Princess Diana led a difficult life as a member of the royal family. She was followed everywhere she went, and her photographs became a staple of the British tabloid press.
Not only was Diana persecuted, but her marriage to King Charles became even more complicated due to love problems and affairs. In the end, the couple divorced, and shortly thereafter, the beloved princess died in the infamous car accident in Paris.
Looking back, it now seems that the love story between Princess Diana and Charles was smoke and mirrors from the very beginning. Reportedly, on the eve of the wedding, Charles left his future wife ‘devastated’ by sending her a secret note.
According to Diana’s astrologer Penny Thornton, in this note he also confirmed that he did not love her.
Princess Diana was loved all over the world. She was a kind-hearted, cheerful, caring mother and a wonderful role model for many.
The tragic car accident in Paris that cut short Diana’s life was a moment that no one will ever forget. The whole world mourned Diana, and her legacy will live on for centuries.
For most of her royal life, she was hounded by paparazzi, and it is safe to say that Diana became the most photographed person in the world.
Princess Diana — King Charles
Everyone wanted a piece of the princess. According to The Guardian, paparazzi offered up to $500,000 for her grainy photos.
Her sons, William and Harry, saw both sides of how the press treated their mother. Just recently, Harry said that in his 20s, he wanted to leave the royal family, largely because of how his mother was treated before her death.
‘Look at what happened to my mum, how can I settle down, get married and have a family if I know it will happen again,’ Harry explained. ‘I don’t want to be part of that.’
In addition to her extremely public life, Princess Diana had many personal problems. One of the most serious concerned her husband, King Charles.
Just a few years after Diana’s wedding, Charles began an affair with Camilla, who later became his new wife.
According to some sources, the love story between Charles and Camilla can be traced back to 1972, when they met at a polo match. In the book Charles and Camilla: A Portrait of a Love Affair, author Giles Brandret claims that Charles and Camilla were introduced by their mutual friend Lucia Santa Cruz, the daughter of the Chilean ambassador.
The couple also dated for a while, but this ended when Charles disappeared to serve in the Royal Navy. When he returned, Camilla was engaged to Andrew Parker Bowles.
Bowles and Camilla married in 1973, but Camilla continued to maintain a close and friendly relationship with Charles. At that time, Charles began dating 16-year-old Diana Spencer.
When Diana was introduced to the Bowles couple, Camilla decided that the girl was ‘nice and pretty’ and approved of her. At first, Diana and Camilla got along well. But then things started to feel uncomfortable.
“I met [Camilla] very early on. I was brought into the circle, but I was a threat. I was a very young girl, but I was a threat,” Diana explains in the book Diana: In Her Own Words.
Lunch with Camilla
After Diana and Charles’ engagement, Camilla wrote a letter to the princess.
‘Such exciting news. Let’s have lunch soon, when the Prince of Wales goes to Australia and New Zealand. And I would very much like to see the ring. With much love, Camilla.’
Diana invited Camilla to lunch, but it turned out to be a humiliating event. Or, as Diana described it: ‘very cunning, very cunning.’
Camilla asked strange questions during lunch, and the young and immature Diana did not really understand what she was getting at.
Among other things, Camilla wanted to know if Diana planned to accompany Charles on a hunt.
‘[Camilla] said, “You’re not going hunting, are you?”’ Diana explained to Morton. “I asked, “What? She replied, ‘Horseback riding. You’re not going hunting when you move to Highgrove, are you? I replied, ‘No.” She said, ‘I just wanted to know.’
After that lunch, Diana began to suspect. She realised that Camilla wanted to know about her daily routine and check whether she could visit Charles during hunting trips.
Shortly before the wedding, Diana went to lunch again, this time with her sisters.
I went upstairs, had lunch with my sisters who were there, and said, ‘I can’t marry him. I can’t do it. It’s just unbelievable,’ Diana says in an audio recording in the documentary Diana: In Her Own Words. “They were wonderful and said, ‘Well, tough luck, Duch. Your face is already on the tea towel, so you’re too late to back out now.
Confrontation with Camilla
According to Charles’ authorised biography, quoted by Town & Country, Charles and Camilla’s affair began in 1986. At the time, Charles was still married to Princess Diana, and she found out about it.
In 1989, Diana told Camilla about her affair, advising her to back off.
‘I know what’s going on between you and Charles, and I want you to know that,’ Camilla recalled Diana’s words in a recording published by The Telegraph, quoted by Town & Country.
Diana said to me, ‘You have everything you ever wanted. All the men in the world are in love with you, you have two beautiful children, what more could you want?’
“And I said, “I need my husband.” And I said, ‘I’m sorry I’m getting in your way, and this must be hell for both of you. But I know what’s going on. Don’t treat me like an idiot,” Camilla explained.
Obviously, this was a big shock for Diana, because her husband apparently no longer wanted to see her. However, the problems with Charles did not start immediately. Even before the wedding, it became clear that Charles had other plans. At least, that’s what Diana’s astrologer Penny Thornton claims.
Charles and Diana met in 1980 and soon began dating. It was only a year before Charles proposed, and in 1981 the couple announced their engagement.
She had been planning to go to Australia with her mother for a long time before that, and I thought, ‘Well, I’ll ask her then so she has a chance to think about it while she’s away and say that I can’t stand the whole idea — or not, depending on the circumstances,’ Charles told the BBC after the announcement.
However, Princess Diana is said to have accepted his proposal immediately.
Charles’ secret note to Diana before the wedding
But even before the engagement, Diana had doubts about marrying Charles.
On the day we announced our engagement, we had a terrible interview,‘ she recounts in the book Diana: In Her Own Words. ’And this ridiculous reporter asked, “Are you in love?”. I thought, what a stupid question.
‘ I replied, “Yes, of course we’re in love,” and Charles turned and said, “Whatever love means.” And that completely threw me off balance. I thought, what a strange answer. It traumatised me.”
The wedding of King Charles and Diana took place on 29 July 1981 at St Paul’s Cathedral in London. It was a day of joy for all the people who gathered to watch the two tie the knot. But something happened to Diana the day before that caused her to panic.
Like anyone else, she was nervous the night before the wedding. That evening, Princess Diana stayed at Clarence House and reportedly received an unexpected gift from Charles. It contained a secret note in which he allegedly made a shocking confession.
The note contained advice for Diana. At the time, she was only 20 years old, while Charles was 12 years older.
Princess Diana was ‘devastated’
Charles sent her a ring with the Prince of Wales’s feathers. The note read: ‘I am so proud of you, and when you rise, I will be at the altar tomorrow. Just look them in the eye and knock them dead,’ according to the Express.
However, Charles is said to have left Diana completely devastated. He made his confession on the eve of the wedding because he ‘did not want to enter into marriage on a false promise.’
According to Princess Diana’s astrologer Penny Thornton, who worked very closely with her, Charles claimed that he did not love her.
‘One of the most shocking things Diana told me was that on the night before the wedding, Charles told her he didn’t love her,’ she said in the ITV documentary The Diana Interview: Revenge Of A Princess, as reported by the Mirror.
“I think Charles didn’t want to go through with the wedding with false intentions. He wanted everything to be by the book, and that was devastating for Diana.
‘At that point, she didn’t want to go to the wedding and was thinking about not attending.’
It was said that around 750 million people around the world watched the wedding of Princess Diana and Charles.
The ‘mistake’ of marrying Princess Diana
But even though the couple looked happy, Charles was not at all sure about it. According to royal author Penny Junor, he believed that marrying Diana was a mistake — but it was too late to cancel it.
‘Charles wasn’t sure he was doing the right thing by marrying Diana, but there was no way out, and, hoping that everything would change once they were married, he put on a brave face,’ she writes.
Just a year after the wedding, Prince William was born. Later, Harry arrived.
In one of her old letters, Diana briefly but beautifully described what William and Harry’s childhood was like. And not only that, but also the special bond between them as children.
Diana’s letter was written in March 1985, just six months after the birth of her youngest son, Harry.
‘William adores his younger brother and showers Harry with endless hugs and kisses, hardly letting his parents near him!’ reads Diana’s handwritten letter, according to The Sun.
Beautiful letters about Harry and William
In other letters, Princess Diana talked about how the then-adult Prince Harry ‘was constantly getting into trouble’ at school. She also wrote about the joys of motherhood and described the ‘difficult period’ in her life that she was about to go through.
Princess Diana often took William and Harry with her to theme parks and other places of entertainment. But she also knew what royal life was like, including the fact that they were constantly being served food.
She understood how important it was for William and Harry to be children like everyone else, even if they were royalty. So she would sometimes sneak them out of the palace to eat at fast food restaurants.
‘I remember once the princess came into the kitchen and said, “Cancel lunch for the boys, I’m taking them out, we’re going to McDonald’s,”’ Diana’s former personal chef Darren McGrady told Marie Claire.
‘And I said, “My God, Your Royal Highness, I can do that, I can make burgers. ” And she replied, “No, it’s the toys they want. ”’
Princess Diana and Charles separated in 1992 after their marriage broke down. They officially divorced in 1996.
Just one year later, tragedy struck the entire country when Princess Diana died in a car accident in Paris.
She died in 1997
Diana’s death came as a shock to everyone, leaving her sons, William and Harry, without a mother. The horrific car accident and its possible causes have been discussed and debated many times.
However, one person at the centre of the tragedy has now given an interview.
Surgeon Moncef Dahmane was working at a Paris hospital at the time and was tasked with saving Diana’s life.
At approximately 12:23 a.m., the car in which Diana was travelling crashed in a Paris tunnel. Doctors provided her with prolonged assistance at the scene of the accident, but she suffered cardiac arrest in the ambulance.
‘We fought with all our might, we tried very hard, really very hard,’ he told the Daily Mail. ‘To be honest, when you work in such conditions, you don’t notice the passage of time. The only thing that matters is to do everything possible for this young woman.’
‘We couldn’t save her. And that affected us very deeply.’
After Diana’s tragic death, Charles reportedly realised how much he truly loved Diana. In 2020, Diana’s friend and healer, Simone Simmons, said that Charles realised that Diana was the first person to show him what true love looked like.
She said: “Charles only realised he loved her after she died.
“I don’t think he realised how much he loved Diana until she was gone.
‘She was the first person to show him true love.’
Princess Diana will forever remain in our hearts. Rest in peace.
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