ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 4, 1996 TAG: 9602060022
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LONDON
SOURCE: Associated Press
Prince Charles has agreed on a financial plan to support Princess Diana after a divorce, including $1.5 million a year for expenses and $9 million for a London house, a tabloid reported today.
The heir to the British throne and his wife, who separated in 1992, have not said they are divorcing. But after weeks of legal negotiations, the couple reached a financial settlement for a divorce, according to an unattributed report in The Mail on Sunday.
Independent confirmation of the report was impossible. But in the past, tabloids have been accurate in many of their reports on the couple's marital problems.
The settlement includes $22.5 million in investments to yield the annual income needed to maintain the princess in her present style, the newspaper said.
Lawyers estimate Diana needs at least $1.5 million a year, after taxes, to cover expenses including her clothes, her staff and their subsistence, the report said.
Queen Elizabeth II sent letters to Charles and Diana in December saying it was time to divorce. Charles immediately agreed. But the princess has said she was considering her decision.
The letters followed Diana's BBC television interview in which she discussed her husband's adultery, admitted having an affair herself, questioned Charles' fitness to be king and said she wanted to be an ambassador for Britain.
According to The Mail on Sunday, Charles will personally buy a new home in London for Diana worth about $9 million, plus a $1.5 million country home, because his mother has made it clear she will not bear the cost.
The princess also has insisted that should she remarry and have more children, the queen must award them a hereditary royal title. Buckingham Palace has said this would be impossible if she were to marry a commoner.
``Buckingham Palace is determined that Diana should not be able to set up a rival royal court. But she is determined to drive a hard bargain,'' the tabloid quoted an unidentified royal source as saying.
Disagreement also continues over Diana's demands to remain a senior member of the royal family with a title, the newspaper said. The princess' advisers were told by Charles' camp that Diana could be called the Duchess of Cornwall or Her Former Royal Highness.
Diana's reaction was reportedly ``extremely frosty.''
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