'Bloody People': what Charles thinks of the Fourth Estate

As the television producers replayed their recording after another tightly controlled royal media opportunity, they could hear the Prince of Wales muttering in the background.

As the television producers replayed their recording after another tightly controlled royal media opportunity, they could hear the Prince of Wales muttering in the background.

Cranking up the volume his words became all too clear. "I hate these people," muttered the heir to the throne sotto voce to his sons William and Harry, who were posing alongside him for the happy, family snap on the mountainside at Monbiel on the outskirts of Klosters in Switzerland, the scene of their annual ski holiday.

But the Prince didn't stop there. Responding to an anodyne question about the impending royal nuptials from the BBC's royal and diplomatic correspondent Nicholas Witchell, Charles let rip. "Bloody people. I can't bear that man anyway. He's so awful, he really is."

That Witchell, whose 30 years' experience at the BBC has taken him to Belfast, the Falklands as well as through a notorious tussle with "Lesbian Avengers" when they invaded the Six O'Clock News studio, was asking a question agreed in advance by Clarence House, was clearly lost on Charles. "I hate doing this," he said.

The incident marks a new low in the relationship between the Prince and the media. It is also comes amid the public relations nightmare of his marriage to Camilla Parker Bowles, which has been marred by a change of venue, a snub from the Queen and a fleeting desire on behalf of the Prince to call the whole damned thing off.

For Prince Harry, who has made his dislike of photographers clear in a more physical way, it was his first public appearance since being photographed dressed as a Nazi at a fancy dress party. The official line from Clarence House is that the Prince is furious at paparazzi pictures published in yesterday's newspapers showing Prince William skiing with his girlfriend Kate Middleton.

But as more than 70 journalists and film crews lined up, their numbers swelled by mounting international interest in the wedding, the royal trio were pressed to "look like they know each other". This prompted a series of muttered exchanges in which a bemused Charles asked: "Do I put my arms around you?" and "What do I do?" to which William replied "keep smiling, keep smiling."

Paddy Harverson, Charles's communications secretary, said:"He doesn't have contempt for the media. A few paparazzi yesterday got the holiday off to a bad start."

Mr Harverson said later that the Prince regretted his comments. "Nicholas was in the firing line when the Prince was expressing his general frustration at the paparazzi and it boiled over at the first person to ask a question.

"It wasn't personal. He does regret saying it. He really didn't mean to take it out on Nicholas."

Asked whether the Prince was going to apologise, he added: "We're not going to go into that."

The Prince and his sons are staying at the exclusive resort until Tuesday.