Freshly released official documents have cast new light on the intense media battle waged between the then-separated Prince and Princess of Wales in the mid-1990s. An assessment from 1995, now made public, starkly claimed that Diana was the more "predatory and skilled" operator in their public relations feud.
The Irish Trip and a Stark Warning
The revealing comments emerged from a diplomatic file concerning a visit by the then Prince of Wales to Ireland in June 1995. The trip was part of a concerted strategy to bolster Charles's public image, and his team hailed it as a major success, deeming it the "best public outing the Prince has had in a very long time".
However, according to a note written by Department of Foreign Affairs official Joe Hayes, the prince's press secretary, Sandy Henney, offered a candid warning. Henney reportedly told Hayes she fully expected Diana's team to soon make contact to arrange a rival trip for the Princess.
'By Far the More Predatory and Skilled'
"I took this as a joke until she repeated it and assured me that in the media battle between the two, the Princess was by far the more predatory and skilled," Hayes recorded. He added Henney's claim that Diana's staff "devoted a great deal of time to finding ways and means of upstaging St James' Palace", Charles's official office.
This private assessment, made while the couple were separated but not yet divorced, lays bare the ferocity of the briefing war between the two camps. It has been released as part of the annual disclosure of historical state papers by the National Archives of Ireland.
The Context of a Public Feud
The year 1995 was a pivotal one in the very public unravelling of the royal marriage. Most notably, in a landmark BBC interview, Diana famously declared, "There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded," a clear reference to Camilla Parker Bowles.
The documents suggest Charles's team viewed his Irish visit as a crucial countermove in this ongoing public relations conflict, aiming to project a positive and statesmanlike profile. The revelation of Henney's comments indicates a high level of professional paranoia and competition between the households.
Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a car crash in Paris in 1997. Charles married Camilla, now Queen Camilla, in 2005 and ascended to the throne as King Charles III in 2022. These newly public files provide a stark, behind-the-scenes snapshot of the tumultuous period that forever changed the modern monarchy.
