> Skip to content
  • Published: 27 June 2023
  • ISBN: 9781529160642
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 464
  • RRP: $24.99

Diana, William and Harry

Extract

Chapter 28

February 1989
London

Lady Annabel Goldsmith, who describes herself as an “incredible mother, rather a good mistress, but not a very good wife” to billionaire financier Sir James Goldsmith, is hosting a birthday party.

The guest of honor is Camilla Parker Bowles’s younger sister, who’s turning forty.

Diana stares at the invitation. She knows it’s a mere formality. It would be strange, not to mention rude, to invite the Prince of Wales and not his wife. But no one is expecting her to actually attend. Especially not Charles.

Diana is about to toss out the invitation when an inner voice says, Go for the hell of it.

She does. But once face-to-face with Camilla at the party, Diana experiences a spike of fear.

Instead of kissing the woman hello, she shakes Camilla’s hand. The action emboldens her, strengthens her bravery.

Diana feels a calmness sweep through her, a feeling that lasts throughout dinner.

Afterward, Diana notices that her husband and Camilla are nowhere to be found. More than an hour passes, and still there is no sign of them.

She decides to investigate.

Downstairs, in the basement, Diana spots Charles and Camilla in a children’s playroom.

Diana returns upstairs and seeks out Ken Wharfe.

“I am not going to be shown up in this way,” Diana tells him. “I want to talk to her — now.”

Wharfe is uneasy in the knowledge that there’s no dissuading Diana. Last summer, while vacationing with the boys at her mother’s home off the west coast of Scotland, the princess insisted on ironing her bodyguard’s shirts.

“I enjoy it,” she told him.

“Ma’am, you really can’t.”

She didn’t listen then, and it will be the same tonight.

Diana needs a witness. Wharfe will do nicely.

A guest sees where she’s going and intervenes. “Diana, don’t go down there.”

“I’m just going to find my husband,” she replies.

Wharfe reluctantly follows.

Diana finds Camilla and Charles sharing a sofa, locked in intimate conversation.

The two of them look uncomfortable. Guilty.

As if one, they stand. Wharfe turns to leave.

“Please don’t go, Ken,” Diana says, but Wharfe excuses himself so that Diana, Charles, and Camilla can address this private matter.

“Camilla, I’d like to have a word with you, if it’s possible,” says Diana. She waits for her husband to leave her alone with his mistress.

“Camilla, would you like to sit down?”

They sit on the sofa. The princess has always been terrified of this woman, the power she holds; but when Diana speaks, her voice is calm.

“I know about you two.”

Camilla tries to shift the blame. “Don’t think it’s my fault. Charles and I had a pact that I wouldn’t contact him for five years after the wedding.”

“I’m sorry I’m in the way, and it must be hell for the both of you,” Diana says icily. “But I do know what’s going on. Don’t treat me like an idiot.”

“You’ve got everything you ever wanted,” Camilla states. “You’ve got two beautiful children. What more could you want?”

“I want my husband.”

~~~

In March, Charles and Diana travel together on an official visit to Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

They stay in separate suites.

Diana’s feelings toward Charles have turned. There comes a time when you just don’t care anymore. That time has come. I just don’t care anymore, she’s decided. If I could write my own script I would have my husband go away with his woman and never come back.

But there are William and Harry to think of, always.

The first time I experienced true happiness was when I held William in my arms. I’d never been that happy before. And I’ve never been that happy since, except when I had Harry.

Diana opens her suitcase and finds an envelope. Inside is a letter from William wishing her and Charles a “lovey time” on their tour.

“But come home soon,” he writes. “I miss you.”


Diana, William and Harry James Patterson

Twenty-five years after her tragic death, James Patterson tells the heartbreaking true story of Princess Diana's life as a mother and a global icon.

Buy now
Buy now

More extracts

See all
ER Nurses

Angela Parawan was born in New York City and grew up in Virginia Beach.

James Patterson: The Stories of My Life

My writing career unofficially began at McLean Hospital, the psychiatric affiliate of Harvard Medical School in Belmont, Massachusetts.

The Kennedy Curse

The frail old man wakes screaming, tangled in an American flag—the same one that draped the coffin of his slain son, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, three days after his November 22, 1963, assassination.

Triple Cross

Suzanne Liu lived for days like this, days when her world seemed like a great game and the sweet smell of opportunity and cash hung in the air like lavender and sage.

The Twelve Topsy-Turvy, Very Messy Days of Christmas

What is the worst present you’ve ever received for Christmas?

The Girl in the Castle

It starts with a girl, half naked and screaming.

Blowback

It’s a brisk autumn day in June in one of South Africa’s largest cities, and thirty-year-old Benjamin Lucas is enjoying an off day from his South African Diamond Tour.

Escape

He’s here somewhere. I know it. And the girl might still be alive.

Death of the Black Widow

Could a building sweat? If someone were to ask him, Walter O’Brien would say no.

Run Rose Run

AnnieLee had been standing on the side of the road for an hour, thumbing a ride, when the rain started falling in earnest.

Steal

CARTER VON OEHSON MIXED himself a tall gin and tonic from behind the polished mahogany bar of his father’s billiard room, topping it off with a squeeze of lime.

The Horsewoman

THE VIDEO SHOWS a little girl alone in her bedroom.

penguin pop image
penguin pop image