The "other" woman who really drove Princess Diana to despair
Before Princess Diana married Prince Charles, she suspected the royal heir of still having feelings for Camilla Parker Bowles. However, she was not the only woman the Princess of Wales suspected to be interfering with their marriage.
Following the separation of the royal couple, Tiggy Legge-Bourke was hired as a nanny for the two sons they shared, Prince William and Prince Harry. Tiggy went on to become a beloved fixture for both the royal boys, and reports suggest eventually Princess Di became suspicious of the nanny’s closeness to Prince Charles.
According to news.com.au, an altercation took place between Tiggy and Princes Diana at a Christmas party in 1995, where 100 or so guests and staff members of the Prince and Princess of Wales were celebrating another year of work underneath the joint office of both Prince Charles and Princess Di.
Eyewitness accounts said Princess Di said in a loud voice that was enough for others to hear she was “so sorry to hear about the baby,” to Tiggy which resulted in the young nanny bursting into tears and fleeing the room.
Diana’s private secretary, Patrick Jephson, also revealed the royal had him reach out to her estranged husband to ask for clarification on Tiggy’s role in their children’s lives.
“On her instructions, I drafted letters from the Princess to her husband pointedly asking for clarification of Tiggy’s duties and asking to be involved in decisions concerning her contact with the boys,” he explained.
“I do not think she ever got an entirely satisfactory answer, but I doubt if one was possible. It was hard for her to be content with the reality of her reduced influence over her children’s activities.”
While these rumours still circulate today, there is no doubt both Prince William and Prince Harry remain close to their former beloved nanny, who went on to marry her childhood sweetheart Charles Pettifer.
Later on, they became the godfathers to Tiggy’s children, Fred and Tom, and more recently she was spotted as a guest to the private christening of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s son, Archie Harrison Mountbatten Windsor.