PRINCESS Diana is said to have opened up about Charles’ affair years before her bombshell Panorama interview, leaving Jennie Bond “gobsmacked.”
The former BBC Royal Correspondent revealed that she was invited to the palace to meet the late Princess of Wales, who candidly revealed intimate details about her marriage.
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Princess Diana shared revealing details about Charles’ affair to Jennie Bond, months before her bombshell Panorama interviewCredit: Getty
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Former BBC Royal Correspondent Jennie says she was ‘gobsmacked’ at what Diana told her, but she kept her secretsCredit: Getty
Speaking on The Sun’s Royal Exclusive show, Jennie told how she had written to Princess Diana asking if she could have a “cup of coffee” with her.
She shared: “To my amazement, I was invited to the palace about three weeks later, and it was the first of two or three conversations – long, long conversations we had just the two of us – in which I asked everything I felt like asking her.
“All the stuff pretty much that she shared in Panorama five months later, she told me at the time.
“There were three of us in the marriage marriage, it was a bit crowded.
“She told me she thought Camilla had been loyal and discreet.
“She told me that she knew now at that stage that the love that Charles had for Camilla was stronger than any marriage he might ever have made.
“And she was very resigned and relaxed really about the situation, this was after the separation.”
The palace meeting with Jennie occurred in 1995, three years after Charles and Diana – parents to Prince William and Prince Harry – had separated in 1992.
She added: “We were pretty well aware of what the situation was but had not heard her true feelings about it.
“I was gobsmacked by nearly everything she told me.
Princess Diana ‘boldly’ confronted Camilla over Prince Charles affair and said she ‘didn’t want to be treated like an idiot’
“And she was so open, so incredibly open, and also so incredibly charming.”
Jennie shared how she had kept Diana’s secrets, upon request of the royal mum-of-two.
However, she had later watched as the Princess of Wales revealed numerous details on Panorama, which was her first solo interview since her marriage to Charles had ended.
Diana’s chat with Martin Bashir has gone down as one of the most controversial interviews seen on TV.
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Jennie said Diana told her ‘the love that Charles had for Camilla was stronger than any marriage he might ever have made’Credit: PA
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Diana ended up sharing her secrets in her famous Panorama interview with Martin BashirCredit: BBC
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Diana famously said ‘there were three of us in this marriage’ during the chatCredit: ITV
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Jennie spoke to The Sun’s Royal Editor Matt Wilkinson on the latest episode of our Royal Exclusive showCredit: THE SUN
Her scandalous tell-all broadcast was kept a total secret from Buckingham Palace – and within a month of it airing the Queen wrote to both Diana and Charles personally advising them to divorce.
During his chat, Bashir asked Diana: “Do you think Mrs Parker-Bowles was a factor in the breakdown of your marriage?”
Diana, whose head had been pointing towards the ground, famously looked up and replied: “Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.”
Speaking of her keeping Diana’s secrets, Jennie told The Sun’s Royal Correspondent Matt Wilkinson: “I thought ‘am I the most stupid correspondent in the world?’
She told me that she knew now at that stage that the love that Charles had for Camilla was stronger than any marriage he might ever have made
Jennie Bond
“The reason I didn’t is because at the end of each conversation, as I was leaving standing on the landing, she’d say ‘oh, Jenny, it’s been lovely to see you, you do realise this is just between you and me and these four walls.
“You’ll know as a journalist if you go against that, you’re never going to get another story again.
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“So I didn’t but I used those conversations as a broad framework for understanding the woman and I hope it made my reports more informed.”
Diana’s marriage to Charles was dissolved in August 1996, and her tragic car accident occurred a year later on August 31, 1997 when she was 36 years old.
