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Media frenzy over Charles' private life

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON NOV. 9. An unprecedented media frenzy over allegations about his private life greeted Prince Charles when he returned home on Sunday after a visit to India and West Asia amid reports that he might sue a former royal employee at the heart of the lurid headlines, which have dogged him in the past week.

His elder son, Prince Williams, was reported as saying that he believed the controversy was a `plot' to destroy his father's prospects of succeeding to the throne.

The Sunday Times said the young Prince was "deeply concerned'' that the allegations could "damage his father in the same way that he believes some parts of the media destroyed his mother Diana, Princess of Wales''.

Meanwhile, a bitter war of words broke out in Prince Charles' inner circle after his former aide, Mark Bolland, who is still close to him, was quoted as telling a Sunday tabloid that the Prince's private secretary, Michael Peat, had asked him: "Do you think Charles is bisexual?''

"I was astonished at Sir Michael's question. I told him emphatically that the Prince was not gay or bisexual,'' Mr. Bolland told The News of the World but Sir Michael's staff dismissed it as `nonsense'.

At the centre of the row is the allegation by George Smith, who worked for Prince Charles for many years, that he saw an `incident' involving the Prince and a male servant.

While a statement on behalf of Prince Charles contemptuously dismissed the allegation as `risible', saying no such `incident' ever took place, Mr. Smith insisted in a newspaper interview that he stood by his story.

"I stand by my story,'' he told The Mail on Sunday which is reported to have paid him generously for his account.

Mr. Smith first made this allegation in a taped interview with the late Princess Diana in 1996, but Prince Charles has questioned his credibility, pointing out that he suffered form alcoholism and post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in the Falklands War.

There is much speculation about the mysterious disappearance of what has come to be known as the "rape tape'' recorded by Diana.

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