Princess Diana Wrote She Was 'Terribly Lonely' Just Two Days After Her Royal Wedding
Over 300 items from Princess Diana's collection will go up for auction later this month—one of the largest sales of the late Princess of Wales' clothes, shoes, and other personal keepsakes in history.
One item in the sale is a letter dated July 31, 1981—just two days after her royal wedding to Prince Charles.
The correspondence, written to a Buckingham Palace footman, showed a vulnerable Diana admitting that she was 'terribly lonely' in the leadup to her big day.Just two days after her royal wedding to Prince Charles on July 29, 1981, the newly minted Princess Diana wrote to a Buckingham Palace footman that she was 'terribly lonely,' a letter revealed.
The letter is one of 300 items going up for sale in an auction called 'Princess Diana's Style & A Royal Collection,' set to take place on June 26 at 10 a.m. Pacific time at The Peninsula Beverly Hills and put on by Julien's Auctions. The handwritten and signed letter was written on July 31, 1981—just two days after her wedding day—to Mark Simpson, a footman at Buckingham Palace. Martin Nolan, co-founder and executive director of Julien's Auctions, told People it was 'one of my favorite pieces.'
'It's like a couple of days after she got married,' he said. 'She'd been living in Buckingham Palace as she was transitioning from being a normal person to being a royal and the future queen. So she had to learn from the Queen Mother and the Queen [Elizabeth] about curtsying and all that.'
Nolan added that Diana 'had fun with Mark Simpson, the footman. And he was about the same age, a little bit older than her. And she talks here, it speaks of how she was lonely when she was in the palace.'
The letter reads as follows: 'Dear Mark, I just wanted to thank you for all your kindness + patience you've showed towards me since I moved into B.P. [Buckingham Palace]. My stay was made so much easier by your company as it was so terribly lonely + we had so many laughs for that I can't thank you enough. Do hope you were able to enjoy Wednesday + that you liked my dress? I'm off to Britainia tomorrow, what with all those men around. I will have to keep a watchful eye on Evelyn! The bad news is that I haven't eaten any cereal—sob. How am I going to cope without my bowls of cereal…[smiley face]. A large thank you for being you.' It was signed, 'Much love, Diana.'
The correspondence shows that Diana's early days of royal life were 'no fun,' Nolan told People.
'But [Simpson] cheered her up and they had fun,' he continued. 'And she talks about the bowls of cereal that they used to have and how is she going to do without all the bowls of cereal? So that's a really, really great piece. Because it speaks volumes.'
Brides reported that the aforementioned letter—one of many up for auction—has a starting bid of $1,000, but 'it's estimated to sell for between four and six times that.'
One item that interested parties won't find in the auction later this month? A winter coat, Nolan told People. 'We learned through this how generous Diana was, always giving items,' he said. 'And you never see a coat from Diana come to auction, because she used to get her butler or her staff or friends to drive around London, [in] January, February, [in the] freezing cold.'
'She'd find homeless people, and she would give her coats away,' Nolan added. 'That's how she was—without any spectacle or whatever.'
Read the original article on InStyle
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