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Once upon a time, proclamations from the Royal Household would be displayed with due solemnity on an easel at the gates of Buckingham Palace.

These days, senior courtiers share their thoughts on the heir to the throne’s lavatorial habits via social media.

Yesterday, Prince Charles’s director of communications, Julian Payne, posted an extraordinary comment on Twitter from Australia, where he is on tour with Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall.

The comment referred to a claim by the author Tom Bower in his new biography of Charles, Rebel Prince, that the future king once took a lavatory seat with him when visiting a friend in the North-East.

Prince Charles is greeted by public during a visit to Brisbane yesterday. His director of communications, Julian Payne, posted an extraordinary comment on Twitter from Australia, where he is on tour with Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall

Next to a photograph of Charles and Camilla being greeted by well-wishers in Brisbane, Payne wrote: ‘The Prince and The Duchess’s tour of Australia and Vanuatu begins: 30 engagements, 7 days, 1 Commonwealth Games, 0 personal loo seats.’

The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall receive a Ceremonial Welcome by the State of Queensland where they were greeted by The Governor-General and Lady Cosgrove, The Queensland Governor, The Premier of Queensland

Payne, who was appointed as Charles and Camilla’s most senior spokesman in 2016, is the first serving official to share such intimate details of the royals’ luggage.

The former fashion industry PR executive does not disclose further specifics, such as whether this is the first tour on which the Prince has declined to take a loo seat with him.

Bower tells me: ‘I am delighted to hear that Prince Charles has nothing to fear from Australian lavatory seats.’

In his book, which was serialised in the Mail, Bower reported that Charles took his own mattress, lavatory seat, Kleenex Velvet loo roll and two ‘landscapes of the Scottish Highlands’ when visiting a friend. 

It was just one of numerous examples given of Charles’s ostentatious and demanding behaviour.

In another, the Prince was said to have once ‘shrieked’ and ‘trembled’ at the sight of an unknown plastic substance covering his dinner, only for Camilla to tell him: ‘It’s cling film, darling.’

Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith says she hasn’t been a victim of sexual harassment by men, but does admit to having occasionally experienced the unsolicited wandering hand.

And she deals with it by taking robust action. 

‘There has been the odd ghastly fellow who puts his hand on your knee and gets a “clock”,’ she says. The 78-year-old celebrity chef once had a 13-year relationship with Rayne Kruger, husband of her mother’s best friend Nan, and later married him.

Watching the waves eases Anoushka's pain after split 

Anoushka Shanka pictured with Joe Wright in 2012 as they arrive for the premiere of Anna Karenina in London 

Anoushka Shankar has broken her silence on the ‘painful’ heartbreak she suffered when her husband of seven years, Darkest Hour director Joe Wright, ditched her for 30-year-old actress Haley Bennett earlier this year.

‘I don’t know what’s in my future, but I do know that my heart has infinite capacity to love,’ says Anoushka. 

The 36-year-old sitar player, who has two young sons with Joe, adds: ‘It’s against my faith in life itself to let pain close me up, and just for today, as I learn to be single and to be a single parent, I will manifest this feeling of being “in love” when I kiss my children, when I watch the waves roll in, when I play my sitar, when I sit in moonlight and when I pray.’

It's Oscar the spiderman!

Art dealer Oscar, 36, who wed 33-year-old Sophie Oakley last month, is on honeymoon this week in Mauritius, where he reveals some extravagant body ink worthy of David Beckham

His flamboyant alter-ego Dame Edna Everage never shies away from outlandish adornments, but is Barry Humphries facing competition from his son?

Art dealer Oscar, 36, who wed 33-year-old Sophie Oakley last month, is on honeymoon this week in Mauritius, where he reveals some extravagant body ink worthy of David Beckham.

Sporting a red bikini, Sophie, who is due to give birth to their daughter in September, shares this snap online in which Oscar bares a large spider web tattoo over his chest and a bird tattoo on his left shoulder.

Dame Edna, meanwhile, remains ink-free at 84.

Jemima's U-turn on those bikina snaps 

The 44-year-old daughter of late tycoon Sir James Goldsmith is in Mexico this week — her first holiday in more than two years — with financier brother Ben, 37, and TV presenter Richard Bacon

Heiress Jemima Goldsmith is eating her words — just months after railing against smug holidaymakers who post bikini shots on social media.

The 44-year-old daughter of late tycoon Sir James Goldsmith is in Mexico this week — her first holiday in more than two years — with financier brother Ben, 37, and TV presenter Richard Bacon.

Posting a snap of herself in a stylish brown bikini, mini sarong and oversize sun hat and shades, Jemima muses online: ‘Like the tree that falls in the forest with no one around to hear it, did a holiday happen if it wasn’t posted and liked on Instagram? This is me entering a bat cave.’

Her other activities have included watching baby turtles on the beach with Bacon, who last week revealed he’s been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder at the age of 42.

 Will Laurie write sequel to Le Carre's Night Manager? 

If John le Carre won’t write a sequel to The Night Manager, then Hugh Laurie will.

The star, who played villainous Richard Roper in the hit BBC drama opposite Tom Hiddleston, has dreamt up cunning scenarios to reunite the team for a second run.

‘Hugh and I have had various conversations,’ Alistair Petrie, who played Roper’s right-hand-man Sandy, tells me. ‘Our characters were carted off in chains believing they were going to spend a long time in prison in the last episode, but then they got taken to a holding cell. We’ve talked about how they get out of that situation.’

Petrie adds: ‘My solution involves lots of bribes, but Hugh’s theory was far more erudite and interesting.

‘There’s an ambition to do another series, but there’s no source material yet. Le Carre is god, so he has to sign off on any ideas. But we’d all love to do it.’