Diana, the late Princess of Wales, and Prince Charles had a turbulent marriage during which they frequently expressed their anger over their widening divide. One such incident was logged in the late royal’s own words by journalist Andrew Morton in his book Diana: Her True Story . In the extract from the book, the late princess recalled how Charles’s open communication with Camilla made her feel like the ‘third person’ in her marriage. Diana overheard Charles telling Camilla, “Whatever happens, I will always love you,” and it led to an ugly confrontation between the royal couple.
As per The Daily Mail UK , the book details the moment in Diana’s words, “I couldn’t believe how cold everyone was; how I thought one thing but actually another thing was going on. The lies and the deceit! The first thing that hit me was my (future) husband sending Camilla Parker Bowles flowers when she had meningitis: ‘To Gladys from Fred’ (their nicknames for each other).”
“I never dealt with that side of things. I just said to him: ‘You must always be honest with me.’ I was the only one here (when planning the wedding ) because (Charles) had pushed off to Australia and New Zealand on tour, and you may recall, of course, the picture of me sobbing in a red coat when he went off in the aeroplane,” read the excerpt.
Genuinely think it’s mad that ‘The Queen’ now refers to Camilla Parker-Bowles. If you lived through ‘Tampon-Gate’ and the Diana-Bashir era, it feels kind of Bizarro-world.
— DänielNöthing (@DanielNothing) February 14, 2024
She continued, “It had nothing to do with him going. The most awful thing had happened before he went. I was in his study talking to him when the telephone rang. It was Camilla. I thought: ‘Shall I be nice (and leave him alone so he can talk to her in private) or shall I just sit here?’ So I thought I’d be nice, so I left them to it. It just broke my heart, that. We always had discussions about Camilla, though. I once heard him on the telephone in his bath on his hand-held set, saying: ‘Whatever happens, I will always love you.’ I told him afterward that I had listened at the door , and we had a filthy row,” according to Good Housekeeping .
The late Princess went on to detail the moment she found out about their affair: “Somebody in his office told me that my husband had had a bracelet made for her, which she wears to this day. It’s a gold chain bracelet with a blue enamel disc. It’s got ‘G and F’ entwined in it, ‘Gladys’ and ‘Fred.’ I walked into this man’s office one day and said: ‘Oh, what’s in that parcel?’ He said: ‘Oh, you shouldn’t look at that.’ I said: ‘Well, I’m going to look at it.’ I opened it, and there was (the) bracelet, and I said: ‘I know where this is going.’ I was devastated. This was about two weeks before we got married.”
He said: “Well, he’s going to give it to her tonight.” She concluded, “So rage, rage, rage! ‘Why can’t you be honest with me?’ But, no, Charles cut me absolutely dead . It’s as if he had made his decision; and if it wasn’t going to work, it wasn’t going to work.”
This article originally appeared 9 months ago.