Freshly disclosed government memos have laid bare the intense and often bitter media rivalry between the press offices of Prince Charles and Princess Diana in the years following their high-profile separation. The documents, from June 1995, show Charles's own entourage branding Diana's team as "predatory" and accused them of meticulously planning to "upstage" the Prince of Wales.
The Anxious Prelude to a Historic Visit
The revelations are contained in communications between the Prince's press officers and Irish officials ahead of his significant two-day visit to Dublin in June 1995. This trip was the first by a royal since Irish independence and came within a year of an IRA ceasefire, a poignant detail given the IRA assassinated Charles's great-uncle, Lord Mountbatten, in 1979. Charles's team, led by press secretary Alan Percival and his soon-to-be successor Sandy Henney, viewed the excursion as a critical part of a long-term strategy to rehabilitate the Prince's public image in Britain.
In one memo, a member of Charles's staff expressed concern that Diana's more media-savvy team would likely orchestrate a visit of her own to Ireland shortly after Charles's, purely to steal his thunder. Joe Hayes, a Department of Foreign Affairs official, noted that Sandy Henney had remarked "if practice to date was any guide we could shortly expect an approach from Princess Diana!". Hayes initially thought it was a joke, but Henney repeated the warning, assuring him that in their ongoing media battle, "the Princess was by far the more predatory and skilled".
'Fiercely Loyal' Aides and a 'Glum' Facade
The Irish documents describe Ms Henney as "fiercely loyal" to Charles and "alive to every opportunity to advance his cause". She reportedly told officials that if she had her way, the Prince would return to Ireland before the summer ended. Despite the strategic concerns, Charles's team assessed the Dublin visit as "the best public outing the Prince has had in a very long time", a success that later helped pave the way for Queen Elizabeth II's historic 2011 visit.
The released files cast new light on the strained dynamic that had long been visible to the public. The couple's infamous 1992 "Togetherness Tour" to South Korea, intended to quell rumours of a rift, had backfired spectacularly, earning them the nickname "The Glums" due to their visibly anguished and sorrowful demeanour captured on camera.
A Lasting Legacy of Rivalry
The tension between the two camps extended to analysing press coverage. Charles's officials and Irish diplomats agreed that while UK coverage of the Ireland trip was positive, it was "relatively light" compared to the Irish media frenzy. This perception fuelled the anxiety within Charles's camp about being constantly outmanoeuvred by Diana's prolific and effective media operation.
This chapter of royal history resurfaced unexpectedly last week when a framed front page of The Times from June 1994 was found in the wardrobe of the late financier Jeffrey Epstein. The page featured Charles's interview stating divorce wouldn't bar him from kingship, alongside a photo of Diana in her iconic "revenge dress", worn the night the interview aired—a powerful, silent retort that perfectly encapsulated the ongoing public relations war documented in these newly released Irish state papers.
