Ex-housekeeper may face legal action over Royal book

LONDON, England -- The Prince of Wales may take legal action against a former housekeeper who wrote an insider account about the heir to the British throne's private life despite having signed a confidentiality agreement.

A British High Court judge issued a worldwide ban in 1995 on all books and articles written by Wendy Berry and ordered all profits to be paid to Prince Charles.

Berry's book, The Housekeeper's Diary, is based on her diaries while she worked for the prince as a housekeeper from 1985 to 1993.

Berry fled Britain in 1995 and, despite the ban, her book was published in the United States since when it is estimated it has earned her £200,000.

Senior aides at St James's Palace met on Monday to discuss possible further court action after it was revealed Berry had secretly returned to Britain.

St James's Palace must decide whether to apply to a High Court judge to have Berry arrested. Her house could also be seized by the courts to pay compensation to Prince Charles.

"Senior aides are still considering the best way forward at the moment," a spokeswoman for the prince said on Monday. "There has been no decision yet."

The meeting came as another book on the private lives of the royals was causing controversy.

Patrick Jephson, a private secretary to the late Princess Diana, has written a book which the Queen, Prince Charles and Prince William have all publicly condemned -- although no legal attempts to have publication stopped have been made.

Prince William said the book, Shadows of a Princess, had "upset" both he and his younger brother Prince Harry.

Giving his first ever public interview, the prince told on Saturday of the "betrayal and exploitation" of his mother by Jepson who says in his book that Princess Diana was a "scheming liar."

Prince William said: "Harry and I are both quite upset about it -- that our mother's trust has been betrayed and even now she is still being exploited."

Jepson, who, like Berry, signed a confidentiality agreement as part of his employment, has defended his work as "a truthful and balanced account" intended to protect the memory of the Princess, who died in a car crash in Paris in August 1997.

In a separate joint statement made before Prince William's condemnation, the Queen and the Prince of Wales said they "deeply deplore" Jepson's decision to publish his book.

Diana, Princess of Wales

"Her Majesty and His Royal Highness do not want a book of this kind to be published, a view which was conveyed firmly to Mr Jephson in February 1998," the statement said.

"There is an important relationship of trust and privacy between members of the Royal Family and those who work for them, at whatever level, which is enshrined in the permanent confidentiality undertaking which all employees sign on joining the Royal Household.

"Both Buckingham Palace and St James's Palace believed that Mr Jephson had reconfirmed his acceptance of this position in February 1998, and it is a matter of immense regret that he has now decided, nevertheless, to exploit for personal profit his period of employment with the Royal Family, rather than place his account in the Royal Archives for the use of future historians. "

Meanwhile, the princess's brother, Earl Spencer, said on Monday that he would never write a book about the life of his late sister.

The Earl, who has just written two books about his family history and the Althorp estate in Northamptonshire, said: "I'll never write about my sister, the reason being so many people have done it, and I would spend most of the time trying to correct wrongs.

"I would not dream of upsetting William and Harry. We have seen how they have been upset by an invasion of their mother's privacy. I would not want to do anything like that."

Reuters contributed to this report.

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August 31, 2000

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