‘Intimate’ handwritten letters and cards from Princess Diana to her family’s former housekeeper will soon be sold at auction.
The letters and postcards, some dated to the early 1980s, show just how different the royal family is today – especially the relationship between Prince Harry and Prince William.
In one on September 25, 1984, the Princess of Wales thanked her housekeeper, Violet Collision, for a gift she bought Harry.
‘William adores his little brother & spends the entire time pouring an endless supply of hugs & kisses over Harry,’ the letter reads.
Her two sons are, at least publically, now anything but close. Today, the princes live distant lives – literally, on different sides of the Atlantic.
For years, the heirs have been rumoured to be in a deep feud since Harry left for the US with his wife, Meghan Markle, citing racial abuse from the British media.
Royal watchers said their tense relationship was plain to see during Harry’s 24-hour UK visit after Buckingham Palace revealed his father, King Charles had cancer in February.
Harry didn’t meet his brother at all during the trip – publicly, at least. Neither sat next to one another during Charles’ coronation.
Nor did a family reunion take place when William and Kate Middleton were stateside last November, with some describing the couple as clashing for attention after Harry and Meghan released their explosive documentary at the same time.
In the Netflix documentary, Harry & Meghan, Harry suggested that William’s press team planted negative stories about Meghan.
‘The saddest part of it, ‘Harry said, ‘was this wedge created between myself and my brother so that he’s now on the institution side.’
Diana’s letter to her head housekeeper, who Diana affectionately called Collie, seems world’s away from today.
The correspondence, being auctioned by Sworders in Stansted Mountfitchet in Essex, also includes a double-sided letter dated July 8, 1981.
Written on Buckingham Palace notepaper three weeks before the royal wedding, Diana said: ‘Everyone frantically busy here doing last minute decorations… the bride to be has remained quite calm!’
Collie, who followed Diana till her retirement in 1973, died in 2013 aged 89.
The collection of a dozen letters and postcards will be sold on July 30, expected to go under the hammer for thousands of pounds.
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