King Charles sought solace in Balmoral Castle when given taste of his own medicine

The British royal family's Balmoral Estate often remains in the news due to its status as private retreat for the monarch and other members of his family.

The royals  traditionally stay at Balmoral Castle for their summer holidays, which typically takes place from August to September. 

However, they also visit at other times, and King Charles spends more time there throughout the year, including in late December to January and around Easter.

The Balmoral estate sits around 50 miles (80 km) from the nearest city of Aberdeen, spanning 50,000 acres (20,000 hectares) of forestry and farmland and long the queen's favorite summer retreat.

Beside being a private royal retreat, it also holds significance for the current monarch because his mother Queen Elizabeth II died here in September 2022. 

It was also here where King Charles, the then Prince of Wales, had sought solace with his friends and Camilla when he was given what many observers term a taste of his own medicine during the late 1980s.

In his explosive 1993 book titled Diana Vs Charles, veteran journalist James Whitaker wrote that many people believed that Charles's angry withdrawal to Balmoral on September 22, 1987 was a direct result of Princess Diana's friendship with Philip Dunne, the tall dark-haired, Etonian godson of Princess Alexandra.

He wrote although Dunne was involved with international banker Lod Grenfell's daughter Katya at the time, the 26-year-old nevertheless was Princess Diana's cup of tea.

The author wrote that a major scandal looked likely to erupt until the young merchant banker defused the situation which had set tongues wagging after Diana reportedly spent a night at Dunne's family home, Gately Park in Herefordshire, in the absence of his parents.

The man later clarified in extremely forceful terms that dozen other friends had also been present during the night.

During his stay at Balmoral, Charles was "not to see his wife for 37 days, nor did he see his children, Instead he sat in the Scottish estate, fishing, painting, stalking-and sulking, in the company of his friends Lord and Lady Tryon, and the ubiquitous Camilla."

"The news of Diana's weekend with Philip Dunne at Gately Park had surfaced in one of the gossip columns, and Charles had wrongly assumed the worst. That his wife had been unfaithful. Without pausing to inspect his own double standards, he instead flew to Scotland, unclear what to do next."

The 1993 book reveals that as Charles continued to have affair with Camilla, Diana's friends had started wondering whether this was the moment when she, seeing the example set by her husband, would embark on a full-scale love affair.

Quoting one of Diana's friends, the author wrote, "It's unthinkable. Diana has wanted to be Princess of Wales since she was fifteen, and the position means more to her than anything in the world, apart from her children. There's no way she would risk being caught having a silly fling. And anyway it's just not in her nature."

The book reads, "No one who knows here would dare claim that she has been unfaithful to her husband, but to borrow a phrase from the former US president Jimmy Carter, it may be that she would acknowledge that she had sinned in her heart.