Diana, Princess of Wales, was regarded by officials at the time as far more adept than Prince Charles when it came to managing — and manipulating — the media during their bitter separation in the mid-1990s.
Contemporary assessments suggest the late princess and her team worked tirelessly to dominate headlines and outshine the royal household, as tensions between the couple spilled into the public domain.
The claims emerge from official documents dated 1995, released as part of the National Archives of Ireland’s annual publication of state records, offering fresh insight into the royal media conflict that preceded their divorce a year later.
Royal Media Strategy During a Turbulent Separation
At the time, Prince Charles — now King Charles III — travelled to Ireland in June 1995 as part of a carefully planned effort to rebuild his public image amid mounting scrutiny of his private life.
According to officials, the visit was considered a major success by his advisers. One assessment described it as the “best public outing the Prince has had in a very long time,” reflecting optimism within his team that the tide of public opinion could be turned.
However, that optimism was short-lived, as insiders anticipated a swift response from the Princess of Wales’s camp.
Princess Diana’s Team ‘Devoted’ to Outshining the Palace
Joe Hayes, an official with Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs, recorded a conversation with Charles’s press secretary, Sandy Henney, shortly after the visit. He noted she believed Diana’s staff would soon make contact to organise a competing trip of their own.
“I took this as a joke until she repeated it and assured me that in the media battle between the two, the Princess was by far the more predatory and skilled and her staff devoted a great deal of time to finding ways and means of upstaging St James’ Palace,” Hayes wrote.
The remarks highlight the intensity of the so-called briefing war between the estranged couple, as both sides sought to influence press coverage and public sympathy.
BBC Interview and the Breakdown of the Royal Marriage
The media conflict reached a critical point later in 1995 when Diana gave her now-famous BBC Panorama interview, in which she stated there were “three of us in this marriage” — a reference to Camilla Parker Bowles, now Queen Camilla.
That interview, watched by millions, fundamentally reshaped public perceptions of the royal marriage and remains one of the most defining moments of Diana’s public life.
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Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a car crash in Paris in 1997, two years after the interview and one year after her divorce from Prince Charles.
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