More insight into the late Princess Diana’s tumultuous marriage to King Charles has been revealed.
Secret letters from the Princess of Wales sent to her friends detailing her “ugly” divorce from King Charles reveal just how painful the split was.
Thirty-two letters penned to her pals Susie and Tarek Kassem are now up for auction, according to the Mirror. The money will be given to various charities that Diana, who died in 1997, had supported during her lifetime.
The Kassems are putting the memos, estimated to sell for about $111,000, under the hammer on Feb. 16 with Cornwall-based Lay’s Auctioneers.
One of the notes that will be sold is dated April 28, 1996, and described Diana’s feelings during her rocky relationship with Charles, 74.
“I am having a very difficult time and pressure is serious and coming from all sides,” she wrote. “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.”
Diana had announced just two months prior that she had agreed to then-Prince Charles’ divorce request. Their split was finalized in August 1996.
Elsewhere in her letters, she also claimed that her phone was being bugged, a theory featured in a Season 5 episode of Netflix’s “The Crown” in which Diana, portrayed by Elizabeth Debicki, believes the royal family is trying to harm her and worried about others listening in on her phone calls.
On May 20, 1996, Diana scribed to Susie: “As I don’t have a mobile it is difficult to discuss personal issues as my lines here are constantly recorded and passed on.”
“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,” the note continued.
In a message written on Dec. 19, 1995 — the day after Queen Elizabeth told Charles and Diana to divorce — Diana reflected on how much she enjoyed being in the company of the Kassems: “I may have been described as a butterfly but I don’t want to fly away from this loving family.”
“I’m immensely touched by how protective you both are of me,” Diana added. “I’m not used to that. [I] never had such love and support from a married team before.”
“Susie & Tarek feel extremely privileged that they had the opportunity to get to know the Princess so closely,” the auction house said. “The ownership of these poignant documents is a responsibility that the Kassems do not wish to pass on to their children or grandchildren. The Kassems would like to give other people the opportunity of acquiring ‘a memento’ of the Princess, and in doing so, support causes that were important to her.”
Lay’s Auctioneers’ Mimi Connell-Lay told The Mirror that many of the letters “are emotionally raw and frankly astonishing.”
“This is a really interesting collection of letters from Princess Diana,” she said. “She wrote a lot about what was going on in her life at the time, especially her divorce, and repeatedly referred to not having the support from the Royal family.”
Connell-Lay noted that she confided in Kassem during the worst period of her life.
“Susie met Diana at the Royal Brompton Hospital and it is obvious that they clicked straight away, Diana says as much in one of her letters,” she noted. “They had a very strong connection and what is clear is how much Diana valued their friendship and support and advice at a time of great emotional turmoil for her.”