Lady Tryon ("Kanga") and Other Female Friends of Charles


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Duchess

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this may have been discussed before. if it has please excuse me. i know kanga, lady tryon, was a close friend of charles and that in the end she was virtually shunned by the highgrove set. does anyone have any information on her? did she attempt suicide?
 
Duchess said:
this may have been discussed before. if it has please excuse me. i know kanga, lady tryon, was a close friend of charles and that in the end she was virtually shunned by the highgrove set. does anyone have any information on her? did she attempt suicide?

Sadly there are many questions that were raised by her fall from a window, was it an accident, was she pushed or was it a suicide attempt. I don't suppose anyone will ever know.
The official reason for her death 18 months later was septicaemia after a minor op.
Although I think the Highgrove set struggled to cope with her depression and terrible mood swings, from what I remember it was more a case of she distanced herself from them.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=/archive/1997/11/16/ntry16.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=/archive/1997/11/17/ntry17.html
 
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all sounds very sad doesn't it.
 
Duchess said:
this may have been discussed before. if it has please excuse me. i know kanga, lady tryon, was a close friend of charles and that in the end she was virtually shunned by the highgrove set. does anyone have any information on her? did she attempt suicide?
Her daughter Zoe was "home" in Australia last month and said that towards the end of her mother's life things became "very difficult". Lady Tryon's mental state was deteriorating and the family faced the same estrangement as her social circle. It is most likely she fell, accidentally or on purpose, from the window. The subject of suicide is something no family likes to admit or discuss.
 
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How very sad and tragic. I didnt know about her and it saddened me reading those articles. I hope she has found peace where ever she is.
 
I have copied this post of mine from the http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums/f61/new-penny-junor-book-firm-6747.html?highlight=kanga thread.

Emily said:
I thought I read that she ultimately died from injuries following a suicide attempt - "falling" out a window - at a mental health facility where she was being treated. Did anyone else read this? As I recall, after the fall she was confined to a wheelchair and then ultimately died. Can anyone comment on this?
Yes, I think you are right. Lady Tryon received lots of magazine/press coverage here in Australia, and towards the end you could sense something was amiss. She had previously been discreet, but began making statements about her relationship with Charles seemingly designed to reinforce her perceived role as a central figure in his life. It was all very sad, as she was once such a vibrant and fun person.
 
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Sue Townsend

I was recently flicking through an old Hello from 1996, just before C&D's decree absolute was granted. The article mentioned that Charles was becoming close to a lady known as Sue Townsend. The article implied that it was a romantic relationship. I've never heard of the lady before and was wondering if one of the better informed members could maybe shed some light on the lady and her relationshp with Charles.
 
Elspeth said:
She's the author of the satirical book The Queen and I, about what happened when the royal family was turfed out of Buckingham Palace and made to go and live in a working-class area. She wasn't very complimentary about how Prince Charles made the transition, if I remember correctly.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1569470154/102-3934245-3221707?v=glance&n=283155

She's the author of the Adrian Mole books, which were very popular in the 1980s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sue_Townsend

I'm not sure if it's the same person. The Hello article said she was an interior designer who'd helped with the re-decoration around 1996.

The only reason it caught my eye was because I've never heard of Chalres being linked with a woman besides Camilla. Although it was Hello so it may well be fairly inaccurate.
 
Sue Townsend was in charge of Duchy Originals and resigned in Jan. 1998. Apparently she was going too far from Charles' original concept.I don't know how long she worked there or if she had any romantic link to Charles.
 
part 2

Sue Townsend worked from 1995-1997 for the Duchy Originals.

But I did some research since none of the Sue Townsends mentioned have anything to do with design. There is a Sue Townsend that does garden design which I thought was interesting considering Charles' love of gardening.
Does anyone know who is into the gardening at Highgrove if she ever worked for Charles?

Robert Kime has been doing interior design for Charles since around 1996. He is a friend of Camilla's. He has done Highgrove, Birkhall, and Clarence House.
Unless Townsend works for Kime...
 
Charles girlfriends

Does anyone know what has become of Prince Charles ex-girlfriends?? I was reading an old book from the time of his and Diana's marriage and it mentioned names like Anna Wallace and Davina Sheffield. I was just wondering what happened to them. I would also like updates on other women 'friends' of Charles and what happened to them. Not necessarily ex-girlfriends but women he was linked with in the past.
 
I read in the Daily Mail yesterday that Charles had an affair with Lady Tryon in the Eighties so it sort of belittles Camilla as his one great love. And before all the, "We hate the Daily Mail", brigade begin to protest, I have read about this affair several times over the years from various sources and believe it to be true.
 
I read in the Daily Mail yesterday that Charles had an affair with Lady Tryon in the Eighties so it sort of belittles Camilla as his one great love. And before all the, "We hate the Daily Mail", brigade begin to protest, I have read about this affair several times over the years from various sources and believe it to be true.

Nobody denies that ´Kanga´ was a girlfriend of Charles in the seventies, before he gets married, the time he was single.
At the time you mentioned, and to the rumours that this affair started again in the eighties, Gyles Brandreth writes in his (very solid) biograghie ´Charles & Camilla´:
(1987) ´´(...) The press was (...) watching. and mistaking what they saw. As a consequence of a paparazzi picture, the rumour went around that another old flame, Dale Tyron, (...) once again was ´part of the prince´s life´. The fact that she wasn´t within six hundred miles of the place didn´t seen to matter (...)´´
:flowers:
 
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I read in the Daily Mail yesterday that Charles had an affair with Lady Tryon in the Eighties so it sort of belittles Camilla as his one great love. And before all the, "We hate the Daily Mail", brigade begin to protest, I have read about this affair several times over the years from various sources and believe it to be true.

Yeah so... I seriously doubt anyone here would argue it. :flowers: It is pretty much common knowledge about Kanga. Camilla was his primary mistress, he called Kanga I think mostly when Camilla wasn't available.. I will quibble with the DM since IIRC Kanga wasn't his mistress after he married Diana. And after he resumed his 3rd affair with Camilla, Kanga got mad and tried to tell the Queen and ended up excluded from the "Highgrove set". IMO C+C great love wasn't really realized until they started their 3rd affair ( during his marriage to Diana).
 
The story of Lady "Kanga" Tryon is, indeed, incredibly sad. She met Prince Charles during their mutual time at the Geelong school in Australia, right? Was there ever a romance between them, or just friendship, obviously I mean before her marriage?

I think Charles was also good friends (long after supposed romance) with Anna Wallace.
 
Does anyone know what has become of Prince Charles ex-girlfriends?? I was reading an old book from the time of his and Diana's marriage and it mentioned names like Anna Wallace and Davina Sheffield. I was just wondering what happened to them. I would also like updates on other women 'friends' of Charles and what happened to them. Not necessarily ex-girlfriends but women he was linked with in the past.

Interestingly the 3 ex-girlfriends Prince Charles invited to his wedding with Camilla - Lucia de Santa Cruz, Lady Jane Wellesley and the former Amanda Knatchbull - were the three who had either turned down offers of marriage to or couldn't marry the prince on religious grounds. So he has obviously kept in contact with them despite that. Lucia was Charles's university girlfriend & the person who introduced her friend Camilla Shand to Prince Charles in the spring/summer of 1972. She went on to marry a Chilean. Lady Jane is still single and was last seen being squired around town by Loyd Grossman. And Amanda married a ?merchant banker.
 
The story of Lady "Kanga" Tryon is, indeed, incredibly sad. She met Prince Charles during their mutual time at the Geelong school in Australia, right? Was there ever a romance between them, or just friendship, obviously I mean before her marriage?

I think Charles was also good friends (long after supposed romance) with Anna Wallace.

Regarding Anna Wallace Prince Charles was seen deep in conversation with her at the reception to mark the wedding of the Marquess of Worcester c.1986. But he may only have been talking to her to avoid being embarrassed by Diana's behaviour on the dance floor with her then lover, the merchant banker Philip Dunne - she had her tongue down his ear at one point apparently!
 
Dale Tryon did not meet Prince Charles in 1964, nor did he give her the name “Kanga”. She was named Kanga by Antony Tryon, whom she met and married, entirely of her own volition.

Antony Tryon was always a good, successful husband and a generous provider. As for Lady Tryon's mental health, many believe that she suffered from undiagnosed bipolar disorder that was triggered by her ghastly cancer episode and exacerbated by her desparing suicide attempt.

Some suspect that she was prescribed Prozac when she entered Farm Place and, overwhelmed by suicidal thoughts as a result, jumped from the window. Her subsequent claim that she was pushed was her attempt, many believe, to make some sense of something that was entirely uncharacteristic and inexplicable to her. As her behaviour became more erratic she was admitted to a mental hospital but was soon out. Lady Tryon spent her last months in Australia and touring India, where she unfortunately contracted an infection that ultimately led to her death at age 49.

I doubt that anyone who knew the luminous Lady Tryon remained unmoved by her situation, and that includes Prince Charles, it's said, and whom, I believe, has far more humanity than many people give him credit for. About the only thing that gossips and scandalmongers get right is that Dale Tryon had a tremendous and infectious joie de vivre and that she is sorely regretted.
 
BellaFay and Polly, thanks for the info. :flowers: Polly, it's so sad about Lady Tryon. But it does seem like her family stuck by her. If she did have bipolar disorder, I know from personal experience that is one of the hardest things to cope with in a family member. So her family has been through the mill, but also must have lots of happy memories from before her illness.

About Lucia, she is very interesting. Didn't she marry a Brazilian ambassador, and during Diana's last five or so years, they were friends too?
 
Thanks for the information,everyone. I have read similar news from Australian press about Kanga last year or so. Her brother clarified the facts of Kanga's life just as what Polly has described.

By the way, I think Charles' Lucia and Diana's Lucia are two different people. Lucia Santa Cruz is from a Chile and she married a Chilean diplomat. Diana's Lucia is from Brazil. However many people do seem to mix up these two people.
 
Thanks for clearing that up ! I too was confused about the Lucias and always meant to do some sleuthing and find out

Ah reading the newspaper report I see that she had spina bifida .I knew I'd read something but thought it was scoliosis. She probably had chronic pain as a result which would not have helped either. So sad that some-one so vibrant died so young :cry:
 
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Spina bifida is when your spine doesn't connect to your pelvis. I know because I was diagnosed it with not too long ago. But lucky for me, it's not that bad and easily lived with. Poor Kanga! I always wondered what happened to her. She was such a support to PC.
 
Another victim of heartless Charles... what story will we expect next time to show the bad character of the Prince and the Duchess?
 
You forgot the part where it said that Camilla and she detested each other.
I had posted this in the Royal genealogy wondering if we could have had a Queen Kanga! :sick:
 
I mentioned it here some time ago: Gyles Brandreth has written in his ´Charles & Camilla ´ book ( a serious, accepted source) that Lady Tryon was a girl friend of Charles in the early seventies, in the eighties some reporters said that they had an affair again, but it was only another rumour and not true, says Brandreth.

So this story of ´broken heart´ and ´another mistress´ as a rival for Camilla seems to be one of these stories only fit for the ´Mail´ - nothing else.
 
I've deleted the rest of the increasingly sharp exchange that had already been partly deleted by one of the participants in the discussion.

This could have been an interesting discussion if people weren't so intent on taking sides and refusing to entertain the possibility that the other side was even 5% right about things. To say nothing of the way things started to get personal. This is really getting very tiresome for the moderators and for the other members who are trying to work around the pitched battles. I realise that these Mail articles have a great deal of bias; that doesn't mean the discussions of the articles have to continue the same sort of black-and-white blame game. I hope we're better than that.

If the members whose posts were deleted would like to have another go at their discussion, bearing in mind that tolerance and thoughtfulness are more acceptable than fervent attack and defence, feel free.

Elspeth
British Royals moderator
 
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