Afternoon:
9°c
Princess Diana opened her Christmas presents weeks early, letters reveal
22 Dec 2009Diana, Princess of Wales could not resist opening her Christmas presents weeks early, private unseen letters revealed today.
More than 30 notes and greeting cards written by the Princess to her personal beautician Janet Filderman are to go on sale in February.
The collection, which is expected to fetch between £15,000 and £20,000, showed Diana's impatience during the festive period and her concern Prince William had picked up her bad habit of opening gifts in advance.
In one letter dated December 14, 1985, she wrote on headed Highgrove notepaper: "As promised I rushed home to open your Christmas present, which I thought was quite good going considering the 25th is actually two weeks away!!"
She added: "I could not resist opening my present, as a parcel of any shape or form has never been safe with me and I fear that William has also picked up this dreadful habit from his mother, as I find wrapping paper undone in the most extraordinary places."
Richard Davie, of International Autograph Auctions, said: "They show Diana obviously had this playful side as far as the Christmas period was concerned.
"But they also show her more insecure nature and how she feels the press are hounding her."
The Princess wrote in 1987: "I wish that I could cope with the media and people's thirst for knowledge of us, but after six years I find everything that much more of a struggle and just cannot see a light at the end of the tunnel."
One letter was written on Christmas Day 1987, thanking her beautician for the gift of a photo frame, which Diana intended to use for pictures of William and Harry.
"I can never get enough photograph albums for the amount of pictures I take of my small men and the arrival of yours is just perfect," the Princess said.
* The auction of the Princess's letters to Janet Filderman dated between 1984 - 1990 takes place at the Radisson Edwardian Hotel at Heathrow in London on February 13.
