Royal Rumpus Roils Britain

Princess Diana was deeply distressed by a series of insulting letters from her father-in-law Prince Philip, former royal butler Paul Burrell was quoted as saying.

According to newspaper reports, the prince branded Diana a "harlot" and a "trollop" and warned her she was damaging the royal family.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment, saying letters between members of the royal family were a private matter.

In the latest of a string of exclusive interviews with the Daily Mirror tabloid, Burrell on Monday confirmed the existence of the letters. He refused to be drawn on their content, but added: "I know the hurt these letters caused Diana."

The princess's apparent strained relationship with her in-laws has been widely discussed in Britain's tabloid press over the years.

Andrew Morton, who had Diana's help in preparing a book about her life, wrote that she had been hurt by four letters from Prince Philip. According to Morton's book, "Diana: Her True Story," the letters were "by turns bitter, reproachful, conciliatory (after a fashion) and condemnatory," but did not reveal their contents.

In an interview with The Mail on Sunday newspaper, Diana's friend Simone Simmons said she had read the letters.

"They were the nastiest letters Diana had ever received," the tabloid quoted Simmons as saying. "She had death threats which were worded nicer than his letters."

The newspaper said Simmons was a friend and confidante of the princess for four years and acted as her faith healer from 1993. Simmons told the tabloid Diana showed her a bundle of letters, written after her separation from Charles in December 1992, and asked her to read them.

"There seemed no real purpose to them other than upsetting Diana," she was quoted as saying.

Simmons told the newspaper the prince called Diana a "harlot" and a "trollop," was also insulting to Sarah Ferguson, the former wife of Prince Andrew, and said Diana should learn to cope with Prince Charles' relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles.

"He wrote words along the lines of if Charles has someone else, she should put up with it," Simmons added.

Diana said in a 1995 television interview her marriage to Charles ended because he was in love with Parker Bowles, and referred to her as the third person in her marriage.

Burrell, who was acquitted of stealing hundreds of items from Diana's estate, told the Mirror that Simmons was a close friend of the princess "who was entrusted with her personal documentation."

The former royal butler has sparked a frenzy in the tabloid press by selling his story to the newspaper for a reported $620,000.

Newspapers whose bids for his story were rejected have attacked Burrell, calling him a royal outcast, and alleging he has had homosexual relationships.

Burrell, who is married with two children, dismissed the reports.

"All that is relevant is that I have a wife and two boys and we are not going to give in to the vicious and disgusting slurs thrown at us," said Burrell, who was in New York.