Prince Philip's surprising response to Diana and Charles' split

They’re rumoured to have been at loggerheads just before her death in 1997, but recently unearthed letters from Prince Philip to Princess Diana appear to show their relationship wasn’t always so strained.

The letters, which have the official Kensington Palace stamp and are signed off by ‘Pa’, seem to confirm that the Duke of Edinburgh empathised with the Princess when his son Prince Charles’ affair with Camilla was revealed.

Dated July, 1992, one of the letters even alludes to the fact that Charles’ parents, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Queen, couldn’t believe their son would risk his marriage with Diana by cheating with Camilla.

“Charles was silly to risk everything with Camilla for a man in his position,” one of the letters reads.

“We never dreamt he might feel like leaving you for her. I cannot imagine anyone in their right mind leaving you for Camilla. Such a prospect never even entered our heads.”

In another letter, he writes he’s ‘no marriage counsellor’ but he would try to help in healing their marriage as best he could.

However, another reads that he wouldn’t support either of them having separate lovers and asked Diana to think about whether her behaviour in her marriage had anything to do with her husband’s infidelity.

It’s previously been claimed that Prince Philip went ‘ballistic’ and called Princess Diana ‘possessive’ and ‘not a good mother’ when she ignored his advice and aired her marriage woes in public.

Things are said to have soured between the pair when Andrew Morton’s book Diana: Her True Story was serialised in the Sunday Times, and revealed intimate details about the royal family.

Prince Philip is reported to have seen it as a total smack in the face and couldn’t believe that Diana would divulge such personal details in public.

Philip was so enraged that he seemingly asked the Queen to cut back severely on the amount of public engagements Princess Diana was tasked with.

However, Diana again put one foot in front of him by announcing she was going to retire from public life completely.

Then when she did the now infamous Martin Bashir interview, Prince Philip was even more livid.

It’s thought that the Queen however, was still holding out hope to keep their relationship alive and extended an invite for Diana to attend Christmas that year at Buckingham Palace.

But when Diana cancelled at the last minute, Prince Philip is reported to have flown into a fit of rage and went ‘ballistic’.

That’s when the Queen reportedly decided to sign off on Princess Diana’s divorce from Prince Charles.

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