Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, will no longer have a very important staff member working for them as their communications secretary Julian Payne is taking on another job after five years of working in Clarence House.
The Daily Mail referred to Payne as the spin doctor of the Prince of Wales and his wife, who worked on improving the couple's public image. Payne has been credited for helping Prince Charles leverage his presence on social mediaplatforms, and more recently, the Zoom video conferencing platforms that allowed the future King to still gets his messages across the United Kingdom in this pandemic.
Payne was also the man responsible for putting Charles in features of trendy magazines like Vogue and GQ. The PR expert also helped correct the perception that the Prince of Wales will become a meddling monarch once he sits on the throne.
Consequently, Payne was also an important influence for the Duchess of Cornwall to embrace technology. Before the pandemic, Camilla wasn't a big fan of the internet, but she had to learn to embrace the digital landscape while in self-isolation during the first few weeks of the pandemic as it was her only way to keep in touch with family.
With Payne's help, Camilla eventually used the platform to champion a lot of her causes. Before the royal staff leaves, Payne is helping Camilla establish her online book club, which launched in the first week of January 2021.
Payne will become the Chair of Corporate Affairs EMEA for Edelman and will be moving into his new office in the spring. It's still unclear who will take his place in the royal household.
His departure comes following a major social media backlash for the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall. The couple have been the subject of troll attacks online after the release of the royal drama series The Crown, which highlighted the problems in Charles' first marriage to Princess Diana
Charles and Camilla's affair has been rehashed in the series that some of their supporters, including those in the government, have called out Netflix for failing to put a disclaimer that it's fiction. Some royal experts said that the depiction of Charles and Camilla has been unfair as they've tried to work on their public image for the last 15 years and have succeeded in gaining favor from their subjects despite their bad start as a couple.
Clarence House was forced to turn off the comments section of Charles and Camilla's social media accounts to stop the online hatred. The decision likely came from Payne's team as they have to protect the royal pair from further public ridicule.
