Prince Charles feared he’d be assassinated at Princess Diana’s funeral, it has been claimed.
The 67-year-old royal was reportedly "extremely nervous" as he walked through the funeral procession with sons Princes William and Harry a week after his ex-wife was killed in a Paris car crash, because the "nasty" onlookers had made it clear they felt he was to blame for the breakdown of his marriage to the tragic princess.
Speaking at Henley Literary Festival, royal biographer Ingrid Seward said: "Prince Charles was extremely nervous because he was public enemy number one.
"He was very fatalistic. He thought, if someone takes a gun out and shoots me, that’s it.
"The streets of London were very quiet. You could hear a pin drop. You could hear everything the crowd was saying. They were saying, ‘Look at him, look at him.’ They were being quite nasty.
"The whole way round he could hear this abuse and he didn’t think he would make it the whole way round."
After Diana’s death, Queen Elizabeth faced criticism for remaining at her Scottish estate Balmoral for too long, and her former press officer, Dickie Arbiter, admitted she was feeling "anxious" about returning to speak with mourners who had gathered outside Buckingham Palace.
He said: "There had been a lot of criticism against the Queen by the media and the fact she remained at Balmoral. She wasn’t nervous but she was a little bit anxious as to what sort of reception she would receive."
And Dickie slammed Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, for the speech he gave at her funeral.
He said: "She had a very bad relationship with her brother. When things were getting on top of her she pleaded with her brother for one of the cottages on his estate and he said "no" on the basis that there would be too many media hanging around.
"So relationship between brother and sister at the time of her death was so far apart that you could have driven a fleet of buses through the gap.
"And yet we had this young man stand up at Westminster Abbey talking about blood relatives and his adoring sister and it was a bit hypocritical."
Prince Charles’ assassination fear
