Intimate letter from Princess Diana reveals what Prince William’s relationship with Harry was really like before fallout
AN intimate letter from the late Princess Diana has revealed what Prince William and Harry’s relationship was really like before their public fallout.
The handwritten letter from the then Princess of Wales gave an insight into the sweet relationship between the brothers during their childhoods.
Addressed to the late royal’s parents’ housekeeper Violet Collison (affectionately known as Collie by the Princess), the sweet note has fetched nearly ten times its estimated worth at auction.
The letter went under the hammer in July last year by Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers and was originally predicted to sell for a whopping £1,200.
But the lovely message, which showed moving insights into the relationship between Prince Harry, 40, and Prince William, 42, sold for a staggering £10,000.
The auctioneers described the note as: ‘A handwritten two-page letter dated September 25th 1984, on crowned “D” Kensington Palace notepaper, to “Collie” thanking her for Prince Harry‘s first Christmas present’.
Violet, also known as Collie, was head housekeeper to John Spencer and Frances Roche at Park House on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, where Diana spent her childhood years.
The letter read: “It was so very kind of you to have given such a lovely present to Harry – we were enormously touched.”
Diana then praised the “thought” behind the gift and claimed that she “cannot thank you enough for the bibs.”
In the same letter, Diana noted that “William adores his little brother & spends the entire time pouring an endless supply of hugs & kisses over Harry”.
Diana described the display as “wonderful to watch, if we’re allowed near!” demonstrating the inseparable bond between the two young royals.
But the depiction of a tactile and loving relationship between William and his younger brother is a far cry from their now famously frosty connection.
In his book, Spare, which hit shelves in January 2023, Prince Harry went as far to call William his ‘archnemesis’.
The dad-of-two also said they have always ‘competed’ and detailed physical altercations between the pair.
A timeline of Prince Harry's family feud
The first hints of friction reportedly came after William was introduced to Meghan when she was staying at Kensington Palace.
Once she’d returned home to Canada, William and Harry sat down for a brother-to-brother chat.
He knew Harry was already head-over-heels for her but it has been claimed he advised him to take it slowly.
The younger prince reportedly didn’t take too kindly to the advice, with one royal source saying he “went mental”.
Then in June 2019 Harry and Meghan officially split off from the charity they shared with William and Kate.
The Royal Foundation will be divided between the Sussexes and Cambridges as the couples focus on their own separate charitable endeavours.
Prince William and Prince Harry first established the Royal Foundation in 2009 before Kate joined two years later shortly after their engagement was announced.
The trio would often appear together at events and the Foundation had huge successes with projects like the Invictus Games for injured veterans and the mental health Heads Together campaign.
The Royal Foundation said the decision was made following the conclusion of a review into its structure – but added both couples will continue to work together in the future.
Harry and Meg were living in close proximity to Kate and Wills within the Kensington Palace estate, but they switched to Frogmore Cottage in Windsor before baby Archie was born.
The move further increased rumours of a fallout.
Harry also hinted in his ITV documentary “Harry and Meghan, An African Journey” that he and his brother had grown apart.
In 2021, Harry and Meghan give their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey where Harry accused his dad of cutting him off financially.
Harry then jetted back to UK to join William in unveiling a statue to their mother Princess Diana in the grounds of Kensington Palace. But sources claimed William didn’t want to attend the memorial amid their ongoing rift.
In 2022, just before their grandmother the Queen died, sources claimed Kate acts as a “peacemaker” between the brothers.
Harry claimed his brother “knocked him to the floor” during an argument about Meghan, in his memoir.
In Spare, Harry said William branded Meghan “rude” and “difficult” during a row.
Harry alleged William “grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and … knocked me to the floor”.
He said he was left with a visible injury to his back following the argument in 2019 at Nottingham Cottage on the grounds of Kensington Palace, where he was living at the time.
In January this year, Harry flew in to be with Charles after the monarch’s shock cancer diagnosis.
Harry flew back to the US the following day – without seeing Wills.
In May he visited the UK for a three-day visit without seeing King Charles or Prince William.
It is believed the trigger that caused the rift to develop between William and Harry was when the then Duke of Cambridge advised his younger sibling to ‘take things slow’ when he first began dating Suits star Meghan Markle, 43, in 2017.
Not only this, but relations became so sour that they reportedly didn’t talk for weeks after Harry and Meghan’s wedding in 2018, where William was best man.
This was then followed by Harry and Meghan’s decision to step down as senior royals in 2020 – informally known as Megxit – and the way it was handled reportedly left William and King Charles, 76, devastated.
William adores his little brother & spends the entire time pouring an endless supply of hugs & kisses over Harry
Princess Diana
In the documentary – Harry & Meghan: An African Journey – the Duke of Sussex admitted he and William are ‘certainly on different paths at the moment’.
Despite this, he told ITV‘s Tom Bradby: “Inevitably stuff happens. But we’re brothers, we’ll always be brothers.”
As well as this, a source previously told People that the brothers’ relationship is “forever changed” and they “won’t get back to the way they were”.
Why did Prince Harry and Meghan Markle step back as senior working royals?
PRINCE Harry has always wanted out of the Royal Family and the repercussions will be felt for years, an expert has claimed.
The Duke of Sussex has lived in California with his wife Meghan Markle since 2020 after they dramatically quit their jobs as working royals and moved across the pond.
Katie Nicholl, who is Vanity Fair’s royal correspondent, told The Sun’s Royal Exclusive show that Megxit did not come as a surprise to her.
Speaking to The Sun’s Royal Editor Matt Wilkinson, the commentator explained: “Anyone who knows Harry is aware he’s always wanted a way out of the Royal Family.
“He’s said multiple times on the record that he wished he’d never been born a prince.
“I think he really is living the life he wants to now. It’s very, very sad that it’s played out the way it has.”
In a statement made on the Sussexes’ Instagram account as they stepped back in 2020, the pair wrote: “After many months of reflection and internal discussions, we have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution.
“We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen.
“It is with your encouragement, particularly over the last few years, that we feel prepared to make this adjustment.
“We now plan to balance our time between the United Kingdom and North America, continuing to honour our duty to The Queen, the Commonwealth, and our patronages.
“This geographic balance will enable us to raise our son with an appreciation for the royal tradition into which he was born, while also providing our family with the space to focus on the next chapter, including the launch of our new charitable entity.”
Diana’s correspondence, which was auctioned by Sworders in Stansted Mountfitchet in Essex, revealed that former housekeeper Collie remained in Diana’s thoughts throughout her life.
Most of the letters to Collie are thank you notes for birthday and Christmas presents given to Diana and her children, but these notes often include a line or two about Diana’s life at the time.
One double-sided letter in the collection – penned on Buckingham Palace headed notepaper and dated just three weeks before Charles and Diana’s wedding in 1981 – was expected to fetch £1,200.
It read: “Everyone frantically busy here doing last minute decorations on the house and things like that.
“Family all far too excited and, at the moment, the bride to be has remained quite calm!”
Meanwhile, one sweet letter on Kensington Palace paper with a ‘CD’ logo for Charles and Diana, saw the late Princess thanking Collie for gifts sent to her young sons.
It said: “William found the parcels and dived into the paper before I could stop him.”
Everything you need to know about Princess Diana's final years
After years of separation, Prince Charles and Princess Diana divorced in 1996.
In 1997, Princess Diana spent her summer in the south of France and Italy. During August, she visited Sarajevo, Bosnia, to highlight the fight against landmines.
By the end of the month, the Princess of Wales and Dodi Al-Fayed travelled to Paris together.
It was revealed that Princess Diana stayed longer than planned in Paris due to a row over her land mine campaign.
Travelling in a black Mercedes Benz, Princess Diana was involved in a car crash in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel on August 31, 1997.
The Princess of Wales died at the age of 36.
Her funeral was held on September 6, 1997. As her coffin made the journey from Kensington Palace to Westminister Abbey, Prince William and Prince Harry walked behind their late mother.
Princess Diana’s mother, Frances Shand Kydd, and sisters, Jane Fellowes and Sarah McCorquodale, also attended the funeral.
The Princess of Wales was buried at her childhood home – Althorp House
If it wasn’t for her tragic death, Princess Diana would have been 62 today.
After the marriage of Diana’s parents ended, Collie followed Diana’s mother to London in 1967, working for her and her new husband until her retirement in 1973.
She remained close to Frances and the Spencer children until her death at the age of 89 in 2013.
Luke Macdonald, head of art and estates at Sworders, said: “Violet Collison, Collie, was Diana’s parents’ housekeeper when they lived at Park House. She knew Diana from when she was born and remained a constant in her life.
“At all points she would try to return to see Collie. When she stayed at Sandringham she would escape to see Collie without her security.”
He expressed that they offer a “lovely chapter in the history of Diana” and added: “She was one of her closest confidantes.
What is special about these is they tell a story, they are not just somebody’s collection
Luke Macdonald
“They give a nice insight – before the wedding she describes everyone being frantically busy but the bride-to-be staying calm and there are letters about William and Harry that are really sweet.
“Collie died in 2013 and the family has decided now is the time to sell them as they are just living in a box and not being enjoyed, there are too many family members to divide them up.
“They have spoken to Diana’s sisters to make sure they were okay with them selling.”
Luke recognised that the letters “tell a story”, as he added: “What is special about these is they tell a story, they are not just somebody’s collection. From the first Christmas card to the last, they are a complete story of her friendship and relationship with Diana.
“Everyone wants a little part of Diana, she connected with people and was very much the people’s princess.”
The collection of more than a dozen letters and cards sold for a total of £51,850 (including buyer’s premium) as part of the Out of the Ordinary Sale on July 30 2014.