Princess Diana Praised Her Bodyguard In A Letter Weeks Before Her Death

Princess Diana’s charming letter she sent to her bodyguard just weeks before her death will go up for auction at Gilding Auction House later this month, revealing yet another heartwarming moment for the late royal, according to The Sun.

Princess Diana wrote the letter to bodyguard Graham Cook after a vacation in St. Tropez in 1997, apologizing for what she believed made his “job enormously difficult,” the tabloid wrote. The letter was dated July 23, 1997, The Sun noted, five weeks before she died in a horrific car crash in Paris.

“Dear Graham, William, Harry and I very much wanted to write and thank you for taking such good care of us during our stay in Saint Tropez,” the letter stated. “We realise that our presence, along with that of the media, made our job enormously difficult, and for that we apologise.”

“However we all had a magical ten days, which would not have been possible without your invaluable contribution and for that we send our warmest possible thanks,” the letter continued.

The digital magazine Her stated that the letter was signed by Princess Diana along with Prince William and Harry, who would have been ages 15 and 13. She wrote the vacation would be the time Diana would get away with her children.

On Aug. 31, 1997, Princess Diana, boyfriend Dodi Fayed, and driver Henri Paul died in a vehicle accident about a mile away from the Eiffel Tower in a traffic tunnel, according to CNN. Roughly 2.5 billion people watched her funeral services at Westminster Abbey on Sept. 6, the broadcaster stated.

“This personal correspondence from Diana, Princess of Wales, and her sons to one of her bodyguards during the summer of 1997 is from a highly important time of the late Princess’s life,” Mark Gilding, director of Gildings Auctioneers, said in a message on its website.

“The media spotlight that she found herself under had intensified so greatly throughout her life, it ultimately contributed to her untimely death not much more than a month after this letter was written,” the note stated.

Gilden wrote that the letter revealed the “sense of burden” Princess Diana felt never being out of the media spotlight and how that affected the people around her and who worked for her.

“(The letter) concludes with her warmest wishes and a touch of her infamous empathy she shared with those she met, reminding us all that at the very heart she was a loving and caring person and before all else mother,” Gilding wrote.

The auction house expects the letter to sell for £1,000 to £2,000, equivalent to $1,315 to $2,630.