Princess Diana’s former secretary Patrick Jephson recently spoke out ahead of the coronation of King Charles III on Saturday.
Patrick Jephson opens up
Jephson served as Diana’s personal secretary for eight years. He recently penned an essay that was published in Britain’s The Daily Mail last Friday, discussing the shadow and legacy left behind after the late Princess of Wales’ unexpected death in 1997.
In the essay, Jephson said he first met the king in 1980 while serving in the Royal Navy and then again several years later when he served as Diana’s military aide.
“I was touched that [Charles] cared so much about the young future Queen [Diana] to check for himself that I would probably do an OK job,” Jephson recalled. “This was a different prince — friendly enough but all business and visibly preoccupied with something doubtless far more important than me.”
It has been noted that Jephson’s writings stand in contrast to the efforts Buckingham Palace is making to solidify Camilla’s position as queen. The former secretary wrote that while Diana “took a path that led only to a mirage of freedom and ultimate tragedy,” Charles’ main objective was “the transformation of Camilla Parker Bowles from guilty secret into the anointed Queen of the United Kingdom.”
Per ABC News royals contributor Robert Jobson it is noted that:
“If Diana was alive today and the marriage would have been successful, this would be a major television event because Diana, at the age of 61, 62, would still be this incredibly glamorous Jackie O. figure. If Diana was being crowned as well, everybody in the world would be watching.”
When news of Charles and Camilla’s affair broke in the late 1980s, it sent shockwaves and stunned the monarchy. The couple was very unpopular at first. But since then “an honest account of her extraordinary ascent would acknowledge that Camilla’s actual status in the King’s past and in the country’s future was cloaked behind a long succession of creative palace statements,” Jephson wrote.
