Diana's will 'not carried out'

2003-01-05 19:23

Natasha Pamplin

London - Princess Diana's mother and sister may have ignored the last wishes she expressed in her will.

This has emerged from a High Court order in which the parents of the princess's 17 godchildren express their dissatisfaction.

The godchildren apparently received only a portion of their inheritance - among other things, a cheap gift from Argos, the catalogue shop.

In a letter which Diana wrote after signing her will, she asked that her personal effects be divided among her sons and godchildren.

In the letter, dated June 2, 1993, Diana bequeathed three quarters of her possessions to her sons. It included her jewellery to give to their wives one day. Her godchildren should have shared the other quarter.

It now seems as if this was never done because these children never received a family or personal heirloom.

Wrapped in old newspapers

One of the children apparently received a watercolour painting that Diana received as a gift from the Argos catalogue collection. At the back of the painting is a note that reads: "A gift to the Princess of Wales from Argos".

One of Diana's other godchildren received a Chinese rabbit and a coffee set.

Shortly after Diana's death, one of her friends, Rosa Monckton, objected about her children's inheritance.

Now, five years after the princess's death, three other children's parents have come forward to complain.

The parents told the Tatler magazine how Diana's eldest sister, Princess Sarah McCorquodale, wrapped the gifts in old newspapers and loaded them into the back of her station wagon.

McCorquodale and Diana's mother, Frances Shand Kydd, were two of the executors of the princess's estate.

It seems as if the parents decided to talk after the court case of Paul Burrel, Diana's butler, who was acquitted of stealing from his late employer.

- News24