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Princess Diana once memorably remarked, “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded,” in reference to Queen Camilla. According to a royal expert, however, shortly before her 1997 death, Diana didn’t blame the then-Camilla Parker Bowles for the breakdown of her marriage to King Charles III. Rather, she felt someone — and something — else was responsible. 

Diana didn’t think Queen Camilla ‘ruined’ her marriage to King Charles

According to Ingrid Seward, a royal commentator and author, Diana didn’t blame Queen Camilla for her and King Charles’s split, which became official in 1996 following a four-year separation. (They were married for 15 years after exchanging vows on July 29, 1981.)

Recalling a conversation they had shortly before Diana died on Aug. 31, 1997, Seward told The Sun Diana revealed she didn’t think Queen Camilla “ruined” the marriage. 

“She had this specter of Camilla in her head the whole time,” Seward told the outlet. “She was obsessed. Yet, when I last spoke to her, I brought Camilla up, and she said, ‘Oh, it wasn’t Camilla that ruined our marriage.’”

Diana thought the ‘people around’ and the ‘environment’ were to blame

So what or who did Diana credit for the breakdown of her marriage? “She said, ‘It was the people around my husband,’” Seward recalled. “I thought to myself, ‘It wasn’t Camilla? You’ve been complaining and complaining about her all these years.’”

The expert and author continued, saying Diana then “changed tack,” citing the strength as a necessary component in royal marriages. 

“But she changed tack and said it was the environment in which keeping a royal marriage together,” Seward went on. “You’ve got to be very strong, and probably far more mature than she was.”

“Unless you’re born into it, it’s quite hard,” she said, noting how much “people really respect” Queen Camilla, who became a working royal at 50. “The Windsors have massive energy.” 

“Charles, as a young man, used to run everywhere. Prince Philip would run everywhere. Camilla doesn’t have that kind of energy. And it really takes it out of her and I think a lot of people have a lot of respect for her.”

Princess Diana thought her marriage might’ve worked had the timing been different 

Seward reflected on King Charles and Diana’s failed marriage in a separate interview. Plus, what Diana used to tell her about it possibly working had they met later. 

“Charles wasn’t a very mature man,” the editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine said (via OK!). “She [Diana] was incredibly immature. They were completely unsuited.” 

When King Charles and Diana wed in July 1981, they were 32 and 20, respectively. The then-Prince of Wales even addressed the age gap ahead of the ceremony, saying it wasn’t a concern. 

Meanwhile, according to Seward, Diana later told her had she and King Charles met later things might’ve worked out differently. 

“Diana said many, many, many years later to me, ‘If only we’d met at a different time in our lives.’” 

“Diana was 19 when she met Charles,” Seward added. “And she was a very naive 19.” (The late royal turned 20 just weeks before walking down the aisle.) “She had a fixed idea in her mind of what she thought Charles was, and he wasn’t at all.”

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