Here's What Really Happened When Diana Confronted Camilla About Charles
With the news that Camilla Parker Bowles, the woman who has been married to Prince Charles and known as the Duchess of Cornwall since 2005, will be named Queen Consort when Charles ascends to the throne, many thoughts are on the woman who would have been called queen if her marriage had lasted: Princess Diana, also known as Her Highness The Princess of Wales, until the union ended.
Before Diana and Charles split in 1992 and officially divorced in 1996, Diana made no secret of the fact that there was a third person in their marriage — and that third person was Camilla.
The year the pair split, Andrew Morton published "Diana: Her True Story," detailing Charles' affair with Camilla. It was later revealed that Diana offered her help with the tome, including providing audio recordings, according to Vogue.
While Camilla and Charles were involved with each other in the 1970s, according to Town & Country, she eventually married Andrew Parker Bowles, and Charles found a wife in Diana, who was barely out of her teens when they wed.
However, Charles admitted to his biographer in 1994 that he began seeing Camilla again around 1986 (via Vogue).
Diana insisted on going to a party where she'd see Camilla
Despite the fact that Princes Charles and Princess Diana remained married until 1996, Diana knew that her husband had been unfaithful to her for years with his former lover, Camilla Parker Bowles.
When Diana and Camilla were at the same 1989 party, the Princess of Wales confronted the other woman in her marriage.
Both were at a birthday celebration for Camilla's sister, Angela Elliot, according to the Mirror. Diana later told the story of what happened that night in a 1991 audio recording made at Kensington Palace. During the car ride to the party, Charles asked why she wanted to go to begin with.
"He [Charles] needled me the whole way down to Ham Common, trying to bait me," Diana said in the recording (via the Mirror). "'Why are you coming tonight?' Needle, needle, needle the whole way down. I didn't bite, but I was very, very on edge."
However, Diana didn't allow her husband's questions — or "needling," as she put it — stop her from saying what she wanted to say to Camilla that night.
The princess let Camilla know how she felt about the affair
When Princess Diana saw Camilla Parker Bowles and Prince Charles talking at a birthday bash for Camilla's sister, she decided to put on a brave face and sit with them.
"I thought, all right, this is your moment," she said in a 1991 recording (via the Mirror). "So, I went and sat down and joined in the conversation as though we were all best friends ... And I said, Camilla, I'd love to have a word with you, if possible.' And she got really uncomfortable, put her head down and she said, 'Oh yes, all right.'"
So, the two women in Charles' life sat down together, and Diana told her how she felt about the affair Camilla was having with Charles.
"I said, ”Camilla, I would just like you to know that I know exactly what's going on,'" Diana said in the recording. "She said 'I don't know what you're talking about.' I said 'I know what's going on between you and Charles, and I just want you to know that.' And she said to me, very interestingly, she said to me, 'You've got everything you've ever wanted. You've got all the men in the world falling in love with you, you've got two beautiful children, what more do you want?'"
That's when Diana replied, "I want my husband."
Seven years later, Charles and Diana's divorce was finalized. A year after that, Diana was killed in a tragic car crash at just 36 years old.