The Royal Editor of the News of the World, Britain’s top selling Sunday newspaper pleaded guilty yesterday of hacking into the voicemail system in Prince Charles’ office.

Clive Goodman, 48, was arrested after members of the Prince’s household reported apparent security breaches in the telephone system.

Another tabloid journalist, pleaded guilty to the same charge, plus five further charges of unlawfully intercepting voicemail messages.

The court heard that other victims of the spying included model Elle Macpherson and Simon Hughes, a Member of Parliament.

Goodman’s lawyer, John Kelsey-Fry, said : “He wishes through me to take the first opportunity to apologize publicly to those affected by his actions. He accepts they were a gross invasion of privacy and Mr. Goodman accepts that this characterization is correct. He therefore apologizes unreservedly to the three members of the royal household staff concerned and their principals, Prince William, Prince Harry and the Prince of Wales.”

Tom Bradby, ITN’s Political Editor reported that suspicions were aroused when the News of the World printed details of a planned private meeting between himself and Prince William. They realized someone must have listened to their phone messages and William’s Chief of Staff contacted the police.

Such is the value of a juicy Royal story that reporters will go to any lengths to get them, even bribing Palace staff with large sums of money, or infiltrating the Palace by getting jobs as footmen or catering staff.

Hold the front page! Kate Middleton is normal. She puts out her own rubbish. Could this shake the Throne of England? Should she have demanded a platoon of liveried flunkies? Have standards slipped that much in the British Monarchy?

I’ll bet this non-story — flashed across Her Majesty’s loyal media this morning — will let loose a hail of anti-Kate comments on the forums and, yes, even here at Royal Anecdotes, the quiet corner of Royal commentrary.

Personally, I think she looks rather sweet. I like a girl who does the chores. It says so much about her work ethic. She must have muscles like an Irish navvy.

Now who says she doesn’t work?

The daftest Royal story of the week so far is that Prince Harry has bought a Spiderman duvet and pillow cover for his bed in his Army barracks.

The 22-year-old Prince and officer in the Household Calvary’s Blue and Royals regiment, bought the set as his contribution to a running joke with his fellow officers.

A source told Britain’s The Sun newspaper, “Harry is very proud of his Spiderman duvet and pillow. He bought the set to join in with the other lads who all have comedy duvets. There is everything from My Little Pony and Bob The Builder to Barbie. It is funny to think some of the most highly-trained soldiers in the British Army snuggle up under duvets with their cartoon favorites on. Harry’s room looks like an eight-year-old’s. But it has almost become a tradition that everyone has a comedy duvet.

“It was started a few years ago by soldiers who wanted to have a laugh when senior officers inspected rooms. They struggle to keep a straight face when they walk in and see a ‘Bob The Builder’ duvet. It’s a bit of fun and good morale. Lads spend hours trawling the internet for sheets nobody has got.”

Harry returned to his Combermere Barracks base, conveniently in Windsor on Monday after a week-long visit to see girlfriend Chelsy Davy in South Africa.

With the strong possibility of a Royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton aproaching, Syntagma Media is planning a companion site to Royal Anecdotes especially for the occasion.

The website will be called Royal Marriage and will appear on royal-marriage.com and royal-marriage.co.uk. It will be part of our new Retail UK network magazine and will deal with every aspect of the wedding.

Stay tuned for further information.

John

Update: Kate Middleton has been invited to Christmas lunch with the Royal Family, adding to speculation that an engagement will be announced soon, maybe even over the Christmas period. Full story on Monday.