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Princess Diana felt like a total outsider within the royal family, and her husband, Prince Charles, was constantly ignoring her. As a result, she felt like a prisoner trapped in a loveless marriage. So in a desperate cry for help, Diana admitted to throwing herself down the stairs while pregnant, leaving her with bruises around the stomach. 

And while the queen was rightfully terrified, Prince Charles, on the other hand, had a bone-chilling response to the incident. 

Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales | Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images

Princess Diana felt ignored by Prince Charles

Ever since Diana was a teenager, she knew she was destined for big things. In fact, according to her biography titled Diana: Her True Story In Her Own Words, she could practically predict her future. “I said to my father when I was aged 13, ‘I know I’m going to marry someone in the public eye.'”

Yet instead of marrying the prince, she was “thinking more of being an ambassador’s wife- not the top one, very much so.” 

Charles And Diana
1981: Prince Charles and his fiancee Lady Diana Spencer attend their first public engagement together | Central Press/Getty Images

But despite her dreams coming true, her relationship with Prince Charles was far from the fairytale romance she had envisioned. According to her biography, she had “no support” from her husband. Meanwhile, he was madly in love with another woman named Camilla Parker Bowles.

Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales | Anwar Hussein/WireImage

“Prince Charles wasn’t at all supportive,” the princess said in her biography. “I cried like a baby to the four walls. I cried because I got no support from Charles and no support from the Palace press office. They jut said: ‘You’re on your own’, so I thought: ‘Fine.'”

What was Prince Charles’ reaction to Princess Diana throwing herself down the stairs?

Prince Charles and Princess Diana in 1981
Prince Charles and Princess Diana in 1981 | Stone Peter/Mirrorpix/Getty Images

In Diana’s biography, she talked about how much she struggled during her pregnancy with Prince William. Not only did she have terrible morning sickness, but she was also severely bulimic at the time. And because she was so sick, she had to cancel a visit to the Dutchy of Cornwall’s estate. She was “made to feel so guilty by (her) husband for that.” 

Feeling trapped, Diana took drastic measures to get her husband’s support.

“I threw myself down the stairs (at Sandringham,)” she confessed in her tell-all book. “Charles said I was crying wolf, and I said I felt so desperate and I was crying my eyes out. And he said: ‘I’m not going to listen. You’re always doing this to me. I’m going riding now.’ So I threw myself down the stairs.”

And as it turns out, the queen and Prince Charles had nearly polar opposite reactions to her cry for help.

According to Diana, “The queen comes out, absolutely horrified, shaking- she was so frightened. I knew I wasn’t going to lose the baby,” she said. “Quite bruised around the stomach. Charles went out riding, and when he came back, you know, it was just dismissal, total dismissal. He just carried on out of the door.”

The queen dissed Prince Charles when Prince William was born

Queen Elizabeth II and the Prince of Wales
Queen Elizabeth II and the Prince of Wales | Aaron Chown/PA Wire
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Princess Diana Said She Felt Like a ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ on Her Wedding Day Because of Camilla

According to Diana: Her True Story In Her Own Words, they had to schedule Prince Willaim’s birth around Prince Charles’ pony polo games. She said, “When we had William, we had to find a date in the diary that suited him and his polo…We had found a date where Charles could get off his polo pony for me to give birth. That was very nice, felt very grateful about that!” 

Her biography includes the queen’s sassy reaction to seeing baby Prince William for the first time. When the queen came to see William after Diana had given birth, “She looked in the incubator and said: ‘Thank goodness he hasn’t got ears like his father.'”