Prince Charles Gave Camilla a Heartfelt Gift Two Weeks Before His Wedding to Princess Diana

Prince Charles and Princess Diana had one of the most disastrous marriages in history, plus one of the most public divorces. As more and more details emerged from their ill-fated coupling, the public was shocked to learn just how dysfunctional this couple truly was behind closed doors.

Most members of the royal family don’t reveal intimate details about their private lives. But when the Princess of Wales sat down with Martin Bashir for that infamous interview, she laid her turmoil bare.

One other surprising detail Princess Diana revealed was how her husband Prince Charles had given his former girlfriend Camilla Parker Bowles a very special gift right before Charles and Diana’s historic royal wedding.

Prince Charles and Princess Diana were doomed from the start

There are so many reasons why Charles and Diana’s marriage probably wouldn’t have lasted even if the Prince of Wales hadn’t been in love with another woman. Their temperaments weren’t well suited to one another, with Diana’s emotional outbursts standing in stark contrast to Charles’s stiff upper lip. Plus, Prince Charles outright said he wasn’t in love with her.

So why get married in the first place? As the future king, the Prince of Wales was tasked with finding a virginal bride from a suitable family. Even though he barely knew Diana, he accepted his family’s pressure to marry her out of a sense of duty.

Charles barely hid his continued affection for Camilla

Prince Charles maintains that he didn’t physically cheat on Diana until it became clear that their marriage wouldn’t last and still maintains a sense of pride over his integrity. But even if he resisted the temptation of the woman he fell hard for in his youth, he did sneakily maintain their relationship.

Journalist Andrew Morton recalled that Princess Diana once overheard Charles on the phone with Camilla confessing his true feelings. “Whatever happens, I will always love you,” he promised. When Diana confronted him about it later, she claims they had a “filthy row.”

He bought Camilla a special gift

Princess Diana confessed that Prince Charles also had a special nickname for Camilla and she also had one for him. Once, Charles sent flowers to Camilla after she was sick and wrote, “To Gladys from Fred.”

And it got worse. As Daily Beast reported, Charles took his affection one step further when he bought her a piece of jewelry. “Somebody in his office told me that my husband had had a bracelet made for her, which she wears to this day,” Diana told Morton. “It’s a gold chain bracelet with a blue enamel disc. It’s got ‘G and F’ entwined in it, ‘Gladys’ and ‘Fred.'”

Prince Charles gave Camilla the bracelet right before he married Diana

The worst part? Charles gave Camilla the gift just before tying the knot. Diana continued, “I opened it, and there was [the] bracelet, and I said: ‘I know where this is going.’ I was devastated. This was about two weeks before we got married.” 

After the bracelet incident, it’s difficult to comprehend how Princess Diana went through with the wedding. But as a young woman marrying a prince, maybe she believed she’d get her fairytale ending after all.