Princess Diana's letters reveal misery over Prince Charles divorce

Archive of Princess Diana’s personal letters reveals her misery over ‘desperate and ugly’ divorce from Prince Charles – as they go under the hammer for an estimated £90,000 with proceeds going to charity

• Diana sought support from friends during her public split from Prince Charles
• The 32 revealing letters are up for auction and are expected to sell for £90,000

Private letters from Princess Diana reveal she wouldn’t have agreed to separate if she knew it was going to be so ‘desperate and ugly’.

The series of honest letters and cards that talk about her regret around her divorce from Prince Charles and throw jabs at the Royal family are set to fetch £90,000 at auction.

The Princess of Wales wrote about topics such as being isolated and about fears her phone was being bugged.

There are 32 letters and cards up for sale, the collection was written between 1995 and 1996 to her friends Susie and Tarek Kassem.

Letters from the Princess of Wales featuring such topics as being isolated by the Royal Family and fears her phone was being bugged are going on auction

The private letters from Princess Diana reveal she wouldn’t have agreed to separate if she knew it was going to be so ‘desperate and ugly’

In one revealing letter from April 28, 1996, Diana cancelled a trip to the opera due to the strain of her separation

READ MORE: Princess Diana letter calling the Queen ‘the boss’ part of collection that sold for £8,700

The couple are selling the letters because ‘owning the documents is a great responsibility’ that they did not wish to pass on to their children.

The Kassems have kept some of their more personal and confidential letters.

The letters will be sold individually and the proceeds will be donated to charities Diana supported. 

In one revealing letter from April 28, 1996, Diana cancelled a trip to the opera due to the strain of her separation.

She wrote: ‘I am having a very difficult time and pressure is serious and coming from all sides.

‘It’s too difficult sometimes to keep one’s head up and today I am on my knees and just longing for this divorce to go through as the possible cost is tremendous.’

Her handwriting, normally open and flowing, deteriorates towards the end of the letter, apparently from where she was struggling as she wrote. 

Prince Charles and Princess Diana on their last official trip together – a visit to South Korea in 1992

In some letters Princess Diana took veiled digs at the Royal Family for isolating her and told of how her phone at Kensington Palace had been bugged

On May 20, 1996, she told Mrs Kassem the phones at Kensington Palace were bugged.

She wrote: ‘If I’d known a year ago what I’d experience going through this divorce I never would have consented. It’s desperate and ugly’

 In all, there are 32 letters and cards Diana wrote in late 1995 and throughout 1996 that are now being sold by the couple.

In many of them she gushingly thanks the couple – who she met for the first time in August 1995 during her regular visits to the Royal Brompton Hospital – for showering her with gifts and emotional support.

On December 2, 1995 – the day after the Queen advised Charles and Diana to divorce, she wrote: ‘I may have been described as a butterfly but I don’t want to fly away from this lovely family.’ She was referring to the Kassem family.

She repeatedly thanked them for being there for her and for ‘listening to all my chat’. She wrote ‘nice to be a threesome!’.

In another swipe at the Royal family she wrote: ‘I’m immensely touched by how protective you both are of me*.. I’m not used to that!’

The Kassems, who live in London, are selling the letters at Lay’s auctioneers of Penzance.

The sale takes place on February 16.

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