King Charles had barely returned to Britain fresh from two overseas engagements and the welcome news of Princess Eugenie’s third pregnancy when another uncomfortable story landed on his doorstep. The monarch has spent considerable effort trying to contain the fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, particularly its association with his disgraced brother, Prince Andrew.
But just as that crisis appeared to be losing momentum, a new thread has emerged — one that reaches closer to the Crown than previously reported. According to The Sunday Times, former British Ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson, who has been linked to the paedophile Epstein in ways similar to Andrew, also has a longstanding connection to Charles himself.
PR expert Mark Bolland revealed that Mandelson was brought into the king’s inner circle just months before Princess Diana’s death, recruited as part of a carefully orchestrated image campaign known as “Project Camilla” — a strategy designed to rehabilitate the then-Camilla Parker Bowles in the eyes of a deeply sceptical British public.
According to Bolland, Charles maintained regular contact with Mandelson during this period, engaging in “late-night calls” to map out a PR strategy that would eventually help smooth the path for his relationship with Camilla to gain public acceptance. Those calls, once unremarkable in context, now look rather different in light of Mandelson’s reported connections to Epstein.
The new details place the palace in an awkward position. Even if Charles had no knowledge of Mandelson’s ties to Epstein at the time — and there is no suggestion that he did — the association is unlikely to sit well with a public that has already expressed frustration at what many perceive as an insufficiently firm response to Andrew’s conduct.
The king has faced persistent criticism for not taking a harder public line against his brother, and another Epstein-adjacent name appearing in the royal orbit will do little to quiet those voices. Queen Camilla, whose image was once the very thing “Project Camilla” was designed to protect, now finds herself tangentially drawn into the narrative — not through any wrongdoing, but by proximity to a strategy whose central architect is under renewed scrutiny.
For Charles, the timing is particularly bruising.
The overseas trips were seen as a demonstration of the monarchy’s continued vitality and purpose. Eugenie’s pregnancy offered a rare moment of uncomplicated good news. But royal crises have a habit of arriving in clusters, and the Epstein story — with its sprawling network of connections — has shown little sign of releasing its grip on the House of Windsor.
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