Why Princess Diana Went Into a Fit of Rage On Her Honeymoon With Prince Charles

We all know Princess Diana and Prince Charles‘ marriage was no fairy tale and turns out, things were bad from the start as their honeymoon was far from romantic. The pair married in 1981 at St Paul’s Cathedral in a lavish ceremony watched by millions. But behind their smiles, Diana and Charles had doubts about their union even before they said “I do.” And now it’s been reported just how tumultuous their first few weeks of married life was with the princess erupting into a fit of rage during their honeymoon.

Here’s what got Diana so angry to the point where she started breaking and kicking things, and how Prince Charles reacted.

Where they went on their honeymoon

Following the “wedding of the century” the couple boarded the Royal Yacht Britannia for a 14-day cruise of the Mediterranean before ending their getaway at Balmoral Castle, the queen’s estate in Scotland.

The Prince of Wales was said to have envisioned a trip filled with swimming, sunning, reading, painting, and writing thank you letters. 

According to royal biographer Penny Junor, “He had taken his watercolors and some canvases and a pile of books by Laurens van der Post, which he’d hoped they might share and discuss in the evenings.”

However, the prince and princess had only met about a dozen times before they got engaged and this trip showed just how little they had in common.

Diana kicked furniture and destroyed paintings

In her book The Duchess: The Untold Story, Junor explained that “Diana was no great reader and was offended that he should prefer to bury his head in a book rather than sit and talk to her. She hated his wretched books. She resented him sitting for hours at his easel, too, and they had many blazing rows.”

Junor claimed that “One day, when he was sitting painting on the veranda deck, he went off to look at something for half an hour. He came back to find she had destroyed the whole lot.” 

The author added that Charles was confused and didn’t understand what had gone wrong.

Junor said that the princess’ unhappiness continued when they got to Balmoral, writing, “She hated  the countryside, hated his family’s passion for horses and dogs, hated the rain that poured down remorselessly; and she felt that her husband was avoiding intimate contact.”

Junor also claimed that Charles reacted by going out on his own and leaving others, like his secretary Michael Colborne, to look after his wife.

“For six solid hours, with no distraction beyond a plate of sandwiches at lunchtime, he sat there while Diana cried, paced around the room, kicked the furniture, ranted about everyone and everything to do with the place she hated so much, and then fell into brooding silence before starting all over again,” Junor wrote.

What made Princess Diana so upset?

So what got Diana that upset? Well, it could have been that she disliked the paintings and countryside that much but it also may have been the fact that Camilla Parker Bowles‘ presence was felt on their honeymoon.

“On our honeymoon, cufflinks arrive on his wrists,” Diana said via a tape in the documentary Diana: In Her Own Words. “Two C’s entwined like the Chanel ‘C’ … So I said ‘Camilla gave you those didn’t she?’ He said ‘Yes, so what’s wrong? They’re a present from a friend.’ And boy, did we have a row. Jealousy, total jealousy.”

Read more: These Are the Names Princess Diana Would Not Let Prince Charles Give Their Sons