Prince Charles’ Dignity at Stake : Nude Posing in ‘70s Reported, Charity Ball Leader Resigns

PALM BEACH, Fla. —  A billionaire’s wife who posed nude for a men’s magazine has resigned as co-chair of a charity ball honoring Prince Charles and Princess Diana, the head of the organizing committee said.

The Nov. 12 ball to benefit the United World Colleges, one of Prince Charles’ favorite charities, was to have been co-chaired by Patricia Kluge, 36, wife of billionaire John Kluge, 71. Kluge recently sold Metromedia broadcasting to Rupert Murdoch for $2 billion.

When British newspapers revealed last week that Patricia Kluge had posed nude for Knave magazine in the 1970s, she decided to resign, said Mary Sanford, who heads the Palm Beach organizing committee.

“I was told that she was asked to resign,” Sanford said. “Why they asked her to be co-chairman I don’t know. I was horrified.”

Sanford, one of this ritzy island town’s best-known social figures, said Kluge had decided to resign before the revelations were made public.

“She must have known it was going to come out,” Sanford said. “It certainly is embarrassing for the crown prince of England.”

The Kluges are longtime friends of Armand Hammer, head of Occidental Petroleum. Frank Ashley, a spokesman for Occidental, denied that Kluge had been asked to resign but said she has given up her position with the committee.