When Princess Diana died after a Paris car crash and Prince Charles needed his mother Queen Elizabeth II the most, she turned her back on him, according to a royal expert.
So instead, after receiving the horrific news of his ex-wife’s accident, Charles turned to Camilla Parker Bowles for comfort.
WATCH: Prince Charles captivated by Camilla Parker Bowles
Writing in her book The Duchess, a biography about Camilla, Penny Juror said that on the night of the crash, the Queen just wasn’t there for Charles, even though they were both staying at Balmoral together.
“Never was the relationship between the prince and his mother thrown more starkly into relief than it was on that terrible night,” Penny told the Daily Mail.
“There they were, just feet away in their separate rooms, divided by paper-thin walls, but they didn’t go to one another either for comfort or to discuss logistics.”
Charles turned to Camilla for comfort – even though this was only by telephone, as she was hundreds of miles away at her home at the time.
When reports came in that Diana had been injured in the crash, on August 31, 1997, it was initially thought that she might survive.
But when news reached Charles in the early hours of the next morning that she had died, it was Camilla who he called.
“Camilla had first thought that Diana’s injuries amounted to little more than a broken arm – which is what Charles had been told,” Penny wrote in her book.
“So when he rang at 3.45am with the news that Diana had just died on the operating table, she was as shocked as he was – and terrified for him.”
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