Camilla's Precious Mistake Jewels And The Crown

The Duchess is Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place

- Andrew Mackintosh

Diamonds are forever, according to the famous film. And for many royal fans, one particular diamond and emerald necklace represents something particularly precious – their enduring love for Diana, Princess of Wales.

But Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, committed the sin of turning the necklace into a brooch, and that’s beyond the pale for staunch fans of the late People’s Princess, who see it as an insult to her memory.

“Has she no shame?” wrote one critic on social media. “Poor taste,” commented a second. Many more comments were vitriolic – and unprintable.

Says another: “You would think Prince Charles’ current wife would be especially careful about what she does with anything once worn by the late princess. So many royal fans are appalled about what the Duchess of Cornwall did with a necklace they remember seeing on Diana.”

The palace views the controversy rather differently. “It’s another excuse to damn the duchess,” says an aide. “Every time she does anything remotely to do with the princess, or if an anniversary comes up, she gets a ton of bricks thrown at her. But the venom has reduced over the years – it’s two steps forward, one step back.”

However, there are those who will never forgive Camilla for her role as, in Diana’s words, the third person in her marriage to Prince Charles.

As royal author Penny Junor puts it, “Camilla will never be universally loved because of the early scandal. Some people find adultery unacceptable… while others are so loyal to Diana’s memory that they will not entertain the possibility she had any of the frailties that make us human.”

In fact, the necklace, famously worn at a gala in Vienna in 1986, was never Diana’s and had not always been a necklace.