Princess Diana reportedly described Queen Camilla as “loyal and discreet” despite the affair.
The late princess had some praise for her husband's rumored mistress.
Princess Diana famously bared her heart and soul on Panorama back in 1995, when she spoke about there being three people in her marriage to now-King Charles, but that wasn’t the only opinion she had of now-Queen Camilla, who had been rumored to be Charles’s longtime mistress. During an appearance on The Sun’s “Royal Exclusive Live!” former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond explained that her close friendship with Diana allowed the princess to open up to her and, in turn, drop a few more tidbits about Camilla Parker-Bowles.
“She was complicated and confusing, but I liked her a lot,” Bond said of the late Diana. “She invited me to the palace a couple of times for talks. We had long, long, long chats and she told me everything, practically, almost everything in Panorama.”
While Bond didn’t specify what, exactly, Diana told her before she opened up to BBC journalist Martin Bashir, the former correspondent did drop an eyebrow-raising tip: Diana had some nice things to say about Camilla.
“[Diana] said, ‘There were three of us in this marriage,’ and [discussed] whether she had affairs and her view on Camilla,” Bond shared. “She told me she thought that Camilla was loyal and discreet and deserved some form of recognition.”
Arthur Edwards, The Sun’s royal photographer, noted that it was news to him, saying, “I’ve never heard that before, Jennie. That’s really terrific.”
Bond went on to reveal why she kept the news a secret for so long, painting the late princess as someone who wanted to keep things close to the chest and echoing her sentiment about the late royal being “complicated and confusing.”
“Diana said as I was leaving, every time, ‘Jennie, this is just between you and me.’ So, what can you do?” she shared.
