In a stinging public slap, Prince Charles says he never loved Princess Diana and didn't want to marry her.
The frank revelations in an authorized biography have upset several members of the royal family - not to mention Diana. The Daily Mirror on Monday quoted an unidentified friend of the princess as saying she was "numb" over the
news."She is devastated. She can hardly believe what her husband has done to her," the friend said. "On the advice of her friends, and presumably her lawyers, she is keeping her head down and saying nothing."
The 45-year-old prince - in a stunning departure from royal tradition - bared his soul in the biography, which began appearing in serial form in The Sunday Times newspaper on Sunday.
"How could I have got it all so wrong?" Charles lamented in one letter in 1986, five years into his marriage. Diana, 33, and Charles, who have two sons, separated in December 1992.
Many observers saw the book as a huge gamble by Queen Elizabeth II's eldest son and heir: An apparent attempt to revive acceptance for him as the future king by being unusually frank.
To the dismay of traditionalists, Charles gave author Jonathan Dimbleby long interviews and unprecedented access to private letters and diaries for the book, "The Prince of Wales."
Buckingham Palace said Sunday that Charles had no regrets about cooperating with the biography, which describes him as trapped in a nightmare marriage with a bored, bulimic, self-absorbed and obsessively jealous young wife.
In June, Charles acknowledged being unfaithful to Diana. But he said it was only after their marriage had collapsed.
Questioned by Dimbleby during a June television interview, Charles said that Camilla Parker Bowles, 47, who is widely reputed to be his mistress, was and would remain among his closest friends.
The biography, to be published Nov. 3, depicts Charles' father, Prince Philip, as a domineering father who forced his son into a loveless marriage.
Philip, 73, was tight-lipped when asked about the book in an interview published in The Daily Telegraph Monday. "I've never discussed private matters," Philip was quoted as saying.
"I'd rather not get involved in it. I've never made any comment about any member of the family in 40 years and I'm not going to start now," Philip
said. Under the headline "War of the Windsors," the Daily Mail quoted an unidentified senior aide and friend to Philip as criticizing Charles and his advisers over the book.
"The advice (Charles) has received has been disastrous. I would not expect anyone to criticize their parents in public," the aide was quoted as saying.
On Sunday, Major's Downing Street office felt compelled to dismiss a report in The Sun newspaper that Major planned to advise Charles to divorce Diana as soon as possible to save the monarchy.
"The Prince of Wales" is but the latest book about the failed marriages of Queen Elizabeth II's elder sons, Charles and Prince Andrew.
Only two weeks ago, Diana's former riding instructor, ex-army Maj. James Hewitt, claimed in a book that he had a five-year affair with the princess starting in 1986.