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Diana, mother's four-month silence
LONDON, England -- Diana, Princess of Wales and her mother did not speak to each other for the last four months of her life, a London court has been told. But details of what caused the family row were not disclosed. London's historic Old Bailey criminal court heard during witness testimony from her mother, Mrs. Frances Shand Kydd, that Princess Diana's relationships with members of her immediate blood family were fraught, and lengthy rifts were common. Diana's former butler Paul Burrell, 44, denies stealing 310 items from the princess, Prince William and Prince Charles. Frail Shand Kydd, 66, gripped a wooden walking stick for support and answered questions in barely more than a croak and steadfastly refused to look at Burrell, who sat 20 feet away in the dock. Shand Kydd was divorced from Diana's father, the eighth Earl Spencer, and for the past 30 years has lived on the remote Scottish island of Seil. Alex Carlile, QC, defending Burrell, suggested the rift between mother and daughter "arose as a result of an argument that you and she had had about her private life and the company she was keeping." Shand Kydd replied firmly: "No." Carlile: "She was a single woman and perfectly entitled if she wished to have relations with whosoever she wished." "Yes," Shand Kydd replied. Carlile: "But the profound nature of that last quarrel was because you did not approve of some of the people with which she had personal relations?" "Incorrect," Shand Kydd told the court.
The judge, Mrs. Justice Rafferty interrupted. "I am not complaining, but want the jury to concentrate on Mr. Burrell's dishonesty as alleged." Carlile had earlier asked Shand Kydd whether the princess "like many of us, could sometimes be a little tempestuous". "Yes," agreed her mother. Shand-Kydd told Carlile that during the last four months of Diana's life when they were not speaking she had sent letters to the princess and that they had been returned unopened with messages to that effect in Diana's handwriting. Shand Kydd said Burrell had misinterpreted the description of himself as the Princess's "rock." "I think that is a slight misinterpretation by Mr. Burrell when he said she called him my rock. It is a term which she used for many people. "She called me her rock and star." Earlier Shand Kydd said belongings of Diana which were found in the home of her former butler Burrell should have been under lock and key. She said items taken from Kensington Palace by Burrell should have remained there or in the Spencer family archives at the family's country house, Althorp. Shand Kydd was shown a set of photographs of china and crockery with the Prince of Wales crest on it, and asked where the princess would keep it. She said: "In a safe in her own home -- nothing which received the royal cypher ever left a place of safety."
Prosecutor William Boyce then asked her where photographs of the princess, the Prince of Wales and their children should have been. "In her family house under lock and key -- they were totally private and personal," she replied. Asked whether Burrell had ever informed her he was retaining some property, she replied: "Never." Later Shand Kydd admitted in court shredding a large amount of documents belonging to Diana over many days while she sat on a sofa drinking wine. Carlile added that on one occasion Shand Kydd and her two other daughters Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes went to Apartment Nine at Kensington Palace and took away a "large quantity" of Diana's clothes from three storage rooms. They took them away in a large estate car belonging to Lady Sarah and another car belonging to Lady Fellowes. Carlile said: "These were items that were removed for the use of you three ladies." Shand Kydd said: "We were all the same size."
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