Charles’s fears about divorce before he married Diana
A HANDWRITTEN letter sent by the Prince of Wales to a former flame in the months before he married Lady Diana Spencer shows how worried he was about the prospect of divorce.
The note, written to Janet Jenkins, a receptionist at the British consulate in Montreal, describes his “enormous concern” about having children and then separating from his wife. It is one of six letters that has been put up for sale in the United States.
In June 1980, 11 months before his wedding, he wrote that he hoped Miss Jenkins had recovered from her own “traumatic” experience of getting married and divorced.
“Thank goodness you discovered the mistake early enough and didn’t start a family,” he added. “Starting a family and making a mistake like that is, frankly, something which concerns me enormously.”
He added: “I shall just have to get married as soon as possible and then all these people might relax a little! I still think my solution of marrying a girl from each Commonwealth country is the best one.”
The other five letters were written in 1976 when the Prince was a 26-year-old Royal Navy officer on HMS Bronington and Miss Jenkins was 30.
In one, he proposed a tryst far from the prying lenses of the media.
He wrote: “I would have thought your apartment is the quietest place. If we went out the press would be on to it in a flash and that would be misery.”
The Prince met Welsh-born Miss Jenkins in 1975, during a visit to Montreal while in the Navy.
The love letters were first put up for sale in 2005 but subsequently withdrawn for fear of upsetting the Prince.
In 2009, they were listed again by Alicia Carroll, a Los Angeles collector, with an asking price of $30,000 (£20,744). Although the letters did find a buyer, the sale fell through.
The most recent of the letters has now been put up for sale again for $3,900 (£2,500).