Letter to the Editor

Dear colleagues and friends,
This letter was submitted but not printed.  I’m posting it because I cannot forget how Charles and Camilla selected Diana, planning for their relationship to continue, and how she was used, manipulated, discarded.   When Charles proposed, he and Camilla were 33 years old, Diana 19.  Diana died when she was 36.  There is no doubt how dearly she loved her sons, and all she contributed to the endurance of the monarchy. Yes, divorce was necessary, but as the mother of a future king, respect and police protection were surely her due.

To the editor:

I write to strongly differ with coverage of King Charles’s “surprising” popularity (September 9-10).  The king's popularity is not one iota surprising.  Charles commands an enormously powerful PR machine, in concert with press, which has successfully reframed the torment that he and (now Queen) Camilla devised for a newly 20 year old, poorly educated innocent, Diana:  She would provide the future of the monarchy, as their relationship continued.  Further, Brits are loyal to their monarchs, wanting to see the best of them. They now offer their king the warmth denied him by his distant mother and emotionally abusive father, and are moved that, unlike Elizabeth who disdained being touched by the public, Charles relishes returning sincere affection. This said, it is important to remember that the cruelty and destruction the monarchy is capable of — which necessitated our separation from them — remains alive and well. They continue to do all possible to destroy the lives and remembrances of those who threaten their power, but in less obvious ways.   

SaraKay Smullens

Philadelphia

To The Wall Street Journal, September 9, 2023