Diana's Love Letters Stolen

Private letters written by Princess Diana to her lover James Hewitt during their 1989-91 affair have been handed over to Kensington Palace after a woman attempted to sell them to a tabloid newspaper. Hewitt's fiancée, Anna Ferretti, 39, tried to sell 62 handwritten letters to editors of the Mirror for $250,000, saying she wanted to sell them before Hewitt did, the paper claims. The letters ("said to be highly personal and emotional," according to the rival Daily Mail, revealing Diana's "innermost thoughts about the collapse of her marriage") reportedly had been taken from a safe at Hewitt's home Wednesday while he was abroad on business. The Mirror said it had agreed to pay Ferretti $1,670 in cash as a first installment in the supposed deal. The Mirror handed over the bundle to Kensington Palace, the princess's former home, with a formal letter promising not to publish or reproduce copies, according to the Mirror and two other tabloid newspapers.