Prince Philip exchanged letters with Princess Diana, wrote 'cannot imagine anyone leaving you for Camilla'
Prince Philip's felt protective toward his daughter-in-law Princess Diana, who was a 19-year-old young and shy girl when he first met her. This has been revealed by Gyles Brandreth in an interview with Daily Mail. He also revealed more about the Duke's tough, yet caring letters to Diana which Brandreth claims sometimes even had the princess crying and laughing.
Prince Philip and the Queen reportedly believed that Princess Diana let the popularity of becoming a royal princess go to her head, allowing people to manipulate her. He explained how he, as the Queen's consort, had decided not to play to the gallery as he felt it was safer to not be too popular. Yet, this is exactly what Princess Diana did, in his opinion. Brandreth recalled speaking to Prince Phillip about the attention he received right after he married Queen Elizabeth and he had recalled, "You won’t remember this, but in the first years of the Queen’s reign, the level of adulation — you wouldn’t believe it! You really wouldn’t," and he also added, "It could have been corroding. It would have been very easy to play to the gallery, but I took a conscious decision not to do that. Safer not to be too popular. You can’t fall too far."
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In 1981, when the press had speculated about Diana possibly becoming a royal bride, the tabloids were running stories about it every day. Prince Philip wrote his then 32-year-old son a letter about how he shouldn't leave Diana hanging in the wind anymore and decide on what he wanted to do. He told his son to either release her or end up ‘pleasing his family and the country’ by proposing to her.
Should someone in Prince Philip's position have written that letter? Earl Mountbatten’s daughter, Patricia, also Prince Charles' godmother commented on the letter then and had said, "I take it you’ve seen the letter? It wasn’t a bullying letter at all. It was very reasonable. It was fair. It was sensible." On the other hand, Prince Charles had reportedly felt ‘ill-used and impotent’ when he read his father's words about marrying Diana, seeing it as an ultimatum.
Brandreth spoke of the time in 1992 when Princess Diana's story was serialized by Times in Andrew Morton's book. It portrayed Diana as a woman who was imprisoned in a loveless marriage. At the time, the source for Morton's stories was revealed to be her friends, but the Palace believed that there was some form of cooperation between Diana and Morton. When Philip had confronted Diana about the same, she had denied any involvement.
In June 1992, Princess Diana and Prince Charles sat down at the Windsor Palace to talk about the way forward with the Queen and Prince Phillip. Diana suggested a trial separation. Both Prince Philip and the Queen believed that the two of them should try to find a middle ground and think not only about themselves as a couple but also about their boys, the crown, and the country. However, the next day when Diana did not show up for a meeting that was scheduled, Prince Philip began to write a series of letters to his daughter-in-law.
The existence of these letters was no secret, but they have been misunderstood by some, according to Brandreth. According to some reports at the time, Philip called her "a trollop" and "a harlot" in these letters — false rumors which left Prince Phillip distinctly unamused. In fact, Philip’s letters to Diana were typical of his calm collected correspondence, overall. They were sympathetic notes, but unsentimental; direct, and always with a purpose. Brandreth said in the interview: "Did he criticize Diana? Well, he certainly upbraided her for failing to come to the second meeting with him and the Queen, when they’d set aside time for the purpose."
Brandreth claimed, "No sensitive issues were dodged: he talked about the canker of jealousy, and the problem of Camilla. Unfortunately, when Diana received Philip’s letters, she was at her most vulnerable and volatile. As soon as one arrived, she opened it, scanned it, usually burst into tears; then she shared it, as soon as possible, with her closest friends."
After Diana's death, Brandreth spoke to some of Diana's close confidants. Rosa Monckton, then managing director of Tiffany’s in London said, "When the letters came they caused excitement and alarm at the same time. Diana was very up and down. Something he said might make her cry, something might make her laugh. She very often got the wrong end of the stick, misinterpreting what he meant."
Lucia Flecha de Lima, wife of the Brazilian ambassador another close friend of Diana said, "We went through each letter so carefully, thinking about what he said, talking about it, explaining it to her. We’d get into the car and all go to the [Brazilian] embassy and sit together and read the letters, line by line." She added, "Then we helped her draft her replies. She took the correspondence very seriously." For more than a year, the exchange of letters continued, and carefully tied together with ribbon, they were stored for safe-keeping in a box in the Brazilian ambassador’s safe.
Lucia also said "They were good letters" and added, "He’s a good man." Rosa also explained, "Actually, he was pretty wonderful," she said. "All he was trying to do was help. And Diana knew that." In one of the letters, Prince Philip wrote, "I cannot imagine anyone in their right mind leaving you for Camilla."