Before Jimmy Savile’s death in 2011, he was considered by most British Establishment figures as a man who devoted himself to charity and children’s causes. As it turned out, Savile was one of Britain’s most prolific child abusers and sexual predators. After his death, it all came out. There have been a few documentaries about Savile and how he hid in plain sight, and there’s been a lot of energy given towards Savile’s connection with then-Prince Charles. Charles nurtured the friendship and even sought out Savile’s advice on media relations. Well, there’s another documentary and once again, Savile’s connection to Charles is part of the story:
King Charles might resort to a medicinal Laphroaig as he awaits the first segment of the BBC’s Jimmy Savile biopic The Reckoning on Monday. The BBC has said Savile used his connections with the Royal Family and other institutions to conceal his crimes.
Unwittingly Charles used Savile as an adviser on handling the media and as a marriage counsellor when his relationship with Diana hit the rocks. He also innocently used him as a guide to ‘ordinary’ people, even going with Savile as he collected his old age pension.
My mole whispers that appearances of the King are minimal with a brief scene alongside Diana at a hospital opening.
But HM surely regrets sending Savile Cuban cigars and gold cufflinks to mark his 80th birthday with the note, ‘Nobody will ever know what you have done for this country, Jimmy. This is to go some way to thanking you for that.’
This is actually all old news, the latest twist is that there’s a new documentary and that Charles is king now, and he still has the worst instincts. That’s what I keep coming back to. Unlike Diana, who could read people quickly, Charles has been ensnared by a series of predators, gurus, pseudoscientists and sycophants throughout his life. The Ephraim Hardcastle column also followed up with this:
King Charles’s friendship with Jimmy Savile is further confirmed by my disclosure here that after Prince Harry’s birth in 1984 he had been included in a long list of names of potential godfathers. The selection was written by Charles and seen by his private secretary Edward Adeane.
Adeane was aware that Charles would not listen to any argument against Savile. Having a fractious relationship with Diana, he felt he could not approach Harry’s mother. He did discuss it with Sir Alastair Aird, the Queen Mother’s comptroller, who was duly horrified and assured Adeane that the matter would be ‘dealt with’. Savile didn’t make the final six.
As details of Savile’s crimes emerged following his death in 2011, David Cameron pledged to consider a legal change that honours could be rescinded post-humously. He never got round to it.
Perhaps Charles could rummage around the royal attic and return William and Harry’s Jim’ll Fix It badges to the BBC.
Yikes, I actually didn’t know that Charles wanted Savile to be Harry’s godfather. That would have been in 1984. I can only imagine, if it would have happened, how the British media would have referred to Harry as “Jimmy Savile’s godson” in all of their reporting. Ugh.
Photos courtesy of Getty, Cover Images.
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- King Charles III during his visit to St Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh, Co Armagh, to meet representatives from the Church of Ireland, the Roman Catholic Church, the Presbyterian Church, the Methodist Church and the Irish Council of Churches, as part of a two day visit to Northern Ireland. Featuring: King Charles III Where: Armagh, United Kingdom When: 25 May 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- King Charles III during a visit to the Discovery Centre and Auld School Close in Tomintoul, to hear more about the £3.3million energy efficient housing project in the area. Featuring: King Charles III Where: Tomintoul, Scotland, United Kingdom When: 13 Sep 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- King Charles III during a visit to officially open the MacRobert Farming and Rural Skills Centre at Dumfries House Featuring: King Charles III Where: Cumnock, Scotland, United Kingdom When: 16 Sep 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- King Charles III, watched by the President of the Senate, Mr Gerard Larcher, and the President of the National Assembly, Mrs Yael Braun-Pivet, signing the visitors book in the Salle des Conference as he arrives to address members of the Senate, at Luxembourg Palace in Paris, on day two of the state visit to France. It is the first time a member of the British Royal Family has spoken from the Senate Chamber. Featuring: King Charles III Where: Paris, France When: 21 Sep 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- King Charles III gestures to members of the public gathered outside the Hotel de Ville in Bordeaux on day three of the state visit to France. The visit celebrates the strong and historic ties between Bordeaux and the UK Featuring: King Charles III Where: Bordeaux, France When: 22 Sep 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
I honestly think this is why Phillip truly never respected Charles. He always knew he was not a leader but a follower. It’s why he often called him “soft”. Not because he was emotional. But because he was easily manipulated. Which is a terrible trait for a King to have. Just ask all the Kings in British history who had disastrous rules as a result of their inability to read people or have good judgment.
In Netflix’s the crown, Philip calls him “wet” – British slang for for spineless, weak, and yes, soft. I think it’s like the opposite of having a backbone or strength of character.
Which is a perfect description of him.
Philip never respected Charles because he was jealous of him.
@Lea – yeah…no.
No way
Ive never heard that. Are you saying Phillip was jealous bc he would be the king?
Phillip was an extremely handsome alpha male. Charles is not. Phillip was disappointed in Charles—not jealous.
@Lea, are you confusing Duke of Edinburgh Prince Phillip with Prince Henrik of Denmark? Because, Prince Phillip jealous of Charles? LOL, what does Charles really have that would make an alpha male like Phillip jealous! I don’t buy this sorry.
Philip was NEVER jealous of Charlie. He thought Charlie was wet and a whimp. Charlie liked consorting with the likes of Saville, as he was always chasing public popularity. Look at his long list of paedophile friends!!! Phillip hoped that marrying Diana would be the making of the Royal drip, but all it did was show up more of Charlie’s inadequacy and his pathetic jealous nature, oh along with his adultery and wanting to be tampax!! In fact, Charlie was fuming because Philip and Diana remained close and Philip was very close to Harry.
This is one of the reasons that I rolled my eyes at all the hand-wringing and pearl clutching over Harry and Meghan’s Oprah interview as Philip was on his deathbed. Even if he disagreed with their decision to leave, I think Philip, of all people, probably had a lot of respect (albeit perhaps grudging?) for Harry showing some backbone in a way that his father never did.
I agree. I also doubt Philip GAF at that point. He just wanted to hang out at Wood Mill with his girlfriend in peace.
Charles named controversial van d e r post as william s godfather. Diana had to talk Charles out of his naming Arm and hammer as another godfather.
Controversial is an understatement
Diana can read people quickly? i dont think so. she has also been betrayed and manipulated. most famous being martin bashir forging all sorts of documents to hype up her paranoia. i think she’s more guarded and less able to fall prey to these lunatics bc of her lifetime of being on guard. Charles…is foolish bc he’s just your typical male establishment/ruler where he’s willing to overlook some unsavory details about someone bc he likes them and generally thinks he’s above consequences. show him a good time and he’ll follow anyone…sigh…what a king huh?
No matter what Diana wanted to do that interview as a follow up to Charles own interview the year before
Diana was not paranoid she was spot on imo. I think Charles likes flattery and he is not an intellectual so he has had gurus some very shady ones.
bashir literally forged bank statements to make diana paranoid about those around her and insinuated that charles had an affair with the nanny Tiggy, got her pregnant and paid for an abortion. diana was paranoid, for the right reasons, and the wrong reasons bc of how bashir manipulated her.
And yet somehow magically everything she said in that interview was spot on. Go figure.
i’m not denying that she didn’t want to do a interview or the validity of her experiences through the interview. that’s gonna be her story regardless. she “read” this person and put her trust in a interviewer who manipulated her to get what he wanted…the exclusive.
She surely didn’t know that Paul Burrell was a snake.
Thank god for small favors that the pedo didn’t end up as Harry’s godfather. Chuckles is and always will be easy to manipulate just look what Horsilla has done. His own mother knew he would not be a good King and I think his father thought that also and it has proved to be true. Bad king, bad father and useless human being.
The sad thing is that there were allegations against Savile starting back in the late 50’s and early 60’s and continuing on until his death – that’s over 50 years. And even after his death the cover up continued for another year.
Please don’t think that no one knew about Savile’s crimes. The establishment, police, hospital staff, the media all knew. A nurse even begged Angela Levin to help (when she was a tabloid journalist), because he was going on to wards doing evil things to vulnerable patients.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/08997640231174837
They all knew, but didn’t act. They were intimidated by him, he raised millions for charity
PS Charles has form for supporting pedophiles, eg offering a home to nonce priest Peter Ball. The UK establishment is sick and rotten.
This👆! It’s not like it was some great shock when Savile was publicly outed. A lot of people knew but more should have known but didn’t want to know, if you get my drift. And I love Diana, but she was fairly close to Savile as well. She didn’t read him as sketchy.
I think Charles and Diana each had their own reasons which allowed Savile to enter their inner circle. My guess would be that Diana was simply charmed by him (charm often being a predator’s most effective weapon), and if she had heard the rumors, she likely thought that they were too appalling and lurid to be true. Charles, on the other hand…honestly, I can see him being at least somewhat aware of Savile’s proclivities, but choosing to overlook it, rationalizing that Savile’s good deeds somehow outweighed the harm that he was doing.
THIS! He!l, I’m in the USA (obviously), was a teen, had no idea who Savile even was other than some big name in the UK, and even *I* had heard of it by the late 90s – 2001 at the absolute latest – curtesy of Usenet gossip groups. (AGC, primarily). Popb*tch obliquely referred to it as well in one of their earliest issues, well before 2011. It was a huge open secret that everyone with the power to do something about it ignored, much like Weinstein and Singer and Epstein and Spacey and any other number of entertainment industry power players get/got ignored.
As far as whether C3 knew or suspected, I’m sure he did, and I’m just as sure he doesn’t care that much, other than that it came into open knowledge instead of an open secret and therefore taints him by association. He (and others in his family) freely and frequently associate(d) with similar people and others with crimes just as horrid.
Charles imo appreciates people who flatter him and are sycophants
It’s a biopic instead of a documentary which I think is worse for Charles, he doesn’t know how the actor will portray him if they use one instead of clips. Steve coogan is playing savile.
I feel like we knew this already. But anyway, thankfully his advisors were able to steer him clear of that. BTW, it’s not a documentary that’s coming out but a BBC drama series starring Steve Coogan. There’s a lot of performative outrage about it.
Charles has always been a very poor judge of character – many of his close confidants have been very dodgy, to put it mildly. But he’s a weak man with a very fragile ego, and is prone to flattery.
Oh and the rumours about Savile were widespread even back in the 70’s.
To be honest, I think the royals are still using the Savile Playbook. Which is pretty much a “How To For Groomers and Predators”
Get a reputation as a lovable, but slightly buffoonish family figure and sympathetic friend, raise millions for charities and wear sackcloth on occasion if it would help a noble cause, make friends in high places who will cover up your terrible acts with the justification you do far more good than harm (and line their pockets too, so their own self interest is on the line), cry and act emotional in public when someone speaks up about what a monster you are but shout and make threats in private. Make good on your threats and utterly destroy the reputation anyone who so much as hints of the terrible things you are actually doing…
We have seen this with Cosby, Sandusky, and I recognize a lot of this in current senior royals as well. Especially William and Camilla.
I think this article is missing the most important detail. Who cares what the reporting would have been like if this ghoul had been his god father. Harry own FATHER would be happily sending him to a pedophile when ever he wanted “time with his godson” this is beyond horrifying. Also, keep in mind Harry and William were pretty much living apart shortly after their mother died and going to different schools and ran in different circles. It’s almost a blessing that he kind of ignored Harry after that but I do wonder how safe was William. He has so much rage, contempt and ran to the Middleton’s the second he got a chance. Also Will seems to have some dirt on Charles and I wonder what he is holding over him. What does William know that could bring down the Monarchy that William was able to exile Harry. Harry also said after the Spare came out that if he had said everything they would never speak to him again. The RR, BP, and KP trying to silence and discredit Harry is deeper then H&M and IMO much darker then I can stomach.
Excellent point!
Yeah, because Jimmy Savile is totally who you would want raising your child if anything happened to you.