Princess Diana wearing a white printed dress and looking skeptical next to a photo of King Charles and Queen Camilla wearing country jackets outside in 1979
Much has been written about the beginnings of King Charles and Queen Camilla’s relationship, especially their affair while he was married to Princess Diana. Their romance became one of the biggest royal scandals of the 20th century, and now a former royal bodyguard is discussing what happened on one fateful night in 1987 when Diana confronted her husband’s mistress.
Ken Wharfe, who worked as a protection officer for the princess, told ITV (via the Mirror) that Diana had been invited to a party hosted by Camilla Parker Bowles’s sister, Annabel Elliot—but no one expected she’d actually show up.
“Diana didn’t have any particular friendships at that party but when we arrived there, it was almost like freeze-framing a scene in a movie because there was this surprise that Diana had even arrived,” Wharfe recalled.
Diana herself went on to describe the bash in Andrew Morton’s biography Diana: Her True Story. “I was a total fish out of water. But I decided to try my hardest. I was going to make an impact,” she told the biographer. But apparently, things got awkward about an hour later.
“I went out and there was Diana, who said ‘You’ve got to come with me, I can’t find my husband or Camilla,'” Wharfe told ITV, adding that the princess “was in some distress” and he “couldn’t say no.”
He continued that they “found the Prince and Camilla sat on a sofa in the basement of this property just talking.” Rather than slink away, Diana found the “confidence” to confront Parker Bowles, as the former royal bodyguard recalled.
A side profile of Princess Diana wearing a blue satin gown and diamond necklace
Diana confronted Camilla and Charles during a birthday party in the ’80s.
“I didn’t know quite what Diana was going to do at that point but, with a great deal of confidence, Diana just went up to both of them and said to Camilla ‘please don’t treat me like an idiot, I know what’s going on,'” Wharfe told ITV.
