Though it’s been decades since Princess Diana‘s tragic death and Prince Charles‘ remarriage to Camilla Parker Bowles, new details about the trio’s tumultuous relationship continue to emerge. In his new book, Rebel Prince: The Power and Passion and Defiance of Prince Charles, author Tom Bower has claimed that Charles and Camilla once plotted to publicly portray Diana as “unbalanced and unfaithful” in order for Camilla to be more well-liked.

According to Bower, Charles and Camilla worked with their PR rep and assistant private secretary Mark Bolland to devise a plan to attack Diana’s image. They reportedly wanted to “demythologize Diana by portraying her as a manipulative hysteric,” following her August 1997 death at age 36.

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Charles and Diana (left) and Charles and Camilla (right). (Photo Credit: Getty Images)

The couple — who famously had an extramarital affair while Charles was married to Diana — then allegedly worked with author Penny Junor to portray the People’s Princess as “an unbalanced and unfaithful wife, suffering from a borderline personality disorder, who had compelled Charles to return to his true love,” Bower revealed.

Prior to their royal wedding in April 2005, Charles and Camilla worked for years to change the public’s perception of Camilla in the wake of Diana’s passing. According to Bower, the duo regularly stepped out at charity functions together and even took a trip to NYC to meet with journalists and high society individuals.

Despite Charles and Camilla’s efforts to sway royal fans, the Prince’s mother, Queen Elizabeth, reportedly did not like Camilla and never thought they would marry during her lifetime. In his book, Bower wrote that the monarch once called Camilla a “wicked woman” and wanted “nothing to do with her.”

Bower explained that in the summer of 1998, Charles went to the Queen to discuss his relationship with Camilla and Elizabeth vehemently disapproved of their romance. “On that evening she’d had several martinis, and to Charles’s surprise, she replied forcefully: she would not condone his adultery, nor forgive Camilla for not leaving Charles alone to allow his marriage to recover,” Bower wrote. “She vented her anger that he had lied about his relationship with what she called ‘that wicked woman,’ and added: ‘I want nothing to do with her.'”

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Camilla, Charles, and Queen Elizabeth. (Photo Credit: Getty Images)

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