‘A loss to the royal family and the nation’: Princess Diana’s close friend Rosa Monckton shares unseen snap of daughter Domenica with Prince Harry in sadness at Megxit
- Rosa Monckton, 66, tweeted picture of Domenica Lawson as a child with Harry
- Domenica, Diana’s goddaughter, who has Down’s Syndrome, clutches her doll
- She smiles besides the young Prince who crouches down next to her and the doll
- Monckton wrote: ‘Farewell Harry. Such a loss to the royal family and the nation’
Princess Diana’s close friend Rosa Monckton has shared a never-seen-before picture of her daughter snuggled up to Prince Harry – whose abdication she lamented as ‘a loss to the royal family and the nation’.
The businesswoman, 66, tweeted the picture of Domenica Lawson, who has Down’s Syndrome, as a child with the young prince.
Domenica, 24, Diana’s goddaughter, is photographed clutching a doll and smiling beside Harry who crouches down next to her.
The businesswoman, 66, tweeted the picture of 24-year-old Domenica Lawson as a child with the young prince (shown)
Monckton was one of Diana’s best friends and one of the last to see the Princess alive (pictured together during the Bond Street Christmas lights switch on in 1993)
Her emotionally-charged tweet (pictured) came after the Queen released a statement ironing out the details of Harry and Meghan’s future outside the Royal ranks
The heartfelt caption read: ‘Domenica and Harry. Farewell Prince Harry. Such a loss to the royal family and the nation.’
Monckton was one of Diana’s best friends and one of the last to see the Princess alive.
The pair holidayed together in Greece a fortnight before the Royal was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997.
Her emotionally-charged tweet came after the Queen released a statement ironing out the details of Harry and Meghan’s future outside the Royal ranks.
In a complete severance from Family duties, the pair (pictured in London last week) will no longer use their HRH titles and will pay back £2.4million spent on refurbishing Frogmore Cottage
In a complete severance from Family duties, the pair will no longer use their HRH titles and will pay back £2.4million spent on refurbishing Frogmore Cottage.
Monckton met Diana in 1991 when they were introduced by the wife to the then Brazilian ambassador Lúcia Flecha de Lima.
Diana is pictured with Domenica at her christening
She quickly became one of the Princess’s most trusted confidantes and, reflecting on their bond, told the Times in 2017: ‘The reason our friendship was so strong was because she was so needy at that time. It was straight into, ”I’m so unhappy, I don’t know what to do”.’
Monckton, a jeweller, has previously revealed her, Diana and Flecha de Lima called themselves ‘The Three Musketeers’ and even wore matching brooches.
The brooches, commissioned by Monckton, are in the shape of a cloak and dagger, symbolising the fun they had avoiding the glare of the flashbulbs together on secret holidays to Bali and Greece.
She described Diana as a ‘really hands-on godmother. Extraordinarily’.
The daughter of the late Gilbert Walter Riversdale Monckton, 2nd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, Monckton is an active disabilities campaigner.
Inspired by her daughter, Rosa started a Brighton-based charity, Team Domenica, which funds work training and placements for learning-disabled young men and women.
When another daughter, Natalia, was stillborn, Diana arranged to have her buried in the gardens at Kensington Palace.