She felt like ‘the luckiest girl in the world’ after their fairytale wedding, but Princess Diana’s marriage to Prince Charles didn’t turn out as she had hoped. The couple, who first met when Diana was in her teens, shared a tumultuous history over the years.
Here’s a look back at their fateful romance.
1977: Prince Charles meets Diana Spencer
Charles and a teenage Diana were introduced at the Spencer family home, Althorp, by her elder sister Sarah Spencer, who he had briefly dated. ‘Charles came to stay as a friend of my sister Sarah for a shoot. We sort of met in a ploughed field,’ Diana recalled to the BBC. ‘[He was] pretty amazing.’ Charles said, ‘I remember thinking what a very jolly and amusing and attractive 16-year-old she was. I mean, great fun, and bouncy and full of life and everything.’
1978: Diana attends Charles’ 30th birthday party
Diana obviously made quite the impression on the future king, as she secured an invitation to his milestone birthday celebration. ‘I had a very nice time at the dance – fascinating,’ she said afterwards.
1980: Prince Charles starts dating Princess Diana
A 29-year-old Charles officially began courting 19-year-old Diana Spencer in 1980, three years after they met – considering her as a potential bride, following his split from Camilla Shand. Charles and Diana formed a connection over the loss of Charles’ great-uncle Lord Mountbatten when they both stayed at their mutual friend Philip de Pass’ West Sussex home in July.
Diana’s sister Sarah said, ‘He met Miss Right and she met Mr Right. They just clicked. They have the same giggly sense of humour, and they both love ballet and opera and sport in all forms. It’s perfect, and they are both over the moon.’
1981: Prince Charles and Princess Diana get engaged – and marry
After 13 dates, Charles proposed to Diana in February 1981. ‘I’m delighted and happy. I’m amazed that she’s been brave enough to take me on,’ he said. When asked if they were in love, while Diana said, ‘Of course,’ Charles tellingly said, ‘Whatever in love means.'
Despite any doubts, Charles and Diana married at St Paul’s Cathedral in London on 29 July 1981, in a lavish event dubbed the ‘wedding of the century’. Diana became the first British woman to marry an heir to the throne in 300 years, and the pair became the Prince and Princess of Wales. Charles’s ex, Camilla, was a guest at the nuptials, with her son Tom Parker Bowles.
‘I remember being so in love with my husband that I couldn't take my eyes off him,’ Diana told biographer Andrew Morton. ‘I just absolutely thought I was the luckiest girl in the world. He was going to look after me.’
The newlyweds enjoyed a three-month-long honeymoon, including a 12-day cruise to Egypt and the Greek islands aboard the royal yacht Brittania. They spent the rest of their time together at Balmoral Castle.
1982: Prince Charles and Princess Diana become parents
Prince Charles and Princess Diana became first-time parents when their son William Arthur Philip Louis was born on 21 June 1982. She gave birth at St Mary’s Hospital in London.
1983: Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage under strain
Cracks started to show in Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage when they embarked on their debut royal tour to Australia and New Zealand in April 1983. ‘With the media attention came a lot of jealousy. A great deal of complicated situations arose because of that,’ Diana revealed later.
1984: Prince Charles and Diana welcome Harry
The couple’s second son Prince Harry Charles Albert David was born on 15 September 1984. He arrived a week early, and was delivered in the same room that his brother William had been born in two years before. While Charles described his new son ‘absolutely marvellous’, Diana revealed that he was secretly disappointed that their second child was not a girl. ‘First comment was, “Oh God, it’s a boy,” second comment: “And he’s even got red hair”.’
1985: Princess Diana and Prince Charles admit to fighting
Princess Diana and Prince Charles opened up about their marriage, and revealed that they bickered. ‘I suspect most husband and wives fight – they often have arguments,’ Charles said. ‘But we don’t!’ Diana interjected, to which her husband replied, 'We occasionally do.’
1986: Prince Charles and Camilla’s affair begins
Despite both being married with children, Charles began seeing his old flame Camilla again in 1986, as he realised that he and Diana had little in common. ‘How awful incompatibility is, and how dreadfully destructive it can be for the players in this extraordinary drama. It has all the ingredients of a Greek tragedy. I never thought it would end up like this,’ he wrote in letters published in his biography.
Diana knew what was going on and once confronted Camilla over their affair.
‘I was terrified of her… I said, “I know what's going on between you and Charles and I just want you to know that,”’ wrote Morton in Diana: Her True Story. ‘She said to me, “You've got everything you ever wanted. All the men in the world fall in love with you and you've got two beautiful children, what more would you want?” I said, “I want my husband.”’ Diana added, ‘I'm sorry I'm in the way… and it must be hell for both of you. But I do know what's going on. Don't treat me like an idiot.’
1987: Rumours grow over Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage
Speculation over Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage grew after they failed to attend Lady Amanda Ellingworth’s wedding and spent increasing amounts of time apart.
1992: Prince Charles and Princess Diana separate
Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced their split on 9 December 1992. Their break-up came six months after Diana’s tell-all biography Diana: Her True Story was published, in which she opened up about how her unhappiness in her marriage had led to an eating disorder and suicide attempts. The memoir rocked the royal family and sent shockwaves through the Palace.
1993: Recordings of Prince Charles and Camilla’s private calls are leaked
On 17 January 1993, transcripts of audio recordings of Prince Charles and Camilla’s personal calls from 1989 were published in the papers. This sent shockwaves through the Palace in a scandal known as ‘Camillagate’.
‘I’d suffer anything for you. That’s love. It’s the strength of love,’ she told him.
In a line that he’d never live down, Charles told his lover that he wished he could be a tampon so that he could live inside her.
1994: Prince Charles admits to cheating on Princess Diana
After his affair with Camilla was exposed, Charles opened up to being adulterous in a TV interview in June 1994. Asked if he tried to be ‘faithful and honourable’ to Princess Diana, he said, ‘Yes… until it became irretrievably broken down, us both having tried.’
He said of Camilla, ‘Mrs Parker Bowles is a great friend of mine… a friend for a very long time. She will continue to be a friend for a very long time.’
He also claimed in his biography that his father Prince Philip had persuaded him into his loveless marriage with Diana.
1995: Diana admits to adultery
Princess Diana confessed also having cheated on Prince Charles amid her unhappy marriage, in her Panorama interview in November 1995. ‘I was in love with him [Charles]. But I was very let down,’ she admitted. She also spoke about Camilla, saying, ‘There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.’
Diana was thought to be dating again and was romantically linked to art dealer Oliver Hoare and rugby player Will Carling – but heart surgeon Dr Hasnat Khan, whom she dated between 1995 and 1997, was reportedly the ‘love of her life’.
1996: Charles and Diana’s divorce is finalised
After the bombshell Panorama interview, there was no way back for Diana and Charles. She agreed to Charles’s request for a divorce in February 1996, and they reached a settlement in July. The divorce was finalised on 28 August 1996.
1997: Princess Diana dies
Following their divorce, Princess Diana started seeing Egyptian film producer Dodi Al Fayed, the son of Harrods businessman Mohamed Al Fayed. They first met in 1986, but it was when Dodi invited Diana, William and Harry to join him on a holiday in St Tropez that their relationship became romantic.
Tragedy struck when Diana – aged only 36 – and Dodi were killed during a high-speed car crash on 31 August 1997 in Paris. The car's driver Henri Paul was also killed.
Nearly three decades on from her death, Diana’s biographer Andrew Morton revealed that Charles and Diana’s failed marriage casts a shadow over the King’s life.
‘His tragedy is whatever he does, whatever he says, however he behaves, he will be remembered for one thing: the fact that his fairy-tale marriage ended,’ he explained. ‘Just as Henry VIII is remembered for his six wives, Prince Charles is remembered for his first wife. It will always haunt him. His life has been defined by his marriage.