Prince called marriage split ‘Greek tragedy’
THE Prince of Wales described the breakdown of his marriage to Diana as a “kind of Greek tragedy”, it has been disclosed, in a cache of letters to his confidante Nancy Reagan.
He also refers to the relationship with his first wife, saying “it all keeps getting worse and worse”.
The letter, dated June 21, 1992, is part of a collection of correspondence between the Prince and the former US First Lady, which has been donated to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
It was part of Mrs Reagan’s dying wish that her papers are left to public record.
He told her about the marriage break-up. “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!”
The Mail on Sunday, which printed extracts, describes how the Prince struck up a friendship with the Reagans in 1974, when he was serving in the Royal Navy and spent a weekend at the home of Walter Annenberg, the then US ambassador to Britain, in Palm Springs. Mr Reagan was the then Governor of California.
The Prince was reportedly so charmed by Mrs Reagan he told a friend he would have liked to kiss her to thank her for her welcome.
He continued to write to her until her death in 2016, using headed note paper and his distinctive black ink.
In 1991, when a book about Mrs Reagan was published including salacious gossip about affairs and plastic surgery, he consoled her: “We live in an increasingly uncivilised world.”
The Prince referred to the death of the Queen Mother, saying: “I have dreaded her eventual departure and now she leaves an enormous chasm in my life.”
He also complained about “yet another” dinner to raise funds, calling them “the bane of my life”.