Princess Diana Wished For Prince Charles To ‘Go Away With His Woman And Never Come Back’
In a series of previously unseen video tapes, Princess Diana described her wedding to Prince Charles as the “worst day of my life” and that she wished he would simply run away with his “woman” for her to be spared from despair.
The tapes show the late Princess of Wales talking to her friend Peter Settelen. They were recorded between 1992 and 1993 at Kensington Palace. As Princess Diana’s voice coach, Settelen filmed her to improve her public speaking. The tapes were found when the authorities raided former royal butler Paul Burrell’s house in 2001. They were then returned to Settelen.
As per the Telegraph, the mother-of-two revealed that she only saw Prince Charles 13 times before they tied the knot. She noticed a pattern in the prince’s calls – he would call her each day for a week and would go silent for the next three weeks. Princess Diana believed that it was because of his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles. He later married her in a civil ceremony in 2005.
“If I could write my own script I would have my husband go away with his woman and never come back,” Princess Diana said in the tapes.
Channel 4 will include the tapes in a documentary entitled Diana: In Her Own Words. Freelance director Kevin Sim was tasked to create the documentary which was originally slated for a 2007 release via BBC. However, the network ultimately scrapped the idea fearing that it would be too controversial.
In the biography “Diana: Her Story,” author Andrew Morton further shed light on Princess Diana’s marital sorrows. The book’s references were the secretly recorded talks between the People’s Princess and her close pal, James Colthurst.
“Here is Prince Charles telling Diana that he’s going to give a bracelet to his old lover just before the wedding. Just a few days before the wedding. And then keeps pictures of Camilla in his diary on their honeymoon. What woman is not going to be incensed by this crass and insensitive behavior? Diana was very suspicious of Charles’ relationship with Camilla right from the get-go. And who could blame her? He left her behind, but the fact that he’s been [currently] married for 12 years to Camilla shows that he still had plenty of love in his heart for his former mistress.”
Morton is likewise uncertain if Prince Charles truly loved his late wife. When Prince Charles asked for her hand in marriage, Princess Diana agreed and told him “I love you so much,” but he reportedly responded with, “Whatever love means.” As per Morton, Princess Diana felt that she was a “sacrificial lamb” whose mere purpose was to produce “an heir and a spare.”
A previous report by the Daily Mail revealed that Prince Charles only proposed to her because his father, Prince Philip, sent him a letter to do so. The latter was allegedly displeased because he felt that the indecisiveness of Prince Charles was ruining Diana Spencer’s reputation. While he was already attracted to Camilla, he couldn’t marry her because “conventions of the time called for an heir to the British throne to marry a woman who at least appeared to be virginal.”
Nonetheless, despite Charles and Diana’s ill-fated marriage, she found a genuine sense of happiness in her two sons – William and Harry.
The biographer said that Princess Diana treated the two as her friends and their presence made her “enjoy life a lot more.” She made it her mission to become a hands-on mother and when people would criticize the two, the compassionate princess would turn into a “tigress.” Interestingly, Prince William often talked about his desire to give George and Charlotte the same normal childhood.
Prince William and Prince Harry lost their mother at the young ages of 15 and 12 after she died in a car accident in August 1997. Several networks will air documentaries to mark the 20th anniversary of her death.
[Featured Image by Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images]
