NEED TO KNOW

  • King Charles was “in the doghouse” after a story leaked about his conversation with Richard Heaton, permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office
  • The future monarch voiced concerns surrounding the updates to the succession rules, as he was left out of the conversations around the changes
  • The story is part of Valentine Low’s new book, Power and the Palace, which was excerpted in The Times on Aug. 29

A leaked story put King Charles in the doghouse.

Parts of Valentine Low’s new book, Power and the Palace, were excerpted in The Times on Aug. 29, including a story of how Charles was left out of discussions surrounding the 2013 Succession to the Crown Act, which ended male-preference primogeniture. At the time that the bill was moving through parliament, Kate Middleton and Prince William were expecting their first child, Prince George, and Charles had questions surrounding it.

Richard Heaton, permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office, received an “unexpected invitation” to have tea with then-Prince Charles in December 2012, and the conversation turned to the bill. Low wrote, “What, Charles wanted to know, would happen if his first grandchild were a girl, and she married a Mr. Smith? Would the royal house be Smith or Windsor? He had other questions too — about what would happen if his grandchild married a Catholic and what effect the new law would have on hereditary peerages. It was not Heaton’s area of responsibility, and he had not been briefed on the subject, but he gave what answers he could.”

It turns out, the government was under instruction to deal directly with Buckingham Palace on the change of succession rules, which meant Prince Charles was left out. However, The Daily Mail published a story a few weeks after the tea meeting saying that Charles had concerns and that he and William “appear not to have been consulted at all, which rankled with the Prince of Wales.”

Low wrote, “As soon as the article appeared, Heaton was contacted on holiday by the cabinet secretary Jeremy Heywood’s office, asking what had happened. By the time he got back, according to Whitehall sources, Heywood was sounding more relaxed about the whole episode. What was all this about the Prince of Wales, Heaton asked. ‘Oh, don’t worry about that,’ said Heywood. ‘He’s in the doghouse.’ ”

King Charles at Balmoral Castle on Aug. 18, 2025.

Jane Barlow/PA Images via Getty

“There were three reasons why Whitehall saw it that way,” Low continued. “One was that the prince had, in their view, misrepresented the conversation between him and Heaton. Second, he had leaked — or someone had leaked on his behalf — a private conversation with a civil servant. And third, he was criticising government policy, which he was not supposed to do.”

Not long after, the future monarch invited Heaton on an outing where they took the royal train and visited a pottery saved by one of the royal’s charities.

“It wasn’t an apology, but it was the next best thing,” Low said.

Prince William, Prince George, Prince Louis, Kate Middleton and Princess Charlotte on May 5, 2025.

Chris Jackson/Getty

The Succession to the Crown Act 2013 ruled that birth order determines who will become the next king or queen of the U.K., regardless of sex, instead of the previously followed succession rules that favored male heirs. Prince William and Princess Kate’s first child turned out to be a son. However, their second child, Princess Charlotte, made history in 2018 when Prince Louis was born — as she did not lose her place in the line of succession to her younger brother.

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The legislation affects all royals born after Oct. 28, 2011, and also removed the disqualification placed on those arising from marriage to a Roman Catholic.