King Charles strips princess’s ex-husband and PR smoothie Anthony Bailey of his OBE – as he claims bitter divorce has already seen him ‘lose everything he ever had’
He was the ultimate Mr Fixit, who acquired a £6 million mansion in South-West London and a £4 million villa in Portugal, knew everyone from popes to prime ministers, and married a princess — having first received a handwritten note of congratulations from his pal Tony Blair.
Not bad for a lad from the metropolitan suburb of Ruislip who once sold menswear.
But his glory days can only be a dimming memory for PR smoothie and Labour donor Anthony Bailey, who, I can disclose, has this week been stripped of his OBE by King Charles. It was awarded to him in 2008 by the late Queen for ‘services to inter-religious relations and charity’.
It’s difficult to conceive of anything which could be more painful for Bailey, 53.
In his pomp, he glad-handed several members of the Royal Family, including the then Prince of Wales, and even facilitated the wedding of the Duke of Kent’s younger son, Lord Nicholas Windsor, at the Vatican — the first time a British royal had married there for 400 years.
PR smoothie and Labour donor Anthony Bailey (pictured in 2016) has this week been stripped of his OBE by King Charles. It was awarded to him in 2008 by the late Queen for ‘services to inter-religious relations and charity’
In his pomp, he glad-handed several members of the Royal Family, including the then Prince of Wales. Bailey is pictured with then-Prince Charles in 2001 during a visit to Saudi Arabia
But last year, Mr Justice Peel handed Bailey a 12-month sentence after finding him in contempt of court for breaching a divorce agreement with his ex-wife, Princess Marie-Therese von Hohenberg. The former couple are pictured together on their wedding day in 2007
But last year, Mr Justice Peel handed Bailey a 12-month sentence after finding him in contempt of court for breaching a divorce agreement with his ex-wife, Princess Marie-Therese von Hohenberg, a great-granddaughter of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination in 1914 triggered World War I.
Six hundred guests attended the couple’s 2007 wedding in Austria. But 12 years later, Marie-Therese initiated divorce proceedings, culminating in last year’s High Court drama — during which Bailey stayed in Portugal.
Ruling that he had ‘obstructed the court at almost every possible turn’, and ‘deliberately left the country’, the judge noted that there were ‘major question marks’ about his conduct.
Bailey remains in Portugal, from where he tells me that he had ‘not been notified’ about the loss of his OBE ‘or that such a process was even under way’.
He adds that the ‘bitter’ divorce proceedings have ‘seen me lose everything I’ve ever had in Britain, from my home, my job and even access to my beloved son.
‘This latest news will no doubt bring great joy to my ex wife. It is yet another illustration of what is fundamentally wrong with the deeply flawed divorce process in Britain and why its overhaul is long overdue’.
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