King Charles’ Former Press Secretary, Who Took Fall for Prince William Birthday Party Controversy, Dies
Sandy Henney was a press secretary from 1993 to 2000, a tumultuous time for the British royal family
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Sandy Henney.Credit :Â
Alamy
An important member of King Charles’ former staff has died.
Sandy Henney, who served as the royal’s press secretary from 1993 to 2000, died recently, per an online tribute page. According to the page, Henney’s funeral took place last week at Worthing Crematorium in southern England. No other details about her death have been shared publicly, including her age.
A message on the tribute page read that Henney’s “kindness, warmth, and the memories [she] gave us will stay in our hearts forever.”
Henney’s tenure as a press secretary for Charles occurred during an especially dramatic and tumultuous time for the royal family.
Her seven years in the position overlapped with the death of Princess Diana, Charles’ ex-wife who was killed in a car crash in 1997, and the beginnings of Charles’ public relationship with the now-Queen Camilla. Henney also attended several international tours alongside the royals, including to Canada and Uruguay.
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Henney resigned her position in 2000, after a controversy over photos from Prince William’s 18th birthday party.
According to Hello! magazine, Henney reportedly gave the British news outlets Daily Telegraph and ITN exclusive access to images from the party. When the photos ended up leaked to other outlets, she was accused of breaking her agreement with the Telegraph and ITN.
The affair erupted into a dispute over copyright between the photographer (under British law, photographers automatically own the rights to their work) and the palace — eventually leading Henney to resign.
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In a statement at the time, according to Hello!, St. James Palace said: “It is a matter of deep regret that confusion has arisen over the photographs commissioned to mark Prince William’s 18th birthday. The copyright of these pictures should have been established at the time they were taken to ensure that St. James’ Palace owned the copyright and that any proceeds arising from the use of the photographs went to charity as had normally happened in the past.”
“The issue was not resolved, and the copyright is now wrongly vested elsewhere. The Prince of Wales hopes that, in the light of the clear and consistent policy, no one should profit from pictures, either of Prince William or Prince Harry, and that those who do own the copyright will make clear that all proceeds will go to charity.”
Henney spoke out for the first time about her resignation in a 2015 documentary called Reinventing the Royals, according to GBNews, revealing that she was worried about public backlash to the royal family.
“I remember briefing one of our private secretaries on the phone and saying, ‘I know you’re seeing it on television, but you really have to be here in London to feel the atmosphere. People here are really anti-monarchy,’ ” she said. “I have to say, yeah, I was worried in terms of where was this going to go?”
