When no one expected her to attend the party, she proved everyone wrong and took the "big step."
Diana's marriage to Prince Charles wasn't just a union of two people, but a harmony of two souls. At least that's what she thought. Little did she know that her fairytale-like wedding with the Prince would be a ride down the path of emotional wreckage which would leave her broken beyond words.
According to Cheat Sheet, her doubts about her husband's infidelity were proved when she found out that the Prince had gifted then-Camilla Parker Bowels a bracelet engraved with the letters “G” and “F,” which stood for “Gladys” and “Fred”, the nicknames Prince Charles and Camilla had given each other.
Prince William's birth was a ray of sunshine as Diana hoped that things would get better between them but in vain. The Prince resumed his relationship with Camilla and thus began the royal affair. In the 1995 interview with Martin Bashir, Diana made a huge revelation about her 11-year long marriage. She admitted that "It was a bit crowded" as there were "three of us" in the marriage.
Much to Prince Charles' surprise, Diana was smarter than he had imagined. The well-hidden affair of his wasn't a secret and a strong woman like her wasn't going to sit back and watch. So, she decided to confront the third person who was intentionally a part of their marriage. She called it “one of the bravest moments” of her marriage.
It was 1989. Camilla's sister, Annabel Elliot's, 40th birthday was being celebrated at the home of Lady Annabel Goldsmith in London. According to The Mirror, Diana confessed that she wasn't being expected to attend the "ghastly" event and Prince Charles wouldn't stop nagging her about it. She said, “He [Charles] needled me the whole way down to Ham Common, trying to bait me,” she continued, “‘Why are you coming tonight?’ Needle, needle, needle the whole way down. I didn’t bite, but I was very, very on edge.”
She had thought about the whole situation and the way she was going to greet Camilla as well. In a recording secretly taped by her friend at Kensington Palace in 1991, she said, “I walk into the house and stick my hand out to Camilla for the first time, and think ‘phew got over that.’” This was her "big step."
At one point Prince Charles and Camilla were nowhere to be seen and Diana admitted that it "disturbed her" but she went on a search to find them. “I know what I’m going to confront myself with,” she said and continued, “They tried to stop me from going downstairs. ‘Diana, don’t go down there.” "I’m just going to find my husband."
What she found was a “happy little threesome going on” with Charles, Camilla, and another man deep in conversation.
She revealed, “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,” and continued, “And I said, ‘Camilla, I’d love to have a word with you, if possible,’" to which she replied with an uncomfortable "‘Oh yes, all right.’"
According to Pop Sugar, in the controversial biography Diana: Her True Story by Andrew Morton, Diana recalled, “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’. The awkward rendezvous made Prince Charles run which Diana divulged as, “They shot upstairs like chickens with no heads and I could feel, upstairs, all hell breaking loose. ‘What is she going to do?’"
Continuing, she said, “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,'" to which Camilla replied, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.’"
“I said ‘I know what’s going on between you and Charles, and I just want you to know that.'" Diana said. “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?’"
Diana replied, "I want my husband. Don’t treat me like an idiot.”
The ride back home with the Prince was “like a bad rash" and “I cried like I have never cried before,” she said. She described the next morning as a new day, “I’d done something, said what I felt."
She told Prince Charles that he could ask Camilla about the candid confrontation as there were "no secrets."
The pair announced their separation in 1992 and finalized it in 1996. Diana had worked for the betterment of those in need all her life, until her last breath. Her tumultuous past was never a hurdle between her and the people she loved. A year after the divorce, the world lost Diana to a tragic accident in August 1997. Prince Charles moved along and tied the knot with Camilla in 2005.
References:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/night-princess-diana-confronted-camilla-21583941
