.
'Betraying trust'
But the book was published in America and,
amid claims that it quoted verbatim arguments
between the couple, sold more than 100,000
copies.
The prince's lawyers won a further injunction in
October 1995 entitling him to all profits from
the book.
Miss Berry's house could be seized by the
courts to pay compensation to Charles.
The author of another book about Diana, her
former private secretary Patrick Jephson, was
publicly criticised by Prince William on Friday
for betraying his mother's trust.
~*~
Housekeeper's disloyalty that ignited
Prince's fury(UK Times)
By Andrew Alderson
FIVE years ago this week, the Prince of Wales went to the High Court
determined that no member of staff should ever again benefit financially from
betraying intimate secrets of members of the Royal Family.
Although his lawyers succeeded in winning a court ruling against Wendy
Berry, his former housekeeper, the events of the past fortnight have proved
that there is no guarantee that members of the royal household will not cash in
on their secrets when they leave.
This weekend, just days before Patrick Jephson, the former private secretary
to Diana, Princess of Wales, publishes a book portraying his former employer
as a scheming, lying rebel, the case of Miss Berry has given Prince Charles a
new oportunity to send a message to disloyal staff. Tomorrow senior aides
will decide whether to pursue legal action against her.
A spokesman for the Lord Chancellor's office said that a High Court
injunction still applied five years on. "It is up to the solicitors acting for the
person who took out an injunction to go back to the judge if they want further
action taken against an individual who they believe has breached a court
order. The judge can decide to issue an arrest warrant against someone who
had been in contempt of court."
Prince Charles was furious early in 1995 when he learnt that Miss Berry, who
worked for him for eight years, was planning to publish a book despite having
signed a confidentiality agreement on joining his staff at Highgrove in 1985.
He was particularly disappointed because he had allowed Miss Berry to
remain on his payroll for 18 months beyond retirement age and had made her
a generous settlement when she left his service.
Her book, The Housekeeper's Diary, was highly controversial because it
revealed some of Diana, Princess of Wales's intimate bedroom habits and
details of the royal couple's extra-marital relationships at a time when she and
the Prince of Wales were still married. When it went on sale in America the
book had "Banned in Britain" on the cover. Even now, details of the book's
contents cannot be published without breaching the injunction.
Depite the High Court ruling against her, Miss Berry gave television interviews
and went on a promotional tour in America because she was confident that
royal lawyers were powerless to act against her while she remained abroad.
At the time, she defended her conduct, saying she had worked for years at
Highgrove in "Dickensian conditions". The bespectacled grandmother, from
working-class roots, said: "I have freedom of speech. I live in a democracy."
The Prince was so angered by her dishonesty that his lawyers won a further
order in October 1995 which entitles him to all profits from her book. Mr
Justice Potter ordered a permanent international ban on articles and books
written by Miss Berry. However, the Prince's lawyers were unable to recover
the money while she remained abroad. Such was the Prince's determination to
pursue the case that in December 1995 Today, the defunct newspaper, and
Richard Stott, its former editor, were fined £75,000 after publishing extracts
from Miss Berry's book after obtaining an advance copy in America.
This weekend Miss Berry, now 68, was found by The Telegraph living alone
at a house in Thornton, Merseyside. In recent years, she has been living in
America, Canada and Ireland. Miss Berry, a divorced mother of four, said
that she had returned from Ireland because her youngest son, Andrew, 30,
was suffering from leukaemia. She declined to discuss the court order against
her, but said: "I am absolutely out in the wilderness. I have had a miserable
time having to live abroad away from my family."
Miss Berry said she could not criticise Mr Jephson for publishing his book
and admitted there were parallels with her own case. Buckingham Palace,
however, reluctantly decided not to take legal action against Mr Jephson
because of the "complicated" background to the book and private admissions
that he had received encouragement from some senior members of the royal
household.
Miss Berry, who denied betraying the Prince, said: "Everyone who has read
my book thinks I have done him [the Prince of Wales] a great service. It
showed him in a good light. I said he was a good father."
Miss Berry showed no regret over her betrayal and even hinted that she might
give a newspaper interview if she was paid for it. "I am not putting myself on
the market but I think if I did give one it would be fair to be paid," she said.
This week Prince Charles's lawyers are likely to have a rather different view.
~*~
Royal yacht to air its laundry (UK Times)
Jenny Shields
THE Queen's laundry room on the royal yacht Britannia is to be
opened to the public in an effort to boost flagging visitor
numbers to the Leith attraction.
Visitors can already peer into the royal bedroom and
honeymoon suite; now they get to see where the royal smalls
were washed.
The number of tourists visiting the Britannia has slumped by
100,000 - a drop of 25% since it opened as a tourist attraction
in Leith two years ago.
The drop represents a loss of £500,000 in revenue for the trust
which runs the vessel.
The laundry doors will open next October when the craft moves
to a permanent berth at Ocean Terminal.
No royal underwear will be on show. But visitors will see the
original 1950s washing machines and ironing boards, which
were kept in service 24 hours a day.
The laundry had its work cut out, keeping up with the washing
produced by the royal family, their guests and the 276 crew -
some of whom changed their uniforms several times a day.
Unusually for a Royal Navy ship, the laundry service was not
contracted out to Chinese workers, but done "in house".
The sick bay - with its cupboards of crutches - and an adjoining
operating theatre are also being prepared for public inspection.
Bob Downie, the ship's general manager, said figures slumped
because fewer Scots visited last year.
"We had a lot of people who were from the local market, and
that boosted figures hugely [in the first year]," he said.
"Britannia is like many attractions. Once you have done it -
that's it. So we lost a lot of that local market this year.
"Even though we are 25% down this year, we are still 50% or
100,000 visitors above our first estimate. That is the key and
important figure."
The number of foreign visitors remained steady at around 11%,
but the biggest single market for Britannia was the English,
who accounted for half the total numbers.
"They are our bread and butter. The English visiting Edinburgh
are our main market," said Downie.
Corporate hospitality - which starts at £150-a-head - showed a
15% growth this year.
It cost about £4m to turn Britannia into a tourist attraction - well
above the original estimate.
It arrived in Leith in May 1998, after the then defence secretary
George Robertson announced that Forth Ports PLC had won
the bid to berth the yacht. The purchase price was just
£250,000 - the equivalent to the scrap value.
Britannia opened its doors to the public on October 19, 1998.
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