The deadly avalanche, which happened in the Swiss resort of Klosters, saw the King’s friend and former equerry to the Queen, Major Hugh Lindsay, killed, with Charles on the slope with his friend when the tragedy occurred.
Neither the Princess of Wales nor the Duchess of York, who were also on the skiing holiday, were on the mountain when the avalanche occurred, and in Andrew Morton’s book, Diana: Her True Story, which was written from transcripts from the late Princess of Wales, the reason for her absence was revealed.
“I had flu, I had been in bed for two days. Third day in bed,” Diana said of the day tragedy struck, before explaining that Sarah Ferguson returned to the chalet to join her.
“Both of us were in the chalet and we heard this helicopter go up. I said to her: ‘There’s been an avalanche,’ and she said: ‘Something’s gone wrong.'”
The two royal wives were left in the dark about what had happened. They were informed a member of the party had died, but Diana continued: “Fergie and I, and we didn’t know who it was.”
Upon learning of their friend’s tragic death, King Charles, Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson travelled back to the UK with Hugh Lindsay’s body, where his wife, Sarah, who worked at Buckingham Palace, was waiting.
King Charles has since returned to the resort where tragedy struck, most recently in 2022, but also in the early 2000s with Princes William and Harry, where the royals posed for official photo calls.
