Royal Biographer Says This Is What Queen Elizabeth II Really Thought Went Wrong in Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s Marriage
Prince Charles and Princess Diana‘s marriage was no fairy tale and looking back now it seemed doomed from the start. The pair never really got to know each other only meeting 12 times before they got hitched. Moreover, Diana admitted that just before the wedding she was having second thoughts about going through with it. Meanwhile, Prince Charles was still in love with his ex-girlfriend. But despite all that, the couple walked down the aisle in what was dubbed the “Wedding of the Century” on July 29, 1981.
However, a royal biographer has claimed that Queen Elizabeth II offered an entirely different reason for her oldest son and former daughter-in-law’s marriage ending.
Prince Charles was pressured to marry Diana
As the heir apparent Prince Charles had always been under pressure to find a suitable bride. That pressure became even greater by the time he was in his thirties and still unmarried.
When Charles was 32 he was introduced to a then 19-year-old Diana and after they had a few meetings, his father, Prince Philip, sent him a letter telling his son that his only options were to either “propose to her or release her.”
“He wasn’t in love, he wasn’t ready,” said Charles’ cousin Pamela Hicks who read the letter. “[Charles] saw it as a ghastly threat. Psychologically he assumed his father bullied him, so he read it as a bullying letter.”
Queen Elizabeth reportedly believes this was a major factor in their marriage failing
For his book titled William’s Princess, royal author and editor Robert Jobson spoke to a person who says Queen Elizabeth gave one reason she blames for the breakdown of Charles and Diana’s marriage.
That confidante told the author: “The queen thinks that one of the reasons Charles’ marriage to Diana didn’t last was because he waited too long. At 32, [Charles] was too set in his ways,” Jobson wrote (per Express) adding, “32 may not sound terribly old to modern sensibilities but by then Charles had acquired a certain form and shape to his life that he was unwilling, or unable, to change.”
Why the queen told Charles and Diana to get a divorce
The Prince and Princess of Wales separated in 1992. Two years later, the future king admitted to cheating on his wife in a televised interview. Then in 1995, Diana went on TV and gave her own candid interview about her troubled marriage and that’s when Queen Elizabeth had enough.
Following the princess’s explosive Panorama interview, the monarch sent a letter to both Charles and Diana strongly advising them to get a divorce. The prince wrote back shortly after that saying he was in favor of a divorce but Diana took two months to respond. Ultimately though she saw no other choice and reluctantly agreed as well. Their divorce was finalized in August 1996, one year before Princess Diana’s death.
