Royal vows to hidden doubts - The truth about Princess Diana and Prince Charles' wedding
Lady Diana Spencer and the Prince of Wales married in 1981...The then Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s wedding was one of the biggest TV events in history, with 750 million people tuning in across the globe to watch the future king say ‘I do’ to Lady Diana Spencer.
On July 29, 1981, Britain met their new Princess of Wales as they observed the heir to the throne marry the woman who hailed from an aristocratic family.
The hype around the big day had come to a head, with the royal being followed and photographed before her nuptials. The paparazzi obsession with Princess Diana didn’t end with her wedding to Prince Charles though. The pair were together for more than a decade before their divorce was finalised in 1996. Diana and Charles had two children together, Prince William and Prince Harry.
The mother-of-two later passed away in 1997 following a car crash in Paris.
At what age did Diana marry Charles?
Princess Diana was 20 years old during her wedding to Charles, who was 32 at the time.
Lady di’s parents rented a house on Queen Elizabeth II’s estate in Sandringham, when she was born but she didn’t meet the future king until the summer of 1980.
Diana and Charles met for the first time in 1977 when he visited the Spencer estate, Althorp. At the time he was dating her older sister, Lady Sarah, but their courtship ended the following year.
The duo met again at a house party hosted by Diana’s friend Philip de Pass while Charles was grieving his great-uncle Lord Mountbatten. He had been murdered by the IRA in 1979. He was an important influence in the royal’s life and Diana was comforting him after his loss.
Biographer Penny Junor said Diana “really touched a nerve” throughout their interaction and he “was moved by her”.
It’s believed this is when he began to develop feelings for Diana. But by 1981 he was feeling pressure from all angles – the press and his family to settle down. Prince Philip reportedly sent a memo to his son urging him to either marry Diana or let her go. Charles got down on one knee February 6 of that year at Windsor Castle.
Sapphire engagement ring
Princess Diana’s ring has been one of the most notable memories of her wedding to Charles.
The 12-carat sapphire stone is surrounded by 14 solitaire diamonds, set in a white gold band. It is estimated to have cost around £40,000 at the time, which is around £150,000 today. However, it’s said to be worth almost £400,000 due to it’s association with royal history.
Diana chose the ring from a Garrard jewellery collection catalogue.
The gold was made from one of the last soft nuggets of Welsh gold, mined at Clogau St David’s gold mine, which closed in 1998. The same gold has been used for wedding bands of other royals. This includes the Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Margaret and Princess Anne.
The ring had an engraving on the inside, which read: “I love you, Diana.”
It has now been passed down to Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, after William proposed to her in 2010.
Read more: Reason’ Princess Diana felt ‘let down terribly’ by her ‘tearful’ mother during wedding to Charles
The big day
Although revellers had began gathering on The Mall the day before, the big day officially started just before 11am on July 29.
The royal family arrived in a procession of eight carriages from Buckingham Palace. Charles walked up the aisle with his two best men – Prince Andrew and Prince Edward – at 10.50am. At this point,Diana was leaving Clarence House with her father Early Spencer in a glass carriage.
Diana arrived at St Paul’s Cathedral at 11.20am. Three minutes later, and she had made it up the aisle, and the wedding began.
The future Princess of Wales made a few mistakes, including perfume spillage and saying Charles’ name wrong during her vows. Instead of calling him Charles Philip she said Philip Charles. At 12pm they signed the register, and by 12.27pm they were stepping out from the cathedral being cheered by crowds.
The royals ascended onto the famous Buckingham Palace balcony at 1.10pm to wave at the thousands of people below. This is when the newlyweds kissed.
Official photographs were taken and at 2pm 120 guests attended the wedding breakfast. An hour later and she changed into her going-away outfit before being waved off by Queen Elizabeth II, the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret at 4pm.
Diana and Charles set off for the Mountbatten estate of Broadlands in Hampshire after their wedding day. Afterwards, their honeymoon consisted of a Mediterranean voyage on the Royal Yacht Britannia, ending in Balmoral.
Changing vows
Aside from Diana’s mistake with Charles’ name, she also became the first royal to remove the word ‘obey’ in her wedding vows.
The couple both requested this change reportedly. It was unprecedented from ceremonies before them.
However, Charles also made a blunder in his vows, saying he would offer Diana ‘thy goods’ instead of ‘my worldly goods’.
We can properly put that down to wedding jitters.
Read more: Inside Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s final royal tour before divorce
Did Camilla attend Diana’s wedding?
Despite Charles and Camilla’s complicated history, she was invited to Diana’s wedding.
Camilla wore a pale grey dress, which in pictures, have left fans assuming it was a white gown to upstage the bride.
Diana later said she was searching for Camilla during her wedding, scanning the pews for her. She said: “Walking down the aisle, I spotted Camilla, pale grey, veiled pillbox hat, saw it all.”
Charles and Camilla’s relationship ended after he went into the Royal Navy and she married her first husband Andrew Parker Bowles in 1973. The future king had even penned a letter to Camilla begging her not to marry Andrew.
They remained friends for years but couldn’t help their feelings for each other. The couple reignited their affair after Camilla gave birth to her daughter, Laura, in 1978, according to Junor.
However, Charles later admitted to infidelity in a TV interview where he said it began after his marriage with Diana ‘broke down’.
They stopped seeing each other after news of Diana and Charles’ wedding, with no contact for the first five years of his marriage to Diana. The Prince of Wales reportedly did, however, notify Camilla when Prince William, his first son, was born.
Princess Diana and King Charles’ wedding cost
The event cost a jaw-dropping £57 million. There were 3,500 guests at the ceremony alone. It is the most expensive royal wedding in history.
William and Kate’s nuptials in 2011 cost £23.7 million, and Harry and Meghan’s seven years later totaled at £32 million.
The nuptials of Charles and Diana took place at St Paul’s Cathedral in what has been dubbed the wedding of the century.
600,000 members of the public lined the streets of London on the public holiday, with 750 million people watching the big day in 74 countries.
A lot of the expense went to security, with more than 2,000 police officers on duty for the day.
27 wedding cakes
Most brides and grooms will fret over their wedding cake, but the royal couple had 27 to worry over for their big day.
The official wedding cake was made by David Avery and his crew at the Royal Naval cooking school. The multi-tiered fruit cake was cut up into pieces and given out as souvenirs for guests in small silver boxes.
Some of the slices were kept as souvenirs all these years. One man in Florida forked out more than £1,000 to purchase a slice in 2014.
Read more: ‘Superstition’ behind Queen Elizabeth II’s outfit at Princess Diana’s wedding to Prince Charles
Did Charles tell Diana he didn’t love her the night before the wedding?
Reports claim the Prince of Wales cried over his love for Camilla the night before his wedding – but he also reportedly wrote Diana a letter.
Junor, in her book The Duchess: The Untold Story, claimed it was a surprising move for the prince. She says Diana would often write romantic letters to her future husband but he wouldn’t return the favour – until the night before their nuptials.
She wrote: “The night before the wedding, which Diana spent at Clarence House with her sister, Jane, he sent her a note, along with a signet ring bearing the Princes of Wales feathers.
“I’m so proud of you, and when you come up, I’ll be there at the altar for you tomorrow. Just look ‘em in the eye and knock ‘em dead.”
Commentators have since said both of them knew they weren’t really in love with each other. Diana had admitted she had only met Charles 13 times before they became in engaged. Due to these meetings being group settings, they didn’t really know each other.
Junor added over Charles’ feelings: “So although I don’t think he was actually in love with Diana, I think he thought he could grow to love her. Fundamentally I think he had every intention of making his marriage work.”
Princess Diana’s wedding dress
Princess Diana’s wedding dress was designed by David and Elizabeth Emanuel. It featured puffy sleeves, floating silk, cinched waist, 25-foot taffeta train, as well as antique lace embroidery with 10,000 pearls and sequins. The dress was paired with a 153-yard veil, Spencer Lover’s Knot tiara from the 18th century and silk shoes that had 542 sequins and 132 pearls.
It cost around £11,000 back in 1981. But is believed to be worth around £150,000 now. It is in the care of her two sons now.
It had to be altered before her big day with Charles. Elizabeth later said it was because she had lost weight and dropped down to a 23-inch waist. Later, the Princess of Wales spoke about her bulimia battle, detailing it began the week after she became engaged.
The 20-year-old also accidentally spilled perfume on her dress and it left an oil spot on the gown. To cover up her mistake, she lifted the front of the dress to make it appear she wasn’t stepping on it when she walked down the aisle. She also had a secret good luck charm inside, an 18-carat gold horseshoe which featured white diamonds.
How long were Diana and Charles married?
The couple were together for 15 years. However, the marriage began breaking down after Harry was born (1984). Experts claim the heir to the throne grew jealous of the public’s adoration of his new wife.
Diana later told biographer Andrew Morton she realised her marriage was over after Harry’s birth. She claimed Charles made a hurtful comment about Diana giving him an ‘heir and a spare’.
Read more: Moment Charles and Diana’s marriage started to ‘deteriorate’ as ‘other woman’ claims shut down
In 1986, they couldn’t make things work. Two of his friends reportedly reached out to Camilla to contact the prince who was ‘low’ at the time. Their friendship was rekindled, and by 1987, it’s believed the affair was restarted for a second time.
“Charles and Diana were leading very separate lives by this point,” Junor claimed, adding Diana had had affairs with other men during this time period as well.
From 1986, they were ‘living separate lives’ but confirmation they had formally separated didn’t come until 1992. It was two years later when Charles spoke to Jonathan Dimbleby and he admitted infidelity. The public awareness of their affair led to Andrew and Camilla divorcing in 1995. Diana sat down in her infamous Panorama interview with Martin Bashir a few months later.
Diana and Charles’ divorce was finalised in 1996, 15 years after their wedding.
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