The disappearance of Diana twenty-five years ago, and now that of Elizabeth II who, unsurprisingly, changed the royal order with the accession of her son as King Charles III. Each of these events revives a story: that between the princess of hearts and the one who is now queen consort, Camilla. A number of Restricted zone (M6) immersed himself in the exciting life of the one Prince Charles married in the first place and who gave him his sons William and Harry. Composed of testimonies from Diana’s bodyguards but also recordings such as extracts from the British figure’s diaries, the program brings to life a special moment between the two women in the life of Charles III.
We are at the beginning of the year 1989. For nearly eight years, Lady Diana has married, not without doubts and existential crises, the son of the Queen of England. Mother of Princes William and Harry, she has to face her complicated life under the pressure of the monarchy and perhaps, what is most difficult, the relationship between her husband and his “great friend”, or rather love of youth than he never stopped loving, Camilla. She had met him at a polo match in 1970 but their romance did not last because he had to join the Royal Navy. An abortive love story but which will not disappear over the years, despite her marriage to the officer of the Horse Guards, Andrew Parker Bowles, future father of her two children.
Ken Wharfe, Diana’s bodyguard at the time, said in Restricted zone this party that Diana dared to go to: the 40th birthday of Camilla’s sister, Annabel Elliot. Wanting to confront her rival that her husband barely hides from her, she has decided to go with Charles to this party where there are only relatives of her husband’s mistress. Embarrassed at the idea of finding himself in this situation, the protector of the Princess of Wales at the time cannot leave his post, at the request of Diana. She said, according to her writings:I got motivated, I looked her in the eye. I said, ‘Camilla, I’d like to talk to you please, if that’s okay with you. (…) I know everything that happens between Charles and you. Be well aware of it. There she replies: Oh that’s ok! It’s not a melodrama. You have all the men at your feet, two lovely little boys. What more do you need?’ I told him Camilla. I want my husband, is that clear?“
A tense scene, Charles and Diana’s return by car is all the more painful. But since that day, Diana said she was more strengthened than ever in the idea of not letting her marriage fail. Six years later, she will succeed in divorcing, the same year during which Camilla will separate from Andrew Parker Bowles. Charles and Camilla formalized their remarriage in 2005, leaving ten years to have this union accepted by Elizabeth II as well as the whole country, so attached to her princess of hearts…