One other two “extremely private” letters written by Princess Diana to 2 of her closest buddies in 1996 are up for public sale, revealing that the late royal was trying ahead to higher days forward simply eight months previous to her loss of life.
Within the be aware written to Susie and Tarek Kassem on December 17, 1996 on official Kensington Palace stationery, Diana thanked the couple for sending her flowers and a glass bowl earlier than writing that she was planning to spend the vacation overseas in “the sunshine,” joking, “as not being a lover of Christmas, I’ll high myself if I stay right here!” It was beforehand believed that the royal spent her last Christmas alone at Kensington Palace, as her two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, historically would have fun the vacation at Sandringham with their father, King Charles and late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth. Diana added, “I hope ’97 shall be a neater 12 months for us all.” The princess began 1997 in a relationship with coronary heart surgeon Dr. Hasnat Khan, which got here to an finish that July. She then loved a short relationship with Dodi Fayed who died along with her in a automobile accident in Paris on August 31, 1997.
In one other newly launched letter despatched to the Kassems in September 1996, Diana wrote about how a lot she was trying ahead to the long run. “I’m more than pleased to have my freedom & reckon that I am very lucky to have a second likelihood!” she wrote. “Plenty of good issues have come my manner and it is enjoyable…who’d have thought!” These letters are simply two of 32 notes from across the time of the royal’s divorce from King Charles going up for public sale subsequent week. Mimi Connell Lay, of Lay’s Auctioneers who’s internet hosting the sale, instructed the Every day Mail of those two notes, “The Christmas 1996 letter is heartbreaking. We get pleasure from hindsight after all and we all know what occurred to her within the 12 months of 1997. It truly is a tragic letter in that respect. Diana did actually wrestle with Christmas time as they at all times needed to be spent at Sandringham Home and he or she discovered that actually laborious going later within the marriage. Diana spent the Christmas of 1995 with the Kassems and it’s clear on this letter that she had made plans to not spend it alone at Kensington Palace. I feel the road about topping herself was a throwaway and light-hearted comment given she put an exclamation mark on the top of it. The letter she despatched in September 1996 was much more upbeat and about her trying ahead to the long run. After all presently she was in a relationship with Hasnat Khan whom she had known as the ‘love of my life.’ Their relationship ended in the summertime of 1997.”
In a press release concerning the sale of those private letters, Lay’s Auctioneers described the correspondence as “astonishing, confidential,” and “extremely private,” explaining, “Susie & Tarek Kassem, as very shut buddies of Diana, Princess of Wales, have treasured these letters for over 25 years. They replicate the particular and loving relationship that they had with probably the most distinctive girls that that they had ever identified. Now, in 2023, the possession of those poignant paperwork is a duty that the Kassems don’t want to go on to their kids or grandchildren. They’ve determined to promote the letters and use proceeds of the sale to assist a number of the charities that had been near Susie and Diana’s hearts.”
