The royals - Kitty Kelley [147]
An avid tennis player, Diana attended the finals at Wimbledon but left the royal box before U.S. tennis star John McEnroe won. He had objected to thirteen calls, shouted obscenities, and cursed the umpire. “I always get robbed because of the fucking umpires in this country,” he snarled.
“The wedding’s off now,” said one television commentator, watching the abrupt exit. “Lady Di’s ears are no longer virgin.”
In the tea room below, Diana met the Wimbledon women’s champion, Chris Evert, who asked why Prince Charles was not with her.
“He can never sit still,” said Diana. “He is like a great big baby. But one day I hope to calm him down enough to enjoy it.”
Diana admitted to the tennis star that she was nervous about getting married. “I assured her that marriage was great, and she had nothing to be concerned about,” said Evert, then married to the British tennis star John Lloyd, whom she later divorced. “I told her to relax and think about other things.”
The men who worked for Prince Charles also tried to be reassuring and help Diana ease into her future responsibilities. They showed her the daily and monthly events calendar and explained the tour schedule, which was planned six months in advance. Her only concern was the Prince’s relationships with other women. His staff did not know how to deal with her persistent and personal questions. “I asked Charles if he was still in love with Camilla Parker Bowles,” Diana said to Francis Cornish, “and he didn’t give me a clear answer. What am I to do?” His assistant personal secretary lowered his eyes and changed the subject.
A few days later Michael Colborne, who was Charles’s personal assistant, faced more uncomfortable queries. On his desk Diana had found a bracelet Colborne had ordered for Charles as a farewell present for his mistress. The gold bracelet with a lapis lazuli stone was engraved with the initials G.F. [Girl Friday]. Diana pressed Colborne about the gift and asked to know whom it was for. “I know it’s for Camilla,” she said. “So why won’t you admit it? What does it mean? Why is Charles doing this?” Reluctantly Colborne acknowledged that he had ordered the present, but he refused to answer any more questions. He, too, lost his job shortly after the wedding.
Diana confronted Charles, who admitted that the bracelet from Asprey’s was for Camilla Parker Bowles. He said he intended to give her the present in person to say good-bye. He maintained that the farewell gift would put a full stop to their affair. Diana didn’t believe him. They quarreled, and she ran out of his office in tears. She later confided to her sisters that she didn’t want to marry a man who was still in love with his mistress. “It’s bad luck, Duch,” said her sister Sarah, using the family nickname for Diana. “Your face is on the tea towels, so you’re too late to chicken out now.” For weeks feminists had been wearing buttons that warned, “Don’t Do It, Di!”
The next day Diana retaliated by striking Camilla’s name from the guest list for the wedding breakfast. She also crossed off the name of Lady Dale “Kanga” Tryon. She could not keep them from the wedding, but she insisted they be barred from the breakfast. Charles, who had grown up watching his father shuffle mistresses like a deck of cards, decided not to press the issue with his edgy fiancée. He told his private secretary that he didn’t understand Diana’s sudden moods and sulks, and her crying jags unnerved him. He also said he was alarmed by what one of his equerries had told him about her sitting hunched in a chair for hours