Princess Diana Felt ‘Enormous Relief’ That Prince William Was a Boy, Said Having Girls Would Have Been ‘a Little Tricky’

Princess Diana once revealed that she felt a sense of “enormous relief” that Prince William was a boy, adding that having two girls would have been “a little tricky” in their family. She was famously married to the then-future King Charles III when they brought William and his little brother, Prince Harry, into the world. And as such, she said it felt like she wasn’t the only one giving birth to her first child.

Princess Diana and the birth of her first boy, Prince William

Diana and Charles welcomed William to the world in 1982 and introduced him outside St. Mary’s hospital the day after he was born. They looked like a picture-perfect family from the outside. “He has the good fortune not to look like me,” Charles joked (per People).

Notably, Kate Middleton gave birth to all three of her children with William in the same hospital where he was born. And they each had a world premiere similar to their father’s.

Princess Diana felt ‘enormous relief’ that Prince William was a boy, thought raising two princesses would have been ‘tricky’

Diana talked about her reaction to learning she was having a boy as her first child in a 1995 interview with the BBC. She said it was an “enormous relief” because she felt “the whole country” was giving birth along with her (per PBS).

But she added, “… I had actually known William was going to be a boy because the scan had shown it, so it caused no surprise.”

Diana said she always wanted to be a mother because she came from a family of four children and had “enormous fun” growing up.

“And then William and Harry arrived — fortunately two boys. It would have been a little tricky if it had been two girls,” she said. “But that in itself brings the responsibilities of bringing them up, William’s future being as it is, and Harry like a form of a back-up in that aspect.”

Princess Diana opened up about her postpartum depression

Diana said “everybody was thrilled to bits” after William arrived. “It had been quite a difficult pregnancy – I hadn’t been very well throughout it,” she explained. The prince’s birth was “a great relief because it was all peaceful again,” she said, adding, “And I was well for a time.”

Then, Diana experienced postpartum depression. “… No one ever discusses post-natal depression,” she said, “you have to read about it afterwards, and that in itself was a bit of a difficult time.”

She described her symptoms, sharing, “You’d wake up in the morning feeling you didn’t want to get out of bed, you felt misunderstood, and just very, very low in yourself.”

Diana explained that depression was new to her, but she came to understand what her body was telling her. She said, “I could see that the changes I’d made in the last year had all caught up with me, and my body had said: ´We want a rest.'” 

How to get help: To connect with mental health resources near you, visit the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) website.