When Diana Described Her Honeymoon as 'Tremendous Success' and a 'Glorious Time' to Her Housekeeper

Princess Diana and Prince Charles wed on July 29, 1981, at St Paul's Cathedral. The couple then boarded the Royal Yacht Britannia for a two-week honeymoon cruise. Diana later described her honeymoon as a 'tremendous success' in one of her private letters to a former Spener family housekeeper, Maud Pendrey. She penned that she had a 'glorious time' with Charles, as per InStyle.

“I do hope you weren’t too tired after all the wedding activities, and that you were able to see a lot from where your seats were,” she wrote. “The honeymoon was a tremendous success, and we had a glorious time catching up on our lost energy and sleep. I just wanted you both to know how deeply touched I am by your thoughtfulness and, again, a million thanks. Endless love and affection—Diana.” 

However, the royal honeymoon wasn't exactly a rosy picture as painted by the late Princess of Wales. She once revealed in a Channel 4 documentary, Diana in Her Own Words, that a gift from Camilla Parker-Bowles soured their post-wedding celebrations. "On our honeymoon, cufflinks arrive on his wrists," Diana shared. "Two Cs entwined like the Chanel 'C.'"

She added, "So, I said, 'Camilla gave you those, didn't she?' He said, 'Yes, so what's wrong? They're a present from a friend.' And boy, did we have a row. Jealousy, total jealousy. And it was such a good idea—the two Cs—but it wasn't that clever." According to the Daily Mail, in her book The Duchess, author Penny Junor also mentioned how the ex-royal couple got into disagreements during their honeymoon. Diana allegedly had expected to talk, but the future King spent the entire time swimming, reading, sketching, and writing thank-you notes.

"He'd taken along his watercolors, some canvases, and a pile of books by the Afrikaner mystic and writer Laurens van der Post, which he'd hoped he and Diana might share and then discuss in the evenings," Junor wrote. "Diana, however, was no great reader. She hated his wretched books and was offended that he might prefer to bury his head in one of them rather than sit and talk to her." Jurir further claimed, "She resented him sitting for hours at his easel, too, and they had many blazing rows. One day, when Charles was painting on the veranda deck of Britannia, he went off to look at something for half an hour. He came back to find she'd destroyed his painting and all his materials." 

Nine correspondences penned by Princess Diana during the initial years of her union with Prince Charles were put up for auction, for a total of £20,000. The auction house wrote on its website, "The collection of letters, encompassing thank-you notes, holiday greetings, and other correspondence, provides a rare look at Diana's life beyond the carefully crafted public image. In her own elegant script, Diana's warmth and genuine connection with others shine through. These letters reveal a woman who, despite her royal status, remained grounded and appreciative of the people in her life, from her staff to her close confidants."