In Newly Unearthed Letter, King Charles Describes an “Unbearable Emptiness” in the Wake of Princess Diana’s Death
The royal discussed the “bewilderment and confusion” that follows the death of “someone so young."
![Prince Charles and Princess Diana](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/D8ULd5ZNNxsmziDQRDsTsT-415-80.jpg)
A newly discovered letter written by then-Prince Charles in the wake of Princess Diana's death is uncovering how the royal truly felt shortly after his children's mom's passing.
According to The Daily Mail, now-King Charles wrote a letter to Peter Houghton in 1997, describing what he called an "unbearable emptiness" following the former Princess of Wales' untimely death.
The letter, which recently sold at auction for $2,000, described King Charles' “bewilderment and confusion that accompanies the removal of someone so young from the world."
Princess Diana died on August 31, 1997 after a horrific car crash in Paris, France. The young mother of two was just 36 years old at the time of her passing.
At the time the letter was written, Houghton was also enduring an unbearable loss, to which then-Prince Charles referred to in the letter and seemed to better understand in the wake of Princess Diana's death.
Prince Charles and Princess Diana in 1983.
King Charles wrote that his heart "bleeds" for his friend, who lost "dear Liz" to an unspecified illness. The royal added that he can now imagine the "agony" his friend was feeling, and as a result "longed to wave a magic wand to transform the situation."
The monarch went on to describe his Christian faith and how it has informed what he believes happens to someone after they pass away. He went so far as to quote a passage from the Bible, stating that "now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face."
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"This lengthly handwritten letter to 'Peter' expresses his sympathy upon the death of a loved one," a spokesperson for RR Auction told The Daily Mail. "Charles was likely particularly emotional at the time he wrote the letter, as Princess Diana had tragically passed away just a few months before in August 1997."
Three three-page handwritten letter was dated December 8, 1997, with instructions for it to be delivered by hand.
Prince Charles and Princess Diana.
In the 2020 documentary The Queen and Prince Charles: Mother and Son, royal commentator Lady Julie Montagu said that Princess Diana's death changed the monarch's role within the royal family.
"He really stepped up in that parenting role when he needed to," Montagu said at the time. "We can see that in the hugging, the laughing, the cuddling that she did. After her death, it changes completely."
Prince Harry—who was just 12 at the time of his mother's passing—said in the documentary, Diana, 7 Days, that "one of the hardest things for a parent to have to do is to tell your children that your other parent has died."
"How do you deal with that, I don't know," he continued at the time. "(Our dad) was there for us—he was the one out of two left, and he tried to do his best and to make sure that we were protected and looked after. But he was going through the same grieving process as well."
Danielle Campoamor is Marie Claire's weekend editor covering all things news, celebrity, politics, culture, live events, and more. In addition, she is an award-winning freelance writer and former NBC journalist with over a decade of digital media experience covering mental health, reproductive justice, abortion access, maternal mortality, gun violence, climate change, politics, celebrity news, culture, online trends, wellness, gender-based violence and other feminist issues. You can find her work in The New York Times, Washington Post, TIME, New York Magazine, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, TODAY, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, InStyle, Playboy, Teen Vogue, Glamour, The Daily Beast, Mother Jones, Prism, Newsweek, Slate, HuffPost and more. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and their two feral sons. When she is not writing, editing or doom scrolling she enjoys reading, cooking, debating current events and politics, traveling to Seattle to see her dear friends and losing Pokémon battles against her ruthless offspring. You can find her on X, Instagram, Threads, Facebook and all the places.
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