Was Charles’s private secretary ‘pushed’ by Camilla?

The Prince of Wales's long-standing private secretary, Elizabeth Buchanan, known in royal circles as "Miss Nannypenny", has resigned. According to a report in the Daily Mail, her departure appears to be at the prompting of the Prince's wife, Camilla, who is to have resented the close relationship she enjoyed with her husband. Buchanan, 44, who has worked for the Prince since 1989, is to leave her job at the end of the year, although such is the intensity of feeling between the Duchess and the secretary it could happen sooner.

The official reason is that she wants to take over running her family’s organic farm in East Sussex. But an old colleague of Buchanan’s is reported as saying: "Camilla simply loathed her. She couldn't bear Elizabeth's gushing behaviour around the Prince, which she thought quite ridiculous. She also disliked what she saw as Elizabeth's habit of always putting herself at Charles's side at official functions and them being pictured together. It infuriated her."

The Duchess, 60, is also said to have been unimpressed by magazine stories on the Continent suggesting the links between the Prince and Buchanan went further than a close working relationship. One such "disclosure" claimed that Charles had slipped away from his bodyguards to visit Buchanan no fewer than 73 times at her London flat.

Buchanan, who earns £160,000 a year, was tipped to be the successor to Sir Michael Peat, the Prince's principal private secretary who is expected to stand down next year when he reaches 60. Says a friend: "Elizabeth loves working for Prince Charles and I can't believe that she has simply walked away from the prospect of taking the top job in his private office - and being the first woman to hold it. Let's face it, she's still young.”