Letter from King Charles to grieving friend describes ‘unbearable emptiness’ after Princess Diana’s death
It’s been 27 years since the death of Princess Diana, but a newly revealed letter from King Charles III just four months after her passing feels just as raw as the day she left.
The monarch wrote of the grief and “unbearable emptiness” he felt in the wake of Diana’s death. In the 1997 letter, the King commiserated with a friend, Peter, about the passing of “dear Liz” to illness and that his heart “bleeds” for his friend’s loss.
Charles furthermore empathized with Peter’s “agony,” confessing that he “longed to wave a magic wand to transform the situation” and be rid of the “bewilderment and confusion that accompanies the removal of someone so young from the world.”
Leaning into his Christian faith, the King quotes the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13:12, writing, “Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face.”
The true identities of Peter and Liz are as yet unclear to royal experts, per Daily Mail.
The three-page note was handwritten on Highgrove House letterhead, dated December 8, 1997 and signed “Charles” — then stuffed into an envelope and delivered “by hand” to the recipient, per the then-Prince’s instructions.
RR Auction recently presented the letter in Boston at a starting bid of $2,000 (£1,500). Bidding ends on August 14.
“This lengthy handwritten letter to ‘Peter’ expresses his sympathy upon the death of a loved one.”
“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,” an RR Auction spokesperson told Daily Mail.
Diana was killed in a traffic accident in Paris on August 31, 1997. She was 36 years old.
In full, the letter read:
“I have been thinking so much of you yesterday and today, knowing how deeply you will be affected by yesterday’s tragic news about dear Liz.”
“My heart bleeds for you as I can imagine so well the utter agony and despair you must have gone through during all these heart-rendering months that you have known about Liz’s illness.”
“All of us who know you-and are so fond you both-have felt the agony in a far lesser way of course, but have longed to wave a magic wand to transform the situation.”
“I often think that that is the worst part of all-being unable to help in any constructive way except to say constant prayers in the background & to try and surround you both with love & affection & concern.”
“I can so well imagine the unbearable emptiness you must feel at this time; the sense of bewilderment & confusion that accompanies the removal of someone still so young from this world.”
“Personally, I believe that there is another dimension beyond this physical one & that we will be amazed to discover it for ourselves when we are eventually-or at a moment-called upon to make that certain journey for ourselves.”
“As it says in the Bible — ‘Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face’.”
“I can’t tell you how pleased & happy I am to have known Liz. She was such a great life-enhancer.”
“We shall all have such special memories of her but, above all, Peter, we mind about you & you are so very much in my thoughts and prayers at this most anguishing of times.”
“I thought you might just find a very small speck of comfort from this short piece of profoundly wise verse by William Blake and, together with this, I enclose a few ‘Highgrove things’ as a token of immense, affectionate sympathy.”
