While the palace has promised an “open and rigorous” recruitment process for his successor, the shake-up recalls a very different era when Charles reportedly sought Savile’s advice before Sir Christopher Airy – who died last April aged 91 – became his private secretary in 1990.
A source familiar with the royal household at the time said Savile enjoyed an extraordinary degree of access – and was treated as an unconventional confidant rather than simply a celebrity acquaintance.
The source exclusively told Radar: “Savile had a remarkable level of access to the royal world during that period. He wasn’t treated simply as another television personality who occasionally appeared at an official engagement – he could come and go with a familiarity that would have been extremely unusual for somebody outside the established royal circle.
“Everything about him was unconventional. He would appear in the flashy jewelry and tracksuits that had become his trademark, and that made him completely different from the carefully dressed officials and courtiers who normally surrounded Charles. There was a sense that Charles found that difference entertaining and perhaps even refreshing.
“Savile also occupied a peculiar position because he wasn’t constrained by the normal rules and sensitivities of palace life. He could be far more direct with Charles than many members of the royal household would ever have dared to be.
“Courtiers had positions to protect and protocol to observe, whereas Savile could offer opinions in his own blunt and eccentric fashion. In that respect, he was almost like the fool in King Lear – somebody on the outside who was granted unusual freedom to say uncomfortable or provocative things directly to the future king.
“Looking back, what is particularly striking isn’t simply that Charles knew Savile. It’s the extraordinary degree of familiarity and influence he appears to have acquired inside royal circles during those years.”