Princess Diana's friend reveals rare photos of her vacation on a yacht.

This is pretty nice: Giancarlo Giammetti, co-founder and honorary chairman of Valentino, posted a rare photo of Princess Diana vacationing on a yacht on Instagram. Giammetti, who was a close friend of the late Princess Diana, released a total of four photos of Princess Diana earlier this week, offering a glimpse into the happy and carefree moments in her life.

First, Giammetti released two photos of Diana wearing a red Valentino dress, saying, "TV's 'The Crown' reminded me again of Princess Diana's struggle! Here are two pictures of Princess Diana in a red Valentino dress, showing her smiling face and her sweet side."[3

The Valentino co-founder then shared two more candid photos of the royal and posted the caption, "And here are two more moments of friendship with her."

As reported by Tatler (opens in new tab), in the first, she is seen with Giammetti and co-founder Valentino Garavani, the company's co-founder. But most notably, in the second photo (swipe right below to see), Diana is depicted not as a formal public figure, but as a relaxed, happy young woman on a yacht with friends, wearing patterned bikini bottoms and a tied purple shirt, drink in hand .

In this photo, allegedly taken in September 1990, she is vacationing with Prince Preslav Kirill and Valentino off Stromboli, an Italian island north of Sicily. According to Tatler magazine, the snap was taken eight years after Diana married Prince Charles and two years before they separated.

The Crown revived public interest in Diana's difficult experience as a member of the royal family by depicting her troubled marriage to Prince Charles, the limitations of royal life, and her struggle with bulimia. Not surprisingly, Diana's brother, Prince Charles, has been one of the most outspoken critics of the show (opens in new tab). Appearing on the British TV show "Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh" last weekend, Charles said that "The Crown" relies on "invention" to fill in the details of Diana's life and urged viewers to take it as "fiction."

"The worry for me is that people will watch a show like that and forget that it is fiction," Charles said. People, especially foreigners, tell me that they watched 'The Crown' as if they had just had a history lesson. Well, it's not," he said. You can put it on top of the facts, but the in-between part is not true."