Palace: Charles claims 'ludicrous'
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Charles continued a visit to Oman as the statement was issued.
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LONDON, England -- A senior aide to Prince Charles said in a TV interview that allegations claiming the prince was involved in a scandalous incident are "totally ludicrous" but needed to be denied because the claims were becoming so widespread.
His comment comes after Clarence House, the prince's official residence, took the highly unusual step of issuing a statement naming Charles as the senior royal at the center of the claims and denying that the alleged incident ever took place.
The allegations, made by a former royal servant, are the subject of a court injunction preventing any reporting of the claims.
"The allegation is becoming common currency and there's a lot of speculation and innuendo about it," Charles' private secretary Sir Michael Peat said in a TV interview broadcast Friday.
"That's why I want to make it entirely clear, even though I can't refer to the specifics of the allegation, that it is totally untrue and without a shred of substance.
"For anyone who knows the Prince of Wales, the allegation is totally ludicrous and, indeed, risible," he added.
CNN royal analyst Robert Jobson said the unprecedented denial appeared to be a pre-emptive strike in case the allegations, which cannot be reported because of the injunction, were some how made public.
The palace wanted to get Charles's denial before any such publication, he said.
The Prince of Wales was continuing an official visit to Oman Friday. Officials said his schedule would not be changed.
"In recent days, there have been media reports concerning an allegation that a former Royal Household employee witnessed an incident some years ago involving a senior member of the royal family," Clarence House said in a statement Thursday. "The speculation needs to be brought to an end.
"The allegation was that The Prince of Wales was involved in the incident. This allegation is untrue. The incident which the former employee claims to have witnessed did not take place," it added. (Full statement)
In his TV interview, Peat added that Charles's sons, Princes William and Harry, were aware of the situation.
Fawcett: Injunction lifted
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"The sons have been kept informed and are very supportive of their father," he said.
"The Prince of Wales is subject to a lot of fairly ridiculous allegations, most of which never see the light of day.
"I hope this will be treated on its merits and dismissed out of hand... It's totally untrue.
"Even allegations which are untrue can cause great distress."
It is extremely rare for the royal family to issue a denial about an allegation that is not public knowledge, but royal officials said the action was necessary because silence might lend credibility to the allegations.
The Prince's intervention came after a day of drama at the High Court in London.
On Thursday, an injunction banning The Guardian newspaper from naming former royal aide Michael Fawcett -- who is not the former employee referred to by Clarence House -- was lifted by agreement after the newspaper said it had no intention of repeating allegations about him.
The agreement meant that The Guardian could only publish Fawcett's name in relation to him obtaining an injunction against the Mail on Sunday.
That injunction remains in place although the Sunday paper later claimed success in "relaxing the constraints" of the gagging order.
Following a separate High Court hearing in private, a Mail on Sunday spokesman told the UK's Press Association: "Although parts of the order remain confidential, our application today to vary the terms of the injunction was successful.
"We are now satisfied that the constraints under which we were working have been relaxed in our favor."
It is understood, however, that the paper is unlikely to be able to publish its original story on Sunday.
Fawcett, 40, was the "indispensable" royal aide said to have regularly squeezed the Prince of Wales's toothpaste.
He resigned as the prince's personal assistant despite being cleared of serious wrongdoing by a report into allegations of malpractice at St. James's Palace, the prince's former official residence.
On its MediaGuardian Web site, The Guardian said that it did not intend to publish the actual allegations.
"Not only do they differ from the highly colored rumors about royal affairs which have surfaced recently in the tabloids: but we also have no reason to believe the allegations are true," it said.
"The saga shows, however, the extraordinary lengths to which both sides are going in the current bitter battle between scandal-hungry tabloids and an increasingly bruised royal household," The Guardian said.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
