Charles 'had pact to stay with Diana for five years'

Prince Charles made a secret "pact" with Prince Philip allowing him to leave Princess Diana after five years and return to Camilla Parker Bowles if his marriage did not work out.

The princess's butler, Paul Burrell, claims it made Diana feel she had been offered to the royal family on a "sale or return" basis, and she confronted Philip about the deal in a letter. Burrell also reveals Charles devastated the princess by saying he "did not love her and never had" during a bitter row.

In a new chapter of his bestseller A Royal Duty, Burrell claims he saw Diana's note, written in 1992. He says it read: "This made me feel as if I was being offered to your family on a saleor-return basis.

"I have a husband who does not love me any more and, by his own admission, never has," she added.

Senior palace aides say Prince Philip is furious about the claims and sources say he strenuously denies them. In a reply to Diana he wrote: "I cannot imagine anyone in their right mind leaving you for Camilla."

But Burrell writes in the Daily Mirror, which is serialising his new chapter: "It is worth emphasising that it was not a figment of her imagination but had been planted in her mind by Prince Charles himself, during a fierce row.

"In the heat of the moment Prince Charles had told his wife that he had always had his father's blessing - from the outset of the marriage - to return to Camilla if the princess did not make him happy."

Burrell also notes that the marriage did in fact break up after five years.