'Desperate and ugly': Intimate letters from Princess Diana detail her divorce from King Charles

No less than 32 letters.

From 1995 until the end of 1996, the “princess of hearts” wrote her friends Susie and Tarek Kassem a string of cards and letters describing her emotional distress at the “ugly and desperate” divorce which pitted her against Prince Charles. from then.

The

revealed on January 31 that all but the most private missives would go up for auction on February 16.

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Supplied by the recipients, these “emotionally raw and frankly stunning” letters are now held by auction house Lay's Auctioneers.

Susie and Tarek Kassem, who had met Diana in August 1995, deemed the responsibility for this inheritance too great and did not wish to pass these documents on to their children and grandchildren.

Words worth more than 100,000 euros

Lay's Auctioneers now has Lady Diana's precious words in its hands, and will sell the letters individually.

In total, their value is estimated at 90,000 pounds sterling (100,909 euros).

A portion of the proceeds will be donated to charities that Susie and Diana were involved in.

A glimpse of Princess Diana's letters to Susie and Tarek Kassam.

Lay's Auctioneers/BNPS

Bugged ?

Diana Spencer explains in particular that she relies on handwriting, fearing that her telephone at Kensington Palace is “constantly” tapped.

And that the recordings of his private conversations be passed on to the royal family.

She wrote on May 20, 1996: "As I don't have a cell phone, it is difficult to discuss personal matters as my lines here are constantly recorded and transmitted."

In the same letter, she confides: “If I had known a year ago what I would live through this divorce, I would never have agreed to it.

It's hopeless and ugly."

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I'm devastated and I want this divorce to end

Lady Diana

A few other extracts have been unveiled by the Cornish-based auction house.

A letter dated April 28, 1996 is evocative of the despair the princess felt at the time.

While she apologizes for canceling an outing with her friends, which would require too much effort, she writes: “I am going through a very difficult period, the pressure is serious and comes from all sides.

It is sometimes too difficult to hold your head up high and today I am devastated and I long for this divorce to end because the possible cost is enormous.

His writing is as moving as it is revealing: as he approaches the final lines, his calligraphy deteriorates, the curves of his letters less graceful, reports the

.

A trio of shock

Another letter denies what public opinion has believed so far: that the Princess of Wales would have been lonely at Kensington Palace for Christmas in 1995. In reality, the Kassems (now in their 70s) had invited her to them while his sons William and Harry spent the festivities with their father in Sandringham.

Obviously touched by the invitation, Lady Di rejoices in a note to take part in this family reunion.

The princess who tragically died a year after the finalization of her divorce, in August 1996, pours out with her friends whom she cherishes.

Referring to the Kassems, she wrote, "I may have been compared to a butterfly but I don't want to fly away and leave this loving family."

With lightness, she continues: "It's nice to be a trio!", While expressing her gratitude for feeling protected by her two friends.

"I have never had so much support or received so much love from a married couple."

Couple, who, in addition to their friendship, did not hesitate to spoil her: flowers, meditation books and jasmine oil are among the gifts they gave her.

Buried for almost thirty years, Princess Diana's epistolary treasure is about to come back to life and

In video, an excerpt from the docu-fiction

Diana Confidential

(2022)