Is Queen’s aide honoured by King set to lose her grace and favour home?

ANGELA KELLY, the late Queen’s dresser and confidante for more than 20 years, fears she may have to leave her grace-and-favour home, The Mail on Sunday understands.

Friends of Ms Kelly, a Liverpool docker’s daughter who became the Queen’s righthand woman, worry she is another victim of the King’s ‘property merry-go-round’.

It had been understood that Ms Kelly, 65, would be given accommodation for life after her decades of loyalty to the Queen. But sources said they believed she will now have to vacate her modest semi-detached home on the Windsor Estate ‘within weeks’.

A source said: ‘She’s been told she will soon have to move out. It’s a nice little place on the Windsor Estate and it was convenient for seeing her grandson, who was at college nearby.

‘But the King has made it clear that under the new reign people will have to cut their cloth. The King is clearly not in the habit of providing homes for those no longer working for the monarchy.’

Ms Kelly has just been recognised by King Charles in special honours awards marking the death of the Queen. However, she became only a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, rather than a Dame Commander as might have been expected. She was invested into the order in 2012.

Many in the Royal Household were suspicious of her, and one insider pondered whether ‘scores were being settled’.

A Palace insider said the ‘writing was on the wall’ for Ms Kelly after the Queen died in September.

Within days, the locks had been changed on all the cupboards to which she held keys.

She was nicknamed AK47 – a play on her initials and the Russian assault rifle – because of her rapidfire temper. Three-times-married Ms Kelly is said to have thrown a bag of rubbish at a member of the catering staff after her lunch was served late before an investiture.

But her biggest mistake appears to have been to fall out with senior Royals. When Prince Harry said he visited his grandmother last year to ensure she was ‘protected’ and ‘had the right people around her’, it was seen as a swipe at Ms Kelly.

This followed reports of ‘Tiaragate’, in which Harry and Ms Kelly fell out over a tiara the prince’s then fiancee, Meghan Markle, was to wear at her wedding in 2018.

Meghan wanted it beforehand so she and her hairdresser could work out how best to wear it, but it is believed Ms Kelly stood in the way. Harry is said to have told her: ‘What Meghan wants, Meghan gets.’

He denied saying this in his memoir, Spare, but did write: ‘She [Ms Kelly] was being obstructive. Angela was a troublemaker and I didn’t need her as an enemy.’

When the King’s reign began, there was not an obvious new role for Ms Kelly as the Queen Consort already had a dresser.

Ms Kelly began working at the Palace after meeting the Queen and Prince Philip in Berlin, where she was housekeeper for the British ambassador. She became an assistant dresser to the Queen in 2002, and then principal dresser.

She was praised for overhauling the Queen’s image with outfits in eye-catching colours and matching hats. Ms Kelly – who regularly wore-in new shoes for the Queen as their feet were the same size – lived in a cottage on the Windsor Estate. When the Queen made Windsor Castle her home in her final year, Ms Kelly was given the neighbouring room.

In recognition of her work – and perhaps knowing that no such permission would be granted after she died – the Queen let her publish two books revealing details of her role – Dressing The Queen and The Other Side Of The Coin: The Queen, The Dresser And The Wardrobe.

Charles is understood to have been appalled at the intimate specifics, such as behind-the-scenes details of Prince Philip’s funeral.

Now, she has seemingly been stripped of the privileges of Palace life. But she may have the last laugh. Her publishing deal is for three books, so the third could be the most revealing yet.

‘Under Charles, people have to cut their cloth’