Queen Elizabeth was “thrilled” by the dramatic resignation of the then Prince Charles’ closest aide following an exposé by the Mail on Sunday, it was sensationally claimed last night.
Michael Wynne-Parker, a social problem-solver (now embroiled in a “cash for access” scandal), claims Prince Andrew told him in a phone call that the late Queen was relieved when Michael Fawcett, who ran Charles’s charities, resigned amid revelations by the Minister of State about misuse of his office.
The Duke of York, who was visiting from Balmoral, is said to have told Mr Wynne-Parker: “I’m with Mum and she’s delighted with you, Michael, because you’ve probably saved the monarchy.”
The astonishing claim is just one of a number of incendiary comments made by Wynne-Parker, 78, who was speaking out for the first time since being disqualified by the Charity Commission last week following a three-year investigation into donations to the King’s Foundation.
He told this newspaper: “They have pointed to a person who was a player, but he was not the main player.”
Queen Elizabeth (pictured in 2022) was “emotional” at the dramatic resignation of then-Prince Charles’ closest aide following an exposé by the Mail on Sunday, it has been claimed.
The Metropolitan Police also launched an investigation in 2022 following allegations that the King’s right-hand man, Michael Fawcett (pictured with King Charles III in 2021), had arranged a memorial for Dr Bin Mahfouz.
Michael Wynne-Parker, a social problem-solver now embroiled in a “cash for access” scandal, has alleged that Prince Andrew told him in a phone call that the late Queen was “thrilled” when Fawcett quit.
In August 2021, The Mail on Sunday published a leaked email in which Wynne-Parker provided details of how a dinner with Prince Charles and a night’s stay at Dumfries House in Scotland (owned by the King’s Foundation, then the Prince’s Foundation) could be arranged in exchange for a six-figure donation paid through a bank account linked to Burke’s Peerage, a guide to the aristocracy.
A week later, in another bombshell revelation, this newspaper exposed how Mr Fawcett, who was at Charles’s side for 40 years, offered to help secure a knighthood and British citizenship for Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz, a Saudi billionaire and donor to the Foundation.
Mr Fawcett, 61, a former valet to the king, resigned as chief executive of the Trust shortly after being presented with the Minister of State’s evidence. His downfall was a blow to Charles in the year before his mother’s death and his accession to the throne. He is reported to have once remarked: “I can get along without almost anyone, except Michael.”
But elsewhere in the Royal Family, Wynne-Parker says, there was gratitude towards him for what was perceived as his role in bringing the controversy to light.
Last night she said: “I was very happy to receive a call from Prince Andrew. What I wanted to say was that the Queen was so thrilled that Fawcett’s whereabouts had finally been discovered that she would have been relieved – thank God we won’t have to deal with him again.”
Mr Wynne-Parker said there were concerns about Fawcett’s considerable influence over Charles.
‘He would say, ‘Sir, this is what we should do, this is how we should do it,’ and in a busy life one tended to go along with it.’
Michael Wynne-Parker has been deemed unfit to serve as a trustee of a charity and has been disqualified from holding any senior position or trustee role at any charity for 12 years following an investigation into the King’s Foundation.
The Charity Commission found that almost £200,000 in donations intended for the King’s Foundation were transferred to the private company bank account of Mr Wynne-Parker (pictured right).
Michael Fawcett (pictured with Her Majesty and Queen Camilla in 2018) was previously accused of helping secure the Saudi tycoon a CBE which was presented by Charles in a private ceremony in 2016.
However, the case was subsequently dropped by the Metropolitan Police two years later as detectives decided not to take further action (pictured: Michael Fawcett outside his home in south-west London)
The Palace and Mr Fawcett declined to comment last night.
Last week, the Charity Commission found that Wynne-Parker, who was an adviser to Dr Bin Mahfouz and a trustee of his charity, the Mahfouz Foundation, was “unfit to serve as a trustee of a charity”. A scathing investigation found that he used the Foundation as a conduit to try to channel donations to the King’s Foundation.
A separate Charity Commission report into Burke’s Peerage Foundation said the trustees
William Bortrick and Mark Ayre squandered more than £113,000 of charity money, including £16,000 on an antique desk and bookcase which ended up in Mr Bortrick’s home.