04 September 2023 , 09:46
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Before Harry and Meghan and William and Kate, there was the grand royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.
The pair officially tied the knot on July 29 1981 at St Paul's Cathedral and the world watched the fairy tale ceremony in awe. However it turns out the wedding almost didn't happen at all - and there's a heartbreaking reason why. Speaking in a shocking interview before her death, Princess Diana revealed that she almost called her wedding off just a few months before the big day.
In a series of archive recordings released by the National Geographic to mark the anniversary of her death on August 31 1997, Diana speaks candidly about her rocky relationship with Charles. One interview sees her reveal the moment she knew her fiancé was having an affair with Camilla Parker Bowles.
She says the "most awful" thing happened before Charles embarked on a five week tour in March 1981. Diana is famously seen to have wept as Charles got on the plane, with many mistaking her tears for sadness due to his departure. However according to the princess this couldn't have been further from the truth.
She explained: "You may recall seeing a picture of me sobbing in a red coat when he went off on his aeroplane. That had nothing to do with him going. The most awful thing had happened before he went. I was in his study talking to him about his trip. The telephone rang, it was Camilla. Just before he was going for five weeks. So I thought, ‘Shall I be nice or shall I just sit here?’ So I thought I’d be nice, so I left them to it and it just broke my heart."
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Diana also spoke about the "devastating" time she discovered Charles had commissioned a special gift for Camilla. "I was still too immature to understand all the messages coming my way. And then someone in his office told me that my husband has had a bracelet made for her. I walked into this man’s office one day and I said, ‘Ooh, what’s in that parcel?’
And he said ‘Oh, you shouldn’t look at that’. "So I opened it and there was the bracelet. I was devastated, and I said ‘Well, he’s going to give it to her tonight’. "So rage, rage, rage. You know, ‘Why can’t you be honest with me?’ But no, absolutely cut me dead.
"It was as if he’d made his decision, and if it wasn’t going to work, it wasn’t going to work. He’d found the virgin, the sacrificial lamb - and in a way he was obsessed with me, but it was hot and cold, hot and cold, you never knew what mood it was going to be, up and down, up and down."
These heartbreaking moments made her want to call the whole thing off completely - and she admits she almost did just that. "I went upstairs, had lunch with my sisters who were there. And I said ‘I can’t marry him, I can’t do this, this is absolutely unbelievable," she said. "And they were wonderful and said, ‘Well, bad luck, Duch, your face is on the tea towel…so you are too late to chicken out’."
Ultimately she did go through with it, but the couple split up in 1996 - after the Queen sent letters to the pair advising them to get divorced. The divorce was finalised on August 28 1996.