UK: QUEEN URGES PRINCE CHARLES AND PRINCESS DIANA TO DIVORCE

(21 Dec 1995) English/Nat

Queen Elizabeth the Second of Great Britain has urged Prince Charles and Princess Diana to agree to a divorce soon.

The Queen made the dramatic intervention in a letter to her eldest son and heir and his estranged wife this week.

The Prince has indicated he agrees, but the Princess's response is not known.

In her now-famous television interview a month ago Diana said she did not want a divorce.

Buckingham Palace's announcement that Queen Elizabeth the Second had urged the Prince and Princess of Wales to divorce soon has come as a shock.

The Queen sent Charles and Diana each a letter explaining her view and expressing her anger and frustration over their public squabbling.

The warring couple have both made long TV documentaries about their marriage troubles, in which both admitted committing adultery.

Diana most recently in her Panorama interview last month.

The story first broke in the British tabloid newspaper The Sun on Thursday, and is the front page story of other daily newspapers.

According to The Sun there is concern at the palace over the damage Charles and Diana's rift is causing the Monarchy as well as its effect on their two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.

In her Panorama interview, Diana stated publicly that she wants to have an ambassadorial role for Britain.

She immediately underlined her claim with high profile visits to the United States and Argentina, where her superstar status has been evident.

There is speculation in Britain that a divorce, which Diana has said she does not want, could be a trade-off in return for Buckingham Palace granting her the ambassadorial role she craves.

As for Prince Charles, he cuts an increasingly lonely figure and does not have the same draw as his estranged wife.

The couple separated in December 1992, but have gone through an unconvincing show of togetherness on public occasions like the VJ Day celebrations last summer, and on Prince William's first day at Eton, Britain's most exclusive boarding school, in September..

Prime Minister John Major was informed of the Queen's decision to ask the unhappy couple to divorce ahead of the public announcement.

The British Royal family has come under increasing public pressure to put its own house in order, or face a continuing decline in public respect.

Certainly Charles and Diana's public washing of their dirty linen has left the Queen increasingly less than amused.

This latest move by the Monarch could be a last drastic attempt to put an end to an embarrassing public scandal and revive the flagging fortunes of the House of Windsor.

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