But throughout Princess Diana and the then Prince of Wales's 20-year odyssey, there were moments of real affection, no matter how fleeting. “We fell in love gradually,” Princess Diana told biographer Andrew Morton. “It wasn't really dramatic. One blink and it would have gone.”
She was said to be on good terms with Charles before her death. According to Tina Brown's book "The Diana Chronicles," released in 2008, the couple had become friends after the divorce, though Diana was said to have still had feelings for the prince. The claim has never been officially confirmed.
“One of the most shocking things that Diana told me was that the night before the wedding, Charles told her that he didn't love her,” Thornton says. “I think Charles didn't want to go into the wedding on a false premise. He wanted to square it with her, and it was devastating for Diana.”
Before King Charles III (then Prince Charles) married Princess Diana (then Diana Spencer) in 1981, he was apparently already smitten with his former girlfriend, Camilla Parker Bowles (then Camilla Shand, now Camilla, Queen Consort).
Khan says that Diana's marriage to Charles—which took place on July 29, 1981—was “essentially arranged,” and used the former Prince and Princess of Wales as an example of how arranged marriages occur across different cultures and how universal the concept is.
However, the royal family wasn't interested in having Camilla as its princess. For one thing, she was perceived as an “experienced” woman, which was a nonstarter for the royal family back then in terms of a suitable spouse for Prince Charles.
Answer: The big reason Prince Charles and Camilla Shand, as she was then known, didn't get married in the early 1970s: He never asked her. And there are probably a number of reasons for that. In his early 20s, like many other young men, Charles simply wasn't ready for marriage.
Camilla may have been at Diana's wedding but she was not welcome at her funeral, which was watched by an estimated 2.5 billion people around the world. Still, to many her absence echoed around the ancient hall. The Queen made it clear to Charles that he could not take his paramour to the service.
As TIME pointed out, the royal family had been cool towards Diana even before her divorce from Charles, due to the attention she attracted from the tabloids. While the precise reasons for the coolness are “still ultimately a matter of speculation,” Lacey says, “there was no doubt it was there.
It's been a rocky road, but these two finally found their happily ever after. Of all the modern royal romances, King Charles and Queen Camilla's has more twists and turns than a romantic comedy.
Who walked behind Diana's coffin? The funeral procession included William and Harry,Prince Charles andPrince Philip, as well as hundreds of representatives of the charities Diana had been involved with.
Diana and Camilla might have never had a close friendship, but when Charles and Diana started dating the pair were friendly with each other. At the time Camilla was married to Andrew Parker Bowles and had two children with him.
In a series of tapes recorded for her 1992 biography, Diana said that she recalled discovering a bracelet which Charles had bought for his longtime lover Camilla Parker Bowles shortly before their wedding. Due to her suspicions she wanted to call off the wedding but was put off the idea by her sisters.
Princess Diana's BFF, Jemima Khan, is calling it like she sees it when it comes to her late friend's marriage to Prince Charles. And many royal watchers would agree with her assessment even though they probably prefer not to say it publicly: Diana and Charles' marriage was planned by palace insiders.
Though Diana was still new to her royal role and just 21 years old at the time, the queen was right to trust her. It was her first solo overseas trip as a representative of the royal family, and she won praise for her “dignified manner at the highly charged and at times mawkish funeral service,” per Morton.
The Queen Mother also reportedly didn't approve of Charles and Camilla's relationship, with royal author Robert Jobson writing in his 2006 book, William's Princess, that "it was a fact that Camilla's name was not allowed to be spoken in the presence of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother."
That evening, she gave an address live on television — another departure from protocol for the death of woman with no official role. The queen appeared nervous, and while paying tribute to the princess, she hinted at the public anger at her silence and stoicism.
Prince Harry memoir: Harry reveals when he felt “ashamed” for crying at Princess Diana's funeral | Herald Sun.
TheTalko website revealed how Margaret took her disdain for Diana to the late Princess' funeral, refusing to bow her head as the hearse drove past. The publication claimed: "Even though the story was true, Margaret could never forgive Diana for making the family look bad.
Yes, Camilla was in attendance at Charles and Diana's wedding in 1991. And it's not necessarily a surprise - given that the Queen's son and Camilla were so close.
6. Camilla was supposed to be the Princess of Wales, like Princess Diana. Duke of Cornwall is a title given to a reigning British monarch's oldest son, per Town & Country. When Camilla married Charles, she took on the feminine version of the title as the Duchess of Cornwall instead of the Princess of Wales.
Also called "Tampongate," this nickname refers to a leaked, private phone call between the then Prince Charles and his lover, Camilla Parker Bowles (now queen consort), involving intimacy ... and tampons.
Did Charles and Camilla really have that phone sex conversation? Yes, the conversation between Charles and Camilla that has been since immortalized as “Tampongate” actually took place on Dec. 17, 1989, when they were both still married to other people.
Later, Diana revealed that she'd had doubts throughout her engagement about marrying the prince. As Insider's Mikhaila Friel reported, Diana said in a series of tapes recorded in 1991 that she became doubtful when she discovered Charles had a bracelet made for Camilla Parker-Bowles, now the Duchess of Cornwall.