Princess Diana turned to the Duke of Edinburgh for counselling days before her relationship with Prince Charles broke down, the inquest into her death heard.
LONDON: Princess Diana turned to the Duke of Edinburgh for counselling days before her relationship with Prince Charles broke down, the inquest into her death heard.
The Princess of Wales even wrote affectionate letters to Prince Philip referring to him as 'Dearest Pa' and praising his marriage guidance skills in the final months before she left the Royal Family -- extracts of their correspondence were on Thursday shown to the jury by the Duke's Private Secretary, the media reported here on Friday.
Brigadier Sir Miles Hunt-Davis produced the letters at the inquest to dispel Mohammed Al-Fayed's claims that his son Dodi and Diana -- who were killed in a car crash in Paris ten years back -- were assassinated by the British secret service on Prince Philip's orders as they're about to get married.
One letter shown to the jury, written by the Duke in 1992, read: "If invited, I'll always do my utmost to help you and Charles to the best of my ability, but I am quite ready to concede that I have no talents as a marriage counsellor!!!"
To this, the Princess had replied: "Dearest Pa, I was particularly touched by your most recent letter which proved to me, if I didn't already know it, that you really do care. You are very modest about your marriage guidance skills and I disagree with you."
"This last letter of yours showed great understanding and tact and I hope to be able to draw on your advice in the months ahead whatever they may bring."
However, parts of the letters, containing the most intimate details of the Princess's personal problems were blacked out, as Coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker said they did not support suggestions that they contained 'unpleasant, nasty or insulting' material and so there was no need for the most private passages to be put in the public domain.
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