Princess Diana’s Father Had to ‘Convince’ Her to Marry Prince Charles: Book
A new book claims Princess Diana‘s father, the late Earl Spencer, had to “convince” her to marry Prince Charles. Diana almost called off her royal wedding because Charles reportedly didn’t pay her enough attention in their relationship.
The relationship of Princess Diana and then-Prince Charles was rocky from the start
Royal biographer Ingrid Seward claimed in the book My Mother And I that the relationship between Princess Diana and then-Prince Charles was rocky from the start. Their differences were abundantly clear.
“With just over a month to go until she married the heir to the throne, Lady Diana Spencer was looking forward to dancing with her fiance,” Seward wrote in the book, excerpted by The Daily Mail. “Along with the entire royal family, she’d been invited to a party at Windsor Castle to celebrate Prince Andrew’s 21st birthday.”
Diana spent most of the evening alone. Charles had visited America the previous week and was busy interacting with guests.
She was reportedly upset that he didn’t want to dance with her. Instead, she danced alone and with other invitees.
“At 5.30 a.m., she set off in her car for Althorp, her father’s home in Northamptonshire. [Diana] was distraught, flustered, angry, and had no intention of ever going back. As far as Diana was concerned, the Royal wedding was off,” Seward wrote.
“But when she explained her decision to her father, Earl Spencer, he was appalled. After calming her down, he pointed out it would be an act of gross discourtesy to break off her engagement to the future King so close to the wedding,” her father said.
Princess Diana wanted to marry Prince Charles
Although she questioned aspects of her relationship with then-Prince Charles, Princess Diana was determined to make their relationship work. She was just 19 when she became engaged to Charles; he was 32.
In My Mother and I, Seward wrote that Diana told her father, Earl Spencer, that she loved Charles. “Wasn’t it what she’d always wanted? Didn’t she remember him telling her that she should only marry a man she loved; and her firm reply: ‘That is what I am doing?'”
Seward claims that Diana experienced “gusts of tears and spells of indecision” during her visit with her father. However, she couldn’t deny she still wanted to be the Princess of Wales.
“And, at 19, she was young enough still to believe in happy endings. Despite what her instincts had told her on that terrible night.”
However, Prince Charles had doubts about marrying Princess Diana
On the flip side, then-Prince Charles felt pressured by his parents, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, to marry. He understood their concerns about settling down and producing an heir to the throne, but Seward believes he didn’t see a future between himself and then-Diana Spencer.
During a visit to Balmoral, the queen’s Scottish estate, ahead of the start of their relationship, Charles didn’t appear to be as interested in Diana as she was in him. Seward wrote, “He certainly didn’t look as though he had just found the most wonderful girl in the world, a fellow guest observed.”
She wrote, “But then, that wasn’t what Prince Charles was searching for. As he once explained, he wanted ‘someone whose interests I could share’ and who could share his. ‘A woman,’ he continued, ‘not only marries a man, she marries into a way of life, a job.'”
Charles and Diana reportedly discussed in “great detail” the “demands” that would be placed on her if she joined the royal family and became his wife. Seward said, “Any concerns she had were swiftly overcome by the sheer excitement of being courted by the prince.”
My Mother and I, by Ingrid Seward, will be released on Feb. 15, 2024.
