King Charles' Divorce, Mistresses And Affairs, 'Three Of Us In The Marriage'

On July 29, 1981, the world saw a real-life fairytale wedding between Lady Diana Spencer and Prince Charles (now King Charles III). The wedding was watched and loved by millions of people around the world. However, this fairytale wedding of Diana and Charles could not end with a 'They lived happily ever after'. Their marital life and issues played out in front of the whole world, just like their wedding day. Charles and Diana often did not hold back their words in interviews, frequently speaking against each other. 

Their fifteen years of tumultuous marriage came to an end. However, the separation was also as messy as their entire relationship. Charles dated Diana's older sister before getting engaged to her, and then he entered into a relationship with Camilla Parker, despite being a married man. Here's everything about their divorce and what led to it. 

King Charles was dating Princess Diana's older sister when they met for the first time 

When King Charles was still a prince, he had met and dated Elizabeth Sarah Spencer, known as Sarah. During this time, he met Sarah's 16-year-old sister, Diana. Both sisters belonged to British royalty and were in the inner circle of the monarchy. As a result, even though Sarah and Charles broke up, the Spencer sisters were still close to him. As per reports, when Diana was 19 years old, she grew particularly close to the prince, and they both started dating. However, Charles was in his early 30s, and there was an age gap between the two. 

Charles and Diana's engagement and Camilla's ever-present shadow in their relationship 

Charles had met and fallen in love with the socialite, Camilla Shand (later Camilla Parker Bowles), around the 1970s. However, reports suggest that as the royal family would not have approved of their marriage, the two split up and Camilla got married to another man. But around 1980s, the estranged couple rekindled their romance and started seeing each other again. Camilla's extramarital affair with the prince was a known fact in the royal circles, many reports suggest. 

Around this time, Charles proposed to Diana and the two became engaged. However, in an interview from back in the day, when a reporter asked if they were in love to the newly betrothed couple, Charles very callously replied, "Whatever ‘in love’ means.” Diana, many years later, confided in another interview that she was shocked at this answer. It was also one of the first among many public moments of Charles being dismissive of Diana. Around this time, the price also left for Australia for a few weeks, after getting a call from Camilla. Hence, the shadow of Charles' married mistress, Camilla, was always present in his relationship with Diana. 

Princess Diana married Prince Charles in 1981 

On July 29, 1981, Lady Diana Spencer and then-Prince Charles tied the knot in one of the most talked-about weddings of the century. As per a BBC report, their marriage ceremony is still the most watched programme on TV. They got married in St. Paul's Cathedral in London, and the ceremony followed traditional Church of England rituals. Diana looked as beautiful as ever in her ivory silk wedding gown made up of taffeta and lace fabric. Diana was only 20 years old when she got married to the 32-year-old Charles, the heir to the British throne. 

However, this special day was also marred by Charles and Camilla's affair. In a documentary called Diana: In Her Own Words, the princess revealed that she had doubts about walking down the aisle and marrying Charles. Especially since she found a special bracelet that Charles had made for Camilla. But her sisters suggested her against cancelling the wedding when the whole world was watching. As a result, Diana and Charles tied the knot and embarked on one of the most tumultuous fifteen years of their life. 

Diana and Charles' troubled marriage and extramarital affairs 

A year after their marriage, the couple welcomed their first child, William. Then, a few years later, they were blessed with another baby boy, Harry. However, their marital life was wrecked by incompatibility issues which both of them confessed in interviews and letters to friends. Charles continued meeting Camilla, meanwhile, an unhappy Diana, dealing with post-partum depression, allegedly also had an affair with army captain, James Hewitt. 

However, more than compatibility, Diana had blamed Charles' devotion to Camilla and her presence in the marriage for their marital issues. In a popular interview, Diana had famously said, "There were three of us in the marriage. It was a bit crowded". Following these affair rumours, every appearance of Diana and Charles was mocked by the press since they reportedly looked miserable. Vanity Fair in 1987 reported on Diana:

“She was the love object of everyone in the world except her husband…she was faced in her mid-twenties with something she found chilling to contemplate: a fairy-tale marriage that had cooled into an arrangement.”

Diana and Charles' separation and official divorce

In 1992, it was officially announced that Diana and Charles had separated and were co-parenting their two children. A few years later, they officially divorced in 1996. Princess Diana was also stripped of the 'Your Highness' title. However, due to her philanthropy and charity work combined with her personality, she earned the nickname 'People's Princess' by the public. But a year after the divorce, Princess Diana died at the age of 36 in a road accident. She was with her alleged romantic partner at the time, Fayed Dodi, who was also killed in the car crash. Charles, on the other hand, married Camilla in 2005 and was crowned as the king in 2023. 

What are your thoughts on the troubled marriage of the late, Princess Diana and King Charles? 

Also Read: When Slice Of Diana And Charles' Wedding Cake Was Sold After 41 Years, Shocking Price Revealed

AWESOME NEWS! Now you can download BollywoodShaadis app and never miss a story. Get App

AWESOME NEWS! Now you can download BollywoodShaadis app and never miss a story. Choose your device Android or IOS (Apple)