Newspaper publishes damning conversations of Sophie Rhys-Jones

By COLE MORTON, NICHOLAS PYKE and CHRIS BUNTING

The full transcript of what the Countess of Wessex and her business partner, Murray Harkin, said to undercover reporters from the News of the World was published yesterday.

The newspaper's investigative editor, Mazher Mahmood, posed as the assistant to an Arab sheikh. Meetings were arranged through the Countess's public relations company, R-JH on the pretext that the sheikh ­- another journalist in disguise ­- needed someone to promote a new leisure centre in Dubai.

The journalists met Mr Harkin twice, once with the Countess. Both encounters were recorded but the News of the World chose not to publish the transcript last week in return for an exclusive interview with the Countess. Now it argues that the contents "go to the heart of Sophie's position in the Royal Family and her judgement".

The published results differ greatly from those apparently leaked to rival tabloid newspapers last weekend. The Countess does not describe William Hague as deformed, or Cherie Booth as horrid. But the opinions expressed by she and her partner are revealing.

Mr Harkin admits to drug use and offers to provide the sheikh with young male companions. The Countess, a supporter of fox-hunting, describes the Prime Minister as "ignorant of the countryside" and his wife as "even worse, she hates the countryside".

The undercover journalists met Mr Harkin first, at the Park Lane Hilton in London. The transcript shows the three men discussing drugs.

HARKIN: I don't do lots of drugs, but you know, the odd line of coke I quite like, and trying, you know, trying to find it, it's just a nightmare... America, apparently it's dead easy.

Mahmood asks if he has taken ecstasy.

HARKIN: Not for a couple of years. It was really terrible stuff... The problem is with it is the after-effects.

He suggests a dinner party for the sheikh.

HARKIN: I can invite some very interesting people... 'A- list' people that he would like... Discreet nice gentlemen that he would like.

Later:

HARKIN: How young does he like? Does he like Asian boys? And how young? Are we talking about 20, 21, 25, 28? OK, We can do a dinner for him of you know 20, kind of 30-year-olds. That's probably too old for him, but it would be quite stimulating for him because they're kind of, really like all English boys.

Mahmood asks if all the boys at the party would be gay.

HARKIN: Yeah, they're all gay... We could a splash of young people, funky young people in there.

Mahmood brings up rumours about Prince Edward's sexuality.

HARKIN: There have been rumours for years about Edward. I'm a great believer that there is no smoke without fire.

Harkin also advised the reporters on gay sex tourism in the Far East

HARKIN: "I wouldn't go to Bangkok .... No, I would go to Bangkok, I'd go there for one night then move on. Because when you do to Bangkok, the atmosphere's weird. All the boys and all the place is on a make.... But if you want to go for a bit of experience, that's what it's all about. If you go down to Pingpong, or whatever it's called which you have got to go and experience... the bars are absolutely really sleazy.

He recommends the Thai town of Phuket "if you want young boys".

Mahmood asks Harkin whether the Countess and Prince Edward might come to Dubai as part of the sheikh's marketing effort.

HARKIN: It's the kind of thing that, as the relationship grows, we'd get her out to Dubai as quickly as possible and when she sees it for herself she buys into it, you know, it becomes a reality. There's potential for Edward as well.

The suggestion appears to be that the Prince may be able to sell his programmes to Dubai television.

HARKIN: You see, they both can combine business and get a bit of pleasure at the same time, couldn't they?

Mahmood asks whether the Countess would be available to launch the sheikh's leisure complex:

HARKIN: "Yes she'd love this. The only thing she doesn't do in the UK is media relations in the tabloids. The good thing about this is that a lot of the people that you would want to reach are the people that she circulates with anyway, so those kind of people she can bring in."

Mahmood asks if RJ-H would be able to attract celebrities

HARKIN: Yeah. Absolutely. It's the likes of Sean Connery, for instance, who's a friend of Sophie. You see, what she does is she'll do a charity thing... she arranges a night plus a day of shooting up in Scotland with a whole load of celebrity women....

What you could do is identify some key people, the likes of Julia Roberts and say: "Sophie's inviting you to come to Dubai". If the Princess from England invites you, I mean, you know what Americans are like. They love it. Most of our clients do end up having extra mentions in the press or, you know, additional profile.... The chances are you'll get people interested: "Oh Gosh, they've employed the countess of Wessex's PR company."

Soon afterwards, Mr Harkin introduced the journalists to the Countess at the Dorchester Hotel. Also present was her account director, Brett Perkins. On the tape, Mahmood, still posing as the sheikh's assistant, asks if she regards herself as the new Diana.

COUNTESS: When we got engaged, they were very very keen to put me on to the empty pedestal that had been left by Princess Diana. Then they thought "this isn't going to be much good because she's not going to be turning up every day in different outfits, opening children's homes, you know. I do some of that but not as much as they'd like."

Mahmood asks what sorts of animal she shoots.

COUNTESS: We shoot pheasant, grouse, partridge. It supports a whole industry. Of course, there's a practical side to it as well.... Fox-hunting is just vermin control.

That's why we've got problems with our Prime Minister because he doesn't understand the countryside.... He's ignorant of the countryside. His wife is even worse, she hates the countryside. She hates it.

Mahmood notes that Cherie Blair has a low profile. The Countess then comments on Mrs Blair's career as a top barrister.

COUNTESS: She's an intelligent woman and I think she wanted to keep her hand in. Or maybe she didn't think her husband's government was going to last long so she'd have to go back to work anyway.

Mahmood asks who she thinks will win the coming general election.

COUNTESS: It's a shame really because William [Hague] is very intelligent. I think he's got real vision. But he's got this awful kind of way he talks, like that all the time [mimics Hague]. He sounds like a puppet unfortunately.

Talk turns to the Prime Minister.

COUNTESS: When Diana died, Tony Blair came out and he gave this completely impassioned, supposedly off-the-cuff speech. I know it wasn't off-the-cuff at all because I know who wrote it. He almost did the Bill Clinton. We call him President Blair over here because he thinks he is. That's his style.

HARKIN: Without the Monica.

COUNTESS: Well, we don't know yet.

- INDEPENDENT