Prince Charles “starved of affection” before divorce
Letters between two of Prince Charles’ closest friends have recently been uncovered, giving an insight into Charles’ life during the darkest years of his marriage to Diana.
During his marriage, Charles saw psychologist and close personal friend Dr Alan McGlashan. But in late 1995, months before his divorce from Diana, the Prince of Wales abruptly cut all ties with Dr McGlashan.
In letters published in The Mail on Sunday, Dr McGlashan wrote to their mutual friend Sir Laurens Van Der Post (Prince William’s godfather) to see if he had any insight into Charles’ strange behaviour.
Writing to Sir Laurens in November 1995, Dr McGlashan confessed he was “completely mystified” by the treatment he received, adding that in his whole career he’s never had a patient leave him like that.
"You have been, in many ways, my closest friend and I suspect one of the closest people to our mutual friend," Dr McGlashan prefaced the letter by saying.
"I wonder if from that position you could suggest to him I was completely mystified as to how he could, after six or seven years of close relationship, just walk out of the situation without explanation, other than passing references to the pressures of his many duties, which was always so.
"If you find this difficult to suggest, forget it but I feel I should know his reason. No patient has ever left me in this way."
Just days later, a response from Sir Laurens arrived, describing Charles as “misunderstood” and “starved for affection”.
“You, I am certain better than any of us, know how misunderstood and starved he has been of really spontaneous, natural affection – and, indeed, the respect his own natural spirit deserves,” Sir Laurens said, hinting at Charles’ relationships with the Queen and Princess Diana.
“I do not really think that you can think of it as you would with normal people because his life in the last few years has meant that he has terrifyingly less and less time for his “being” as he calls it... and his being is something precious in which you are very important and will always be very important.
“I do not think he has any idea of how long are the intervals between seeing his friends. Even when he was a boy one had discovered that three days was almost a maximum allotment he could give at one particular moment to his friendships,” he added.
“I shall no doubt be seeing him before Christmas and can easily find out the words of reassurance which are already on his lips and have been waiting for a moment to be uttered... There is nobody he respects more than you and he would be terribly upset if he felt he had hurt you and that you might be uneasy about it.”