Avril Lavigne snubs Prince Charles

United Kingdom | | 12 July 2004

The shy adolescent singer reportedly legged it from Party In The Park on Sunday, escaping a cosy chat with Prince Charles - who was then forced to sit next to Will Young instead. Poor Charlie!

Party In The Park organisers were sent into a frenzy after Avril Lavigne left the event straight after her set. The pretty popster was meant to be sitting next to Prince Charles as he sat down to watch the finale of the show.

Will Young was then quickly grabbed to fill the vacant seat next to the Prince, who traditionally watches the closing part of the show, the proceeds of which go to the Princes Trust.

The official line on Avril's sudden departure is that she had a plane to catch, but an insider revealed that the singer made a quick getaway because she didn't want to be part of a publicity stunt.

The source told The Sun newspaper: "The official line is that Avril had a plane to catch. But the truth is she is cripplingly shy and hates publicity stunts."

Avril provided one of the best sets of the day, rocking tens of thousands of teenie-boppers with hits such as 'Skater Boy'.

Lenny Kravitz gave the like of Busted and McFly a lesson in how it should be done, and Beverly Knight and Natasha Bedingfield also pulled off credible sets.