Charles: Split from Diana was like a Greek tragedy
How Prince revealed pain of divorce in letter to Nancy Reagan
PRINCE Charles has long been known for his stiff upper lip.
But now his softer side has been revealed as a collection of letters he wrote to former US first lady Nancy Reagan over more than three decades has come to light.
The Prince of Wales wrote of his torment as his marriage to Princess Diana broke down in a ‘Greek tragedy’, and of the ‘enormous chasm’ left in his life by the death of the Queen Mother.
The letters, released by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation Library, show how, in private, the Prince tried to get emotional support. Their release comes as Prince William and Prince Harry have both recently opened up for the first time about how their mother’s death 20 years ago affected them.
Prince Charles spoke candidly about his marriage, telling Mrs Reagan ‘it is so awful… very few people would believe it’.
He made the comment in a letter replying to one Mrs Reagan sent him offering support after the publication of Andrew Morton’s book Diana: Her True Story, to which the princess contributed. The Prince wrote: ‘ No one can really understand what it all means until it happens to you, which is why it all keeps getting worse and worse.
‘One day I will tell you the whole story. It is a kind of Greek tragedy and would certainly make a very good play!’ In the letter, dated June 21, 1992, he added: ‘I can’t tell you how much your heartwarming letter meant to me.’
Among the most poignant notes is one from June 7, 2002, about his heartbreak at losing his ‘beloved grandmother’ the Queen Mother on March 30. He said: ‘I fear it has not been very easy to cope of late. I have dreaded her eventual departure… She leaves an enormous chasm in my life.
‘However, she also leaves behind the most wonderful legacy of unbelievably happy memories… Oh, how we shall all miss her and everything she stood for.’
Happier occasions were recorded in the letters, including a visit to the White House in 1985. The Prince wrote proudly about the ‘relaxed visit’, saying: ‘Diana still hasn’t got over dancing with John Travolta, Neil Diamond and Clint Eastwood in one evening not to mention the President of the United States as well!’
The trials of living life in the public eye were regularly discussed by the pair, including the tactics of intrusive radio hosts and unau- thorised biographers. In one 1991 letter he blasted an ‘appalling’ book that presented Mrs Reagan as a ruthless gold-digger, adding: ‘I know exactly the methods these dreadful people employ to create the maximum amount of controversy by making the wildest allegations so as to make the maximum amount of money.’
The Prince of Wales met Mrs Reagan in 1974 when he was serving in the Royal Navy. Their friendship deepened when he visited Washington in 1981 after her husband Ronald became President.
The Prince sat next to her at a White House function and in a note afterwards he said: ‘I am a devoted admirer for life!’ The Prince was so besotted that he ‘wanted to kiss her – to thank her’, according to the British ambassador’s wife Lady Henderson.
The pair’s friendship was only cut short by Mrs Reagan’s death at the age of 94 last year.
After that the letters – written in the prince’s trademark black ink on crested notepaper from various homes including Highgrove, Sandringham and the UK Embassy in Washington – were handed to the library in Simi Valley, California.