A letter Prince Charles wrote to a friend months after Princess Diana’s death has sold at auction for just over $2,000. In the note, the Prince—now King Charles III—told his friend Peter Loughton about his “unbearable emptiness” and that he wished he had a “magic wand to transform the situation.”
Charles also wrote about his Christian faith and how it helped him face the “bewilderment and confusion” that accompanies the death of someone so young. The three-page letter was dated December 8, 1997, roughly 14 weeks after the late Princess of Wales died in a car accident in Paris.
Charles and Diana’s 15-year marriage began with a lavish London wedding in 1981. They shared two sons, Prince William – the heir to the throne – and his younger brother, Prince Harry. By 1986, both parties were reportedly having extramarital affairs, and Charles later confessed that he covertly restarted a prior relationship with a family friend, Camilla Parker Bowles. Charles would marry Camilla in 2005, and they remain together today.
In 1992, then-Prime Minister John Major announced in Parliament that the Prince and Princess of Wales were to separate, saying the decision had been reached amicably. Four years later, the couple’s divorce was finalized.
When the popular Princess died a year after that, rumors spread that the Royal family had staged the accident to prevent Diana from marrying the son of a UK retail mogul, Mohammed Al Fayed. The billionaire was convinced that his son had been murdered and demanded an official inquiry, which was granted, but found no evidence of a conspiracy. Mr. Al Fayed said he would leave it to God to get justice for his son.
Investigations into Diana’s death found that her vehicle crashed while traveling at speed and attempting to escape pursuing paparazzi. Her boyfriend, Dodi Al Fayed, and driver, Henri Paul, died instantly, and paramedics rushed the Princess to the hospital with severe chest injuries. She died hours later.
Less than a year earlier, Princess Diana reportedly wrote a letter to her butler telling him that the Royal family planned to murder her, and they would disguise the killing as a fatal car crash.
