Editing Nicholas Soames (section)

==Early career==
In 1970, he was appointed [[equerry]] to [[Charles, Prince of Wales]] (now Charles III); he has remained a close friend of the King ever since,<ref>{{cite web |title=Among friends: Inside the new King and Queen Consort's inner circle |url=https://www.tatler.com/gallery/king-charles-iii-camilla-queen-consort-best-friends-inner-circle |website=Tatler |date=15 September 2022 |access-date=15 October 2022}}</ref> and publicly criticised [[Diana, Princess of Wales]], during the couple's estrangement. When Diana first accused the Prince of Wales of [[adultery]] with [[Camilla Parker Bowles]], Soames told the [[BBC]] that the accusation, and Diana's fear of being slandered by her husband's courtiers, stemmed merely from Diana's mental illness, and "the advanced stages of [[paranoia]]".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rqbcZOgGHjoC |title=The Windsor knot |author=Christopher Wilson |access-date=17 January 2012 |isbn=9780806523866 |year=2003|publisher=Citadel Press }}</ref> Charles later admitted his adultery and Soames apologised.

In 1972, he left Kensington Palace and the army to work as a [[stockbroker]]. In 1974, he became a personal assistant; first to [[Sir James Goldsmith]] and then in 1976 to [[United States Senate|United States Senator]] [[Mark Hatfield]], whose employ he left in 1978 to become a [[board of directors|director]] of Bland Welch, [[Lloyd's]] Brokers. Between 1979 and 1981, he was an assistant director of the Sedgwick Group.{{citation needed|date=May 2010}} He fought [[Central Dunbartonshire]] in Scotland in [[1979 United Kingdom general election|1979]], where [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]]'s [[Hugh McCartney]] defeated him by 12,003 votes.