Inside Prince Charles and Princess Diana's final royal tour before divorce
The couple announced their separation less than a month after returning from South Korea
In late 1992, the then Prince Charles and Princess Diana embarked on what was dubbed “The Glums’ tour” before their separation and divorce was announced.
This short visit to South Korea was designed to convince the world that their marriage was still intact.
But behind the carefully staged photo ops and public smiles, the cracks in their relationship were painfully clear.
Instead of rekindling their bond, the tour only exposed their deep unhappiness.
Charles and Diana’s final tour in South Korea in 1992
According to the Express, one reporter covering the visit at the time bluntly put it: “There was a hatred that radiated between the two as they came down the steps of the plane.”
From the moment Charles and Princess Diana arrived in Seoul, it was obvious to the world that their relationship was on the rocks.
The pair had once been hailed as a fairytale couple. But during this trip, they were captured in a series of now-infamous photographs looking miserable and distant.
These included a particularly telling image of them at a presidential banquet at the Blue House. In the photo, Charles looks at the camera whilst Diana turns her back to her husband to gaze into the distance – both unsmiling.
These photographs, cold, detached, and painfully awkward, became symbolic of the crumbling royal marriage.
The trip, which had been designed as a carefully choreographed PR campaign, quickly unravelled.
Royal aides, scrambling to control the narrative, began issuing quiet admissions that all was not well behind the palace walls.
During Charles’ solo visit to a shipyard during the tour, his then deputy private secretary, Peter Westburcot, reportedly admitted to reporters: “We know that they’re not [fine]. But we’re doing our best with them.”
Charles and Diana divorce
The South Korea trip marked the culmination of years of growing tensions, alleged infidelity and emotional estrangement between the Prince and Princess of Wales.
By the time they boarded the plane home, any hope of a royal reconciliation had been shattered.
Less than a month later, following a private meeting at Kensington Palace, Charles and Diana agreed to separate.
The news was formally announced on December 9, when then Prime Minister John Major read a statement in Parliament.
The so-called “togetherness tour” was a last desperate gamble. It was an attempt to paper over the cracks that had been widening for years.
Andrew Mortons explosive biography, Diana: Her True Story, published earlier that year, had already lifted the veil on the couple’s private misery.
After the book was released, a concerned Queen Elizabeth II reportedly ordered a review of the Waleses’ marriage. She had hope that the South Korea trip could help turn the tide.
The Queen was reportedly concerned about the damage a divorce could do to the monarchy.
The emotional distance between the couple was underscored by Diana’s refusal to attend a shooting weekend at Sandringham after they returned to the UK.
It was, insiders say, the final straw.
Read more: Princess Diana’s ‘prediction’ about son Prince William decades ago which has proven to be ‘right’
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