Prince Charles is pondering a televised broadcast to the nation after failed attempts to stamp out rumours about an alleged sexual incident involving the heir to the British throne.
While no firm decision has as yet been made, the royal family's hand is being forced by an avalanche of media reports in Europe and on foreign language websites.
As Charles returned to the United Kingdom on Sunday from his two-week trip to India and Oman, the mass circulation News of the World, owned by Rupert Murdoch, took the lead by running a front-page story with the headline -- "Is Charles Bisexual?"
The headline was prompted by comments by a former royal family adviser, Mark Bolland, in his personal newspaper column that he remembers being telephoned on a holiday by Charles' private secretary, Sir Michael Peat, who asked him, "Do you think Charles is bisexual?"
Sir Michael has denied asking the question, but it has done nothing to squash allegations based on a tape recording found in a mahogany box owned by the prince's late wife, Diana.
In the tape, George Smith, a former royal servant who suffered from alcoholism and post-traumatic stress syndrome after fighting in the Falklands War, claimed he had been raped by another male royal aide.
However, his more controversial claim is that he witnessed a homosexual encounter between a senior royal aide and a member of the royal family. It is this claim that Charles and his supporters, including other members of the royal family, continue to strenuously deny. His elder son, William, wants Charles to sue any newspaper that dares to print the allegations.
Among other supporters is author Andrew Roberts, who wrote in today's Sunday Telegraph, "Mr Smith ought to have been left to deal with his alcoholism, his psychological problems, his post-traumatic stress, his marital breakdown and his chronic depression with the help of his doctors, not used as a tool to propagate foul sexual myths about the prince."
The plea for restraint was echoed by Charles' former private secretary Sir Stephen Lamport. He has accused the media of pursuing an agenda that undervalues the Prince as a 'force for good' who has touched the lives of so many.
The issue first surfaced last year during the trial of Diana's former butler Paul Burrell. Earlier, the police were forced to police were forced to drop charges that he had stolen articles from Diana's estate and from other members of the royal family after her death in 1997.
One of the items he was accused of stealing was the audio tape containing Smith's confession, which Diana had recorded several years earlier and kept in her special mahogany box.
When Burrell started publicising his book A Royal Duty he mentioned the famous cassette and explained that revealing its contents would be a disaster for the country.
The media latched on to that and raked up the issue leading to the current crisis in the royal family.
