Well before the heartbreaking ending of Princess Diana's life, there was plenty of tragedy in her marriage to Prince Charles. Some things were known to the public, some came out much later.
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00:00Well, before the heartbreaking ending of Princess Diana's life, there was plenty of tragedy
00:04in her marriage to Prince Charles. Some were known to the public. Some came out much later.
00:10From hubby heartbreak and hair accessory headaches to falls, feuds, and flubs, Princess Diana
00:15described her wedding as the worst day of her life, and it's easy to see why.
00:20A wedding dress might be the most glamorous thing a girl will wear in her lifetime, as
00:23evidenced by countless Pinterest boards full of wedding inspiration. Princess Diana's dress
00:28is no exception. Well, there might be a few differences. Lady Di was often followed by
00:33paparazzi even when she'd go to fittings for her wedding dress. Dress designers David and
00:37Elizabeth Emanuel did their best to keep the dress under wraps, going so far as to hire
00:42security and codenaming Diana as Deborah when scheduling her appointments. Her dress would
00:47break records. At 25 feet, its train was the longest ever seen. This design decision probably
00:52came from the fact that the designers had a lot of creative freedom.
00:56We wanted her to look like everybody's vision of a fairytale princess."
00:59David told People in an interview,
01:01"...we never had any special instructions about how to make the wedding dress. That
01:05added a bit to the fun of it all, made it a bit of an adventure."
01:08I thought actually what was quite important was it's a dress that girls could see themselves
01:14wearing."
01:15Though the designers had a fun time designing Princess Diana's wedding gown, they were constantly
01:18making alterations to the dress. Elizabeth Emanuel told People,
01:23"...most brides do lose weight, so we weren't that worried when she did. She was looking
01:27fantastic. She ended up with a 23-inch waist from a 26 to 27-inch."
01:31However, the designers didn't know the dark reality behind the drastic weight loss. Diana
01:36struggled with an eating disorder that began the day after she got engaged and would only
01:40worsen as her wedding day approached. The more weight she lost, the more alterations
01:44they made to the dress.
01:46If you've ever dreamed of a princess wedding, then it's possible that a horse-drawn carriage
01:50was involved. While that's a dream for most, it's customary for the people's princess.
01:54The thing about Princess Di's carriage is that it was mighty small, which caused a few
01:58snags in the dress department. With a dress that large and a carriage that small, her
02:03dress was incredibly wrinkled by the time she made it to the church.
02:06Even dress designer Elizabeth Emanuel was shocked, saying in an ITV interview,
02:10"...we did know it would crease a bit, but when I saw her arrive at St. Paul's and we
02:14saw the creasing, I actually felt faint. I was horrified, really, because it was quite
02:18a lot of creasing. It was a lot more than we thought."
02:20"...looking back now, she does look particularly fragile within that huge dress."
02:28Designer Chloe Savage, who worked on both Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton's dresses,
02:33told Insider,
02:34"...someone should have warned them that it was going to be stuffed in the carriage. It
02:37looked like it needed to be pressed. You could have brushed it over before she walked down
02:40the aisle. It would have taken 10 minutes and all those creases would have dropped."
02:45Princess Diana's dress wasn't the only part of her attire that gave her grief. It turns
02:49out her tiara was so heavy that it gave her a headache. The accessory, known as the Cambridge
02:54Lover's Knot Tiara, was given to Diana by Queen Mary herself, who inherited it in 1953
02:59after the death of the prior queen.
03:01However, Princess Diana often complained about the bejeweled tiara, which features 19 diamond
03:06arches with a pearl hanging from each one. The Daily Beast reported it was so heavy that
03:11it caused her to have constant headaches when she wore it. While Diana did wear the Cambridge
03:16Lover's Knot Tiara for her big day, she often opted to wear the Spencer Tiara instead, which
03:20she found to be far more lightweight and comfortable.
03:23If all the dress and crown faux pas weren't enough, the ceremony was also riddled with
03:27mishaps. One of the more memorable was when Diana said Prince Charles' name incorrectly
03:32during their vows. You heard that right, Diana flubbed the name of her husband-to-be. The
03:36prince's full name is Charles Philip Arthur George, and even though Charles and the officiant
03:41had pronounced his name correctly moments before, the young princess said,
03:45"'Take thee, Philip Charles Arthur George.'"
03:48Luckily, she wasn't alone. Charles would also go on to fumble his vows. Instead of saying
03:53my worldly goods, he ended up saying thy goods. Perhaps this can all be chalked up to wedding
03:57jitters, but those are some pretty rough blunders for any wedding, let alone a royal one that's
04:02being broadcasted for the entire world to see.
04:05You would think fumbled vows would be the worst of it, but Prince Charles also forgot
04:09one of the most crucial parts of the wedding ceremony — kissing his bride. Prince Charles
04:13didn't kiss Diana after they exchanged their vows, which seems like a massive foreshadowing
04:17for their relationship as a whole. He did try to make up for it by kissing her on the
04:21balcony of Buckingham Palace in front of 600,000 people who had flooded the London streets.
04:26The kiss on the Buckingham Palace balcony would become a royal wedding tradition of
04:30sorts, as Prince Andrew and his bride, Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, would also kiss
04:34there in 1986. However, the prince and duchess were actually advised not to perform the iconic
04:39kiss — something the duchess revealed to Oprah Winfrey in the documentary Finding
04:43Sarah From Royalty to the Real World. Prince William and Kate Middleton would also share
04:48not one, but two kisses on the balcony after their wedding in 2011. Prince Harry and Meghan
04:53Markle, however, would opt for a kiss outside of St. George's Chapel.
04:57For most people, the idea of a bridesmaid tripping, falling, and crying during a wedding
05:01would probably seem embarrassing. But what if we told you that Diana's falling bridesmaid
05:05was actually a young child? Clementine Hambro was only five years old when she served as
05:10the princess' bridesmaid. Hambro's the great-granddaughter of Winston Churchill and was one of Lady Diana's
05:15kindergarten students at the time. Luckily, Clementine didn't fall during the ceremony.
05:20It happened when the wedding party was heading to the infamous balcony. Being the icon she
05:24is, Diana went straight from princess to primary school teacher, asking Clementine if she'd,
05:29quote, bumped her bum, which would ultimately cheer up the young bridesmaid.
05:33With 3,500 guests in attendance for Princess Di's wedding, there was bound to be some drama.
05:38In this case, however, the drama didn't involve family and friends, but rather other European
05:42leaders. Mind you, they were all invited to attend, but some declined, for a mix of petty
05:47and legitimate reasons. Let's start with the petty, shall we?
05:50The president of Greece, Constantine Karamanlis, turned down his invitation because former
05:55King Constantine of Greece, Charles' cousin, was invited under the title of king. King
06:00Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia would also not attend due to the newlyweds boarding the royal
06:04yacht Britannia to honeymoon in Gibraltar, which was formerly a British territory and
06:09had been claimed by Spain. The most legitimate decline was that of the president of the Republic
06:13of Ireland, Patrick Hillary. In a History article, historian Carolyn Harris noted,
06:18"...the President of the Republic of Ireland declined the invitation because of disputes
06:22over the status of Northern Ireland."
06:24Known as the Troubles, Northern Ireland was fighting for its independence, as it was still
06:28under British rule. This conflict would persist until 1998, so it makes sense that the president
06:34of the Republic of Ireland wouldn't want to attend the 1981 British wedding.
06:39Let's start by saying that, luckily, it didn't rain on Prince Charles and Princess Diana's
06:43wedding day. It was actually a beautiful, sunny day. But this didn't stop dress designers
06:47Elizabeth and David Emanuel from prepping for the worst. The two went out of their way
06:51to make two custom umbrellas. Naturally, the designers made sure the umbrellas were made
06:56of the same fabric as the princess' wedding dress, and they were trimmed with lace and
06:59embroidered with pearls and sequins. While they sound absolutely stunning, Elizabeth
07:04knew the umbrellas would be useless if it did happen to rain. Despite the other mishaps
07:08that occurred during Princess Diana and Prince Charles' wedding day, one silver lining was
07:12that not a single raindrop fell, and the decorative umbrellas weren't put to the test.
07:17It was a fairytale romance that captured the world's attention, and it did have fantastic
07:22elements to it. A dashing prince sweeps a beautiful young woman off her feet and marries
07:27her in a lavish wedding. When Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer, the world watched,
07:32quite literally. Citizens from 74 countries across the globe tuned in on their televisions
07:38on July 29th, 1981, with the royal wedding watched by 750 million people, according to
07:45the BBC.
07:46However, the world eventually learned that the fairytale was just a facade, as England's
07:5132-year-old heir to the throne married a woman who was barely out of her teens after a whirlwind
07:56courtship that consisted of just a handful of dates. Diana had barely seen the world
08:01and was working as a nursery school teacher to make ends meet when Charles met her, according
08:05to The Sun. What Charles reportedly told Diana soon before they wed might have knocked the
08:10rose-colored glasses off Diana's eyes, but she was determined to become the next Princess
08:15of Wales, so she walked down the aisle followed by a 25-foot train.
08:21The night before their wedding, Prince Charles apparently felt he owed it to his young fiancé
08:24to tell her how he really felt before making such a life-altering commitment. According
08:29to a friend, he told Diana that he wasn't in love with her.
08:32The revelation came to light in 2020 when Britain's ITV aired a documentary, The Diana
08:37Interview — The Revenge of a Princess, which chronicles how Diana's 1995 interview with
08:42Martin Bashir came to be. This is the same interview in which Diana bared all about her
08:47marriage, including the fact that there was always someone else on Charles' mind, namely
08:51Camilla Parker Bowles, the woman the prince married in 2005.
08:54Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.
08:59In the ITV documentary, Diana's astrologer relayed what the princess confided to her
09:03the night before she wed Charles. She said,
09:06"[Charles told her that he didn't love her.] I think Charles didn't want to go into the
09:10wedding on a false premise. He wanted to square it with her and it was devastating for Diana.
09:15She didn't want to go through with the wedding at that point. She thought about not attending
09:19the wedding."
09:20Of course, Diana did attend the wedding and took her vows, becoming one of the most famous
09:25and beloved women in the world. As people across the globe watched the royal marriage
09:29from the sidelines through the tabloids, what they saw in the press was not always what
09:33was happening in real life. While Diana gave birth to her first son, Prince William, in
09:381982, and then a second son, Prince Harry, in 1984, the pair were far from happily married.
09:44Andrew Morton's 1992 book, Diana, Her True Story, claims that the time leading up to
09:49their second son's birth was actually a happy time in their marriage, but it didn't stay
09:53that way for long and was quite possibly the last happy period the royal couple shared
09:57together. After explaining that Charles had hoped their baby would be a girl, Princess
10:01Diana told Morton,
10:03"[Charles and I were very, very close to each other these six weeks before Harry was born,
10:07the closest we've ever, ever been and ever will be. Then suddenly, as Harry was born,
10:12it just went bang, our marriage, the whole thing went down the drain."
10:17In 1981, Prince Charles and Lady Diana announced their engagement after meeting some four years
10:21prior. Even at the time, the red flags were becoming obvious. Still, Charles and Diana
10:26went through with their wedding, and what a wedding that was. Here's a look at what
10:30the world never knew about Diana and Charles' marriage.
10:34You've likely seen countless photos of Charles and Diana together, but you may have missed
10:37a certain detail. In 2017, sociologist Philip Cohen pointed out on Twitter that though Charles
10:43was often posed to look much taller than his wife in official photos and paintings, candid
10:47photos of the couple show Diana was, in fact, the same height as her husband.
10:51So what's going on? The royal family has never commented on this odd camera trick, but perhaps
10:55the prince was sensitive about his height. Or maybe it goes even deeper than that. We
11:00may never know for sure, but it is definitely an interesting facet of the couple's relationship
11:04and paints a new, if unflattering, picture of their marriage.
11:08If you were to just look at Charles and Diana's wedding, it would be easy to reason that they
11:11lived a fairy tale romance. This couldn't be further from the truth. In their first
11:16joint interview after becoming engaged, the interviewer asked the couple if they were
11:19in love.
11:20"...and Charles turned around and said what he never in love means."
11:24This moment is one that haunted Diana for years afterward. In a taped conversation with
11:28her speech tutor, Peter Settlin, Diana revealed that Charles' replies stunned her even more
11:32than the question.
11:33"...and that threw me completely. God, that was a traumatizing thing."
11:38During her conversation with Peter Settlin, Diana also shared intimate details of her
11:43marriage. By this time, the couple had been married for 12 years and were about three
11:46years away from divorcing. When Settlin suggested there was no physical intimacy between Diana
11:50and Charles, she revealed,
11:51"...I was there, and then it fizzled out about seven years ago. Instinct told me. It's just
11:57so odd. I just, I don't know."
11:59Although Diana didn't go into too much more detail about the couple's intimate life, she'd
12:03already said more than enough to make it painfully obvious that her relationship with the prince
12:07was by no means thriving.
12:10The day before their wedding, Diana overheard Charles on the phone with his former girlfriend
12:13Camilla Parker Bowles, revealing that he would always love her despite his marriage to Diana.
12:18Then a few years later, Charles started openly having an affair with Parker Bowles. While
12:22Diana felt jealousy and rage in response to the affair, she also looked elsewhere for
12:26love, specifically to her bodyguard.
12:28"'Cause when I was 24, 25, I felt deeply in love with somebody who worked in this environment.
12:35And he was the greatest friend I've ever had."
12:38Diana said the relationship was never sexual, but she did eventually take other lovers,
12:42once it was clear Charles had all but abandoned her for Camilla.
12:45In the thick of Charles' affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, Diana petitioned the queen
12:49for relationship advice.
12:51"'And I'm sobbing, and I said, what do I do? I'm coming to you, what do I do? And she said,
12:55I don't know what you should do. Charles is hopeless, and that was it.'"
12:59In her equally hopeless situation, Diana developed an eating disorder.
13:02"'And they all blamed the failure of the marriage on the bulimia.'"
13:05But according to Diana, it was the rejection she felt from the family and her failing marriage
13:10that led to the development of the eating disorder in the first place.
13:12"'I decided to do a more discreet thing, which ultimately it wasn't discreet, but I chose
13:17to hurt myself instead of hurt you in the way I do.'"
13:21In a relationship so riddled with strife and extramarital affairs, trust was in short supply.
13:25A year before the couple divorced, Diana expressed doubts about Charles being fit to rule as
13:30King of England.
13:31Charles began to think that Diana was colluding with Sarah Ferguson, who was her best friend
13:35and the then-wife of Charles' brother, Prince Andrew.
13:37His fear, according to royal biographer Tom Bauer, was that upon the queen's death or
13:41abdication, Andrew would become regent until William's 18th birthday, at which point he
13:45would become king, passing over Charles entirely.
13:48Not only did he distrust his wife, but Charles also became convinced his own brother was
13:52in on the supposed plan.
13:55When Prince Charles and Princess Diana married, their story was seen as a fairy tale.
14:00But the couple got divorced in 1996 after a tumultuous and rocky marriage.
14:05Here's how Charles' life changed after his separation from Diana.
14:09We all know that the royal family's lifestyle is largely paid for by British taxpayers.
14:15But Prince Charles' financial life was significantly altered after his divorce from Princess Diana
14:20was finalized.
14:21As reported by The New York Times at the time of the divorce announcement, Charles, quote,
14:26"...formally declared that he would not be subsidizing his ex-wife's living expenses
14:31anymore.
14:32It would be up to her to pay her own way out of the settlement money she received from
14:35their separation."
14:36The administrator who oversaw the couple's settlement even went as far as saying that
14:40Diana would be receiving bills from the 40 stores that she frequented, as Charles was
14:45officially cutting her off.
14:47The letter read,
14:48"...with effect from 2 September 1996, any expenditure incurred by or on behalf of Her
14:54Royal Highness the Princess of Wales should be invoiced directly to the Princess of Wales'
14:59office."
15:00And that was that.
15:02Taking sides is, sadly, a pretty big part of any divorce, and it seems as though Prince
15:07Charles' father, Prince Philip, took Diana's side.
15:10According to the book Prince Philip Revealed by Ingrid Stewart, letters that came to light
15:15in 2003 showed that Philip was firmly on Diana's team, as he wrote a letter to her describing
15:20his feelings about the separation between her and Charles.
15:24Philip wrote to Diana,
15:25"...Charles was silly to risk everything with Camilla for a man in his position.
15:29I cannot imagine anyone in their right minds leaving you for Camilla.
15:34Such a prospect never even entered our heads."
15:37The letter was signed, quote,
15:38"...with fondest love, Pa."
15:41If you watched Season 4 of The Crown, you know that crowd size was a sore spot for Prince
15:45Charles.
15:46And while The Crown is a dramatized account, it doesn't appear to be too far off.
15:51"...whatever in love means."
15:54As noted by The New York Times, Prince Charles attended a solo event in March 1997, about
16:00half a year after his divorce, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
16:05There were some cameras, but as The New York Times put it,
16:07"...Prince Charles' arrival generated nothing like the mass hysteria with which fashion
16:11royalty greeted the Princess of Wales."
16:14What's more, quote,
16:15"...you could count the paparazzi on the fingers of two hands that showed up for Charles,"
16:20according to the Times.
16:21So what was it about Princess Diana that attracted so many people?
16:25The former royal correspondent for The Guardian told Time,
16:28"...people invested a lot of emotional intensity in her.
16:32Charles was not afforded the same type of adoration.
16:35If anything, he experienced a dwindled amount of support in the time following his divorce."
16:40Ah, the coveted opinion poll.
16:43The life or death of any politician or public figure.
16:46And in Prince Charles' case, he's a little bit of both.
16:49And after his divorce from Princess Diana was announced, Charles was not welcomed with
16:53positive numbers from the British public.
16:56According to The New York Times,
16:57"...Gallup conducted a poll shortly after the public learned Charles and Diana were
17:01officially getting divorced.
17:03The poll surveyed a thousand churchgoers and church officials and asked questions about
17:08Charles and the possibility of him getting remarried to Camilla Parker Bowles.
17:12The results were less than favorable.
17:15More than half of the people surveyed thought that he shouldn't be allowed to become king
17:18or the leader of the Church of England should he get remarried."
17:22And that's not to mention the fact that Camilla's popularity in Britain was just down the drain.
17:27Charles maintained that he had, quote,
17:29"...no intention of remarrying," and that the survey was, quote,
17:33"...purely hypothetical."
17:34But still, not the best look.
17:37Pretty much everyone knew that Prince Charles was in a long-term relationship with Camilla
17:41Parker Bowles.
17:42He even confirmed that he'd been unfaithful to Princess Diana during a 1994 sit-down television
17:48interview, saying that he at first tried to make their relationship work.
17:52"...until it became irretrievably broken down."
17:57But it seemed like as soon as his divorce from Diana was made public, Charles became
18:02pretty cavalier with his connection to Camilla.
18:04The New York Times reported that on the weekend that the news broke about his divorce, Charles
18:09spent the days with Camilla in Wales.
18:12As you may have guessed, Charles' newfound freedom was not well-celebrated, and photos
18:16of the two vacationing together were viewed by many Britons as evidence that, quote,
18:21Charles had continued his reported affair with Mrs. Parker Bowles, whom many Britons
18:26blame for the demise of the royal marriage.
18:30Divorce can be tough on not just the people involved in the marriage, but on the extended
18:34family as well.
18:35That was certainly the case for Prince Charles, as the strain that his divorce took on his
18:39relationship with his mother, Queen Elizabeth, most likely was more pronounced than people
18:44in similar situations.
18:46According to the Los Angeles Times, Elizabeth wrote to Charles and Diana and told them to
18:51get divorced.
18:52And what did Charles do?
18:53He wrote a letter back, agreeing to the queen's terms.
18:57We honestly can't imagine conversing like this with family, because this is truly some
19:01wild tension.
19:03A royal reporter at the time, Simon McCoy of Sky TV, dished about the tension that was
19:08brewing as a result of the divorce.
19:10McCoy revealed,
19:11"...one cannot underestimate how angry the queen has been.
19:16At the palace there's a huge sigh of relief.
19:18The queen has decided that enough is enough."
19:21As mentioned, Prince Charles and Princess Diana learned to get along.
19:25But things still weren't so easy for Charles.
19:28During the period of time in which he was separated from Diana, Charles was the subject
19:32of a note penned by Diana, who claimed that he was, quote, "...planning an accident in
19:37her car with, quote, brake failure and serious head injury."
19:42The note was written in 1995, and needless to say, it did not go over terribly well.
19:48Diana's words, that became eerily accurate in the aftermath of her death, became public
19:53in 2003, significantly altering Charles' life and casting shadows on his public perception.
19:59According to the Daily Mail, Charles was questioned by Britain's police in 2005 and became a witness
20:05in a probe about Diana's death.
20:07John Stevens, the former head of London's Metropolitan Police, told the outlet that
20:12he questioned Charles about the note extensively, but the heir to the throne played it cool.
20:17Charles reportedly said that he didn't know anything about the note until it was published
20:20by the media.
20:21When asked if he had discussed the note with Diana, Charles denied ever knowing about it
20:26or Diana's concerns.
20:28Talk about a life-altering experience.
20:31Prince Charles and Princess Diana were officially divorced in August 1996.
20:36A year later, Diana died after suffering injuries in a car accident on August 31, 1997.
20:43And while his life was already altered, given that he was no longer married to Diana, Charles'
20:48life changed drastically after she died.
20:51According to Penny Junor, a royal biographer who wrote the 2005 book The Firm, Charles'
20:56reaction to Diana's death painted a grave picture of his future.
21:01According to Junor's biography, the first question Charles reportedly asked when he
21:05heard the news was,
21:06"'They're all going to blame me, aren't they?'
21:09Junor went on to include that Charles said that, quote,
21:12"'The world's going to go completely mad, isn't it?'
21:15Before asking his private secretary, Stephen Lamport, if Diana's death would, quote,
21:19"'destroy the monarchy.'"
21:21Lamport said yes, before adding that Diana's death would have a profound impact on Queen
21:26Elizabeth II.
21:27Maintaining a good relationship with the in-laws can be pretty tough, but add a divorce and
21:32things can get even worse.
21:34Factor in a tragic death, and you've got the perfect storm.
21:38According to Page Six, things went downhill for Prince Charles after his divorce from
21:42Princess Diana and her untimely death, when it came to his interactions with her family
21:47members.
21:48It was just days after Diana's death when her ex-husband and her brother got into a
21:52massive fight over the phone.
21:54In his book Battle of Brothers, royal historian Robert Lacey wrote that Diana's brother was
21:59in opposition to the idea of Prince William and Prince Harry walking behind their mother's
22:03casket at her funeral.
22:05And things with the heir to the throne went south quickly.
22:09Lacey wrote,
22:10"[Spencer felt quite sure that Diana would have been horrified at the idea of her sons
22:14having to endure such an ordeal.
22:16He had already told Charles as much."
22:19Apparently in a conversation with Diana's brother, Charles Spencer, Prince Charles made,
22:24quote, a particularly offensive comment about his ex-wife, which all but sealed the ill-fated
22:29label on his relationship with the Spencers.
22:32Perhaps the most profound way that Prince Charles' life changed after he divorced Princess
22:36Diana was that he could publicly pursue his relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles.
22:42Their affair was the worst-kept secret in Britain, but after he became a single man,
22:47Charles went ahead with the partnership.
22:48Furthermore, he took the steps to introduce his children to Camilla in 1998, less than
22:53a year after Diana died.
22:56According to The Guardian, in July 1998, Charles introduced Prince William to Camilla for the
23:01very first time.
23:02It was reported that William and Camilla met for about a half hour at St. James Palace,
23:07and Charles was with them for the interaction.
23:10However, the introduction wasn't at all planned.
23:13William just happened to stop by the palace when Camilla was there visiting with Charles,
23:17as she was, quote, a regular visitor.
23:20Talk about a potentially very awkward greeting.
23:23The Guardian reported that William and Camilla met two more times after their first encounter,
23:28and Charles was putting plans in place for his longtime mistress to meet his youngest
23:32son, Prince Harry.
23:34Talk about a lifestyle shift.
23:36At the time of their divorce, Charles was working on a, quote, transparent campaign
23:41to introduce Camilla Parker Bowles to the British public, according to The Guardian.
23:46But after Diana died, his efforts halted, and Camilla wasn't seen publicly with the
23:50heir to the throne until 1999.
23:53According to Harper's Bazaar, two years passed and Charles was once again willing to push
23:57Camilla ever-so-gently into the public eye.
24:01The two were spotted leaving the Ritz in London following Camilla's sister's birthday party.
24:05Dynamics were altered for Charles yet again in 2000, when Queen Elizabeth finally agreed
24:10to meet Camilla for the first time.
24:13The BBC reported,
24:14"[Charles, Camilla, and the Queen are believed to have sat at the same table and so ended
24:19a much-publicized standoff since the prince divorced his wife, the late Diana, Princess
24:25of Wales."
24:26Calling her a, quote,
24:27"...dark figure on the royal scene," the BBC reported that Charles' romantic life was finally
24:33starting to change in his favor.
24:35All too often, people who are married will look back at moments throughout their union
24:39with some regret, even members of the royal family.
24:43Does Prince Charles have any regrets over his time with Diana?
24:46Any chance for Prince Charles and Princess Diana to reconcile was taken away in the summer
24:50of 1997.
24:52On August 31, 1997, just one year after being officially divorced, Princess Diana was killed
24:59as a result of a car accident.
25:01During an attempt to get away from the paparazzi, Henri Paul, Diana's driver, is said to have
25:07been driving recklessly fast before he crashed the car in Paris' Pont de l'Alma tunnel.
25:12Diana had been running from the paparazzi throughout her entire relationship with the
25:16prince, but never was able to escape them.
25:19The princess' death shook the entire royal family, but Prince Charles especially.
25:24Matt Robbins, a royal expert and producer of CNN's six-part documentary series Diana,
25:29told Us Weekly in an interview,
25:31"...I see him as somebody who carried an enormous burden through Princess Diana's death and
25:36her funeral, somebody who has to make impossible decisions."
25:39One of those decisions was to have Prince William and Prince Harry, then aged 15 and
25:4512, walk in their mother's funeral procession.
25:48While he criticized the decision in an interview with Newsweek, Prince Harry told BBC that
25:52in retrospect, he thought his father had made the right decision, and the best decision
25:57he could, given the circumstances.
25:59Robbins told Us Weekly he believed the funeral was the moment Prince Charles and the rest
26:03of the royal family realized how much the public cared not just for Diana, but for them
26:09as well.
26:10According to royal sources, Prince Charles had been changing his mind about Diana before
26:21her death.
26:22Princess Diana, too, was allegedly regretting her divorce from the prince.
26:26Tina Brown, royal biographer and author of The Diana Chronicles, told The Telegraph,
26:31"...at the end of Diana's life, she and Charles were on the best terms they'd been for a very
26:35long time."
26:37It was even reported that Charles would, quote, "...drop in on Diana at her apartments at
26:41Kensington Palace."
26:42Brown added,
26:43"...they even had some laughs together."
26:45Princess Diana was reportedly heartbroken when she and Prince Charles did finally separate
26:50and divorce, despite her own relationship with Captain James Hewitt.
26:54She even allegedly told Brown that if Charles wanted her back, she'd return without hesitation.
26:59So why the change?
27:01Diana had come to terms with the fact that Camilla Parker Bowles was, as Brown explained,
27:06"...the love of his life, and there was just nothing she could do about it."
27:10Even with the prince's strong feelings for Camilla, there was no denying the connection
27:14he and Diana shared.
27:15Simone Simmons, a friend of Diana's, told the Daily Mail that Charles and Diana were
27:20close friends following the divorce because, quote, "...she understood him."
27:25According to Simmons, it wasn't until her death that Charles even realized his love
27:28for her.
27:29Camilla may be the love of Charles' life, but there's no denying the hole left in the
27:34Charles' heart after Diana's death.