One of the most infamous and longstanding celebrity rumors ever was actually confirmed this year by one of its direct subjects. The rumor was that Princess Diana sent a letter to Burt Reynolds sarcastically thanking him for distracting the press from her for a few days with his own troubles. The story was confirmed by Reynolds’ ex-wife Loni Anderson in an interview on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.
Anderson and Reynolds were married from 1988 to 1993, and their breakup shook the celebrity gossip world to its core. That was a boon to Princess Diana in a way, who was suffering constant tabloid harassment over her own troubles with Prince Charles at the time. Anderson told Cohen that she did indeed send a joking thank-you letter to them, commiserating with their plight in the process.
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“Yes, that’s true,” she said simply. The story came out during a segment where fans got a chance to ask guests their own questions via video chat during Watch What Happens Live. Cohen and the other guests marveled at the story but did not ask any follow-ups. Instead, Cohen moved on to another question about Anderson’s marriage to Reynolds.
Both Anderson and Reynolds had been married before when they first tied the knot in 1988. They even adopted a son together named Quinton. According to a report by ABC News, the two split up over infidelity when Reynolds claimed he had fallen in love with a cocktail waitress. After his divorce from Anderson, Reynolds was buried in lawsuits from the waitress.
This scandal was enough to distract the public from Princess Diana, at least for a time. Apparently, she had enough of a sense of humor about it to reach out to Reynolds. In 1992 and 1993, recordings of telephone conversations including both Prince Charles and Princess Diana leaked, fueling months’ worth of headlines about “Camillagate.”
Prince Charles and Princess Diana separated in 1992 and finalized their divorce in 1996. It was a tumultuous story that spanned over a decade and still haunts many onlookers to this day. As for Princess Diana, she never fully escaped unwanted press coverage. In August of 1997, she died in a car crash in Paris, France, allegedly while fleeing paparazzi.
Public interest in Princess Diana’s story has seen a massive resurgence in recent years, thanks in large part to the Netflix original series The Crown. It has been fueled this month by the premiere of Oprah with Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special, which gave the average person another look behind the curtain into royal life.
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