Princess Diana: Personal letters auctioned – also about her divorce

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Letters from Diana: Divorce 'ugly and desperate'

Photo: Andrew Parsons / EPA PA / picture alliance

In 1997, the British Princess Diana died in an accident, but her life apparently still moves many people today.

In any case, several dozen very personal letters have now been sold at an auction in Cornwall for large sums.

The 32 letters to her two close friends Susie and Tarek Kassem, who have cherished the letters for more than 25 years, went under the hammer at Lay's Auctioneers in Penzance for a total of £145,550, the BBC reported.

"I'm going through a very difficult time"

Diana had written the letters in the last two years of her life.

In May 1996, for example, she reported on the hardships of her divorce from Prince Charles - now King Charles III.

- and remarked: "If I had known a year ago what I would experience with this divorce, I would never have agreed - it is ugly and desperate." The couple's marriage was dissolved in August 1996 after 15 years.

Around Christmas 1996, Princess Diana wrote about her condition, adding: "I hope 1997 will be an easier year for all of us." She died in a car accident in Paris around eight months later.

This letter also fetched the highest price at the auction at £26,000 - more than four times what was previously expected.

In an earlier letter from April 1996, she apologized for canceling an opera visit.

According to the BBC, it says: "I'm going through a very difficult time and the pressure is serious and comes from all sides." And: "It's sometimes too difficult to keep your head up." At that time she was still in the middle of it Separation from Prince Charles.

A spokesman for the auction house said it was unusual for such personal letters to be auctioned.

"She was someone who was very open and treated her friends very lovingly, as you can see from the letters," he is quoted as saying by the BBC.

The proceeds are to benefit charitable organizations that Diana and her friend supported during their lifetime.

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