‘All hell broke loose’ the night Princess Diana decided to finally pluck up the courage to confront love rival Camilla over her and Charles' affair.
The People’s Princess said it was “one of the bravest moments” of her marriage to Prince Charles before it ended in 1992 and led to divorce in 1996.
The unpleasant face-to-face encounter with a then-Camilla Parker Bowles saw Charles run off like ‘a headless chicken’, according to Diana.
The night in question was the 40th birthday party of Camilla’s sister, Annabel Elliot, in 1989 at the home of Lady Annabel Goldsmith in London.
“I walk into the house and stick my hand out to Camilla for the first time, and think ‘phew got over that,’” Diana said in recordings that were secretly taped by a pal at Kensington Palace in 1991.
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The Princess, who was 20 when she married a 32-year-old Charles, had earlier that day decided she would attend the “ghastly” event despite nobody expecting her to turn up.
“He [Charles] needled me the whole way down to Ham Common, trying to bait me,” Diana said.
“‘Why are you coming tonight?’ Needle, needle, needle the whole way down. I didn’t bite, but I was very, very on edge.”
Diana had also told herself she would not greet Camilla with a usual kiss hello, but instead a more formal handshake.
“This was my big step,” she added.
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Meanwhile once inside the party, Diana suddenly noticed there was no sign of Camilla or Charles.
She said the realisation ‘disturbed her’ and she then went searching for the pair in another part of the house.
“I know what I’m going to confront myself with,” she admitted. “They tried to stop me from going downstairs. ‘Diana, don’t go down there.”
But Diana replied: ‘I’m just going to find my husband.’
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She said she found a “happy little threesome going on” with Charles, Camilla and another man chatting away.
“I thought, all right, this is your moment, so I went and sat down and joined in the conversation as though we were all best friends,” Diana continued.
“And I said, ‘Camilla, I’d love to have a word with you, if possible.’ And she got really uncomfortable, put her head down and she said, ‘Oh yes, all right.’
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“And I said to the two men, ‘Ok, boys I’m just going to have a quick word with Camilla, and I’ll be up in a minute’.
“They shot upstairs like chickens with no heads and I could feel, upstairs, all hell breaking loose. ‘What is she going to do?’
“So I said, ‘Camilla, would you like to sit down?’ So we sat down and I was terrified of her. And I said, ‘Camilla, I would just like you to know that I know exactly what’s going on’.
“She said ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
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“I said ‘I know what’s going on between you and Charles, and I just want you to know that.’
“And she said to me, very interestingly, she said to me, ‘You’ve got everything you’ve ever wanted. You’ve got all the men in the world falling in love with you, you’ve got two beautiful children, what more do you want?’
‘I want my husband,’ Diana said she replied.
She added to Camilla: “Don’t treat me like an idiot.”
On the car journey home, Diana said Charles was over her “like a bad rash.”
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“I cried like I have never cried before,” she said, adding it was seven years of pent-up anger coming up.
However, the next morning she felt a tremendous shift.
“I’d done something, said what I felt,” she added.
She said she told Charles there were ‘no secrets’ and he could ask Camilla exactly what their conversation had been.
Diana and Charles’ relationship failed to ever heal and they announced their separation in 1992.
Their divorce was confirmed in 1996 after years of disagreeing about the terms.
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A statement at the time, issued on the Princess's behalf, said: "The Princess of Wales has agreed to Prince Charles's request for a divorce.
“The Princess will continue to be involved in all decisions relating to the children and will remain at Kensington Palace with offices in St James's Palace. The Princess of Wales will retain the title and be known as Diana, Princess of Wales."
A Palace spokesman also said at the time: "We can confirm that the Prince and Princess of Wales had a private meeting this afternoon at St James's Palace.
“At this meeting details of the divorce settlement and the Princess's future role were not discussed. All the details on these matters, including titles, remain to be discussed and settled. This will take time."
Charles, now 71, went on to marry Camilla, now 72, in 2005.
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