Princess Diana didn't want to divorce Prince Charles and believed they could 'continue as separated partners'
A royal expert has revealed that the late Princess Diana would have liked to stay married to Prince Charles and not get a divorce. According to former BBC News Royal Correspondent Jennie Bond, Princess Diana had confided in her after her closest confidante, Patrick Jephson, resigned from his role as her private secretary in 1995, following her shocking interview with Martin Bashir, Daily Mail reports. In a new Channel 5 documentary titled 'Princess Diana, In Her Own Words', Bond claimed that the late Princess of Wales would have chosen to stay married to Prince Charles and work on royal duties together as separated partners. She also reportedly believed that they made a strong team. Bond shared, "Diana was pretty unsettled with the divorce, she didn't want the divorce, she told me, 'It's not something I want'."
"I think she felt somehow they could continue as separated but partners and parents to the two boys, and she really did try to make it work and she wanted to make it work. She found the day of the divorce extremely hard. She did go out, she was seen in public, but she was hurting badly. She told me that it was an extremely difficult day, but she went home and burst into tears," Bond revealed. Princess Diana and Prince Charles were married between the years 1981 and 1996 and had two sons together: Prince William and Prince Harry.
She added that Diana would share a lot of personal things with her but those were all off the record. "Diana and I met at the palace a few times. I wrote to her actually. I said, "I don't know what to believe when I read all this stuff in the paper, I don't know whether it's true or not, can't we just meet as two women over a cup of coffee, as two mums?" "She was very happy to talk about extremely personal matters, but it was in confidence infuriatingly, she would always say 'Jennie, this is just between me, you and these four walls'," Bond continued. Back in 1997, Diana had spoken to the New Yorker and said that she hoped her marriage would last. She had said, "We would have been the best team in the world. I could shake hands until the cows come home and Charles could make serious speeches but it was not to be."
The new documentary also features Diana's former press secretary Jephson who speaks about why he decided to resign after her bombshell interview with Bashir. "She realized she had gone too far and it had done her no good. It was poignant, it was painful and to me, there was a great sense of loss, inevitably after Panorama there was no way back," he said. "My objection was not the fact she'd done it, but it was her message, the poor little me message, was the wrong one. I felt it was an opportunity to demonstrate her strength and what a big heated person she was. I felt I had to resign," he continued. According to a former royal protection officer, Ken Wharfe, "People often questioned her intelligence. She was incredibly streetwise but she'd be the first to admit she wasn't the brightest person on earth."