Princess Diana's Never-Before Seen Letters to Friends Are Going Up for Auction

• A collection of never-bef0re-seen letters from Princess Diana (opens in new tab) have been unearthed and are going up for auction through David Lay Auctioneers (opens in new tab).
• The letters were written to Diana's friend, Roger Bramble, between August 1990 and May 1997 and were discovered in a cupboard, where they had apparently been kept for more than 23 years.
• The letters include many personal anecdotes from Diana, including about her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, and her feelings about the media circus surrounding her separation from Prince Charles.

Princess Diana (opens in new tab) fans take note: A set of new, previously-unseen letters from the late royal have been unearthed and are going up for auction.

There are almost 40 letters total in the set, all of which were written by Diana to her close friend, Roger Bramble, the former Lord High Sheriff of Westminster. Many of the letters were written in the early '90s, when Diana was dealing with the breakdown of her marriage to Prince Charles (opens in new tab).

David Lay Auctioneers (opens in new tab), the group handling the auction, describes the set as, "a unique, never-before-seen collection of nearly 40 letters and cards written by the Princess of Wales to a close family friend."

The letters and cards, written between August 7, 1990 and May 16, 1997, were found in a "cupboard in a country farmhouse" where they were stored for more than 23 years, according to the auction site (opens in new tab).

"The letters reveal a witty and intelligent hand with a great generosity of spirit. The recipient believes his place in her story was only as a constant, always independent of what else might have been happening at the same time," the official auction description reads. "He had known the Princess since childhood and has now given the letters to a younger relation to handle as he sees fit. We are fortunate that this person has now decided to share these letters with the wider public."

The collection contains a number of letters, including one from October 1993 that mentions her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry (opens in new tab).

"The boys were thrilled to be included in such adult conversation!" Diana wrote after a lunch with friends, including Bramble, that her sons attended. "A memory never to be erased was seeing you receive your gong — A first for William and yourself!"

In another highlight from the collection, Diana writes (opens in new tab) of her "ghastly week" in a letter dated June 12, 1992—the same week that the Sunday Times began serializing Andrew Morton's biography, Diana: In Her Own Words, igniting a media firestorm about Diana and Charles' marital troubles. 

So why are these very private and personal letters being auctioned off? According to the person selling them, to help the public learn more about Diana as a person.

"I certainly cannot bring myself to destroy or even archive and forget such a valuable treasure trove from the hand of such an influential person," the unnamed seller said, according to the auction's website. "We have our memories and I very much hope these original and delightful letters will give the new owners the same enjoyment and, before the sale, help the public to learn more about the Princess as a real person rather than relying solely on contemporary portrayals of her life."

The full collection is set to be sold off in 36 individual lots on March 18, 2021. More information about the letters and the auction is available here (opens in new tab)