Diana’s team devoted time to ‘upstaging’ Charles, newly-released documents claim
Newly declassified documents have revealed that Diana, Princess of Wales was seen as “much more” adept at manipulating the media landscape than the then-Prince Charles of Wales.
Documents from the National Archives of Ireland reveal that Diana’s staff were actively engaged in “showing off” St James’s Palace during their highly publicized separation.
These files also shed light on Charles’ two-day visit to Ireland in June 1995, following his separation from Diana in 1992.
His inner circle reportedly viewed extensive coverage of this trip as a key component of “a long-term public relations strategy to rehabilitate the Prince in the eyes of the British public” following their high-profile divorce.
Charles’ press team, led by his press secretary Alan Percival and his successor Sandy Henney, informed Irish officials that they thought the visit to Ireland was “the Prince’s best public trip in a long time”.
In the Irish Foreign Office document, Ms Henney was described as “fiercely loyal” to Charles and “seizing every opportunity to further his cause”.
A State Department memo shows officials are unsure whether she was joking when she suggested Diana might also want to visit Ireland.
“Henney (who was less aware of the political dimension than the more reserved Percival) told me that the Prince would be here again before the end of the summer if he had a say in the matter,” according to the document.
“He also noted that if practice to date is any guide, we can expect an approach from Princess Diana soon!”
Foreign Office official Joe Hayes added: “I took it as a joke until he repeated it himself and assured me that in the media war between the two the Princess was far more ferocious and skilled and that her staff had spent a lot of time trying to find ways and means to outshine St James’s Palace.”
Charles’ officials agreed with Irish diplomats that the visit to the UK, while positive, compared with that in Ireland was “relatively light”.
Officials on both sides of the Irish Sea noted that, unlike extensive coverage in Ireland, coverage of the visit in the UK was “relatively subdued, although positive” in tone.
This article is based on documents contained in file labeled 2025/124/160 at the National Archives of Ireland.
