This Is What Really Happened Between Prince Charles and Princess Diana

And what she did to regain her voice.

Even 24 years after her death, Princess Diana’s voice is still resounding worldwide. Soon after Princess Diana’s fairytale wedding and subsequent divorce with Prince Charles, she found herself entangled in a web of tabloid lies and public scrutiny. In an attempt to clarify her side of the story, she spilled the details on a series of audiotapes in May 1991. After entrusting the information to her close friend Dr. James Colthurst, she had him proceed to hand-deliver the package (by bike at that) from Kensington Palace to a U.K. journalist named Andrew Morton.

Morton then took the tapes to a café, where he listened to Diana finally elucidating her darkest secrets about the Camilla scandal, her ongoing battle with bulimia, and even her developing thoughts of suicide. Diana’s closest confidantes worked with Morton throughout the book’s production. Her participation in the novel was initially kept a secret, but Morton decided to tell the public after her unexpected overpass death in 1997.

The bombshell biography, DIANA: Her True Story – In Her Own Words, based on the tapes, was finally published in 1992. Diana wrote to Colthurst six months before the book was published to relay her anxiety of the public frenzy that the release would entail, and ultimately, relief that her voice would be heard.

The life of a princess was assumed by the mass public to be a royal fairy tale, but the jarring reality was revealed to be very far from that. In the tapes, Princess Diana famously calls Camilla Parker Bowles the “third person” in her marriage. Even more surprisingly, Prince Charles didn’t try to suppress his blatant affections for Camilla throughout their marriage. Check out some of the most inspiring Princess Diana quotes.

Although Diana and Camilla were initially friends, repeating incidents continued to feed Diana’s suspicions about a potentially clandestine romance. Charles and Camilla supposedly had nicknames for each other, Fred and Gladys. Two weeks before he married Diana, Charles had gifted a personalized bracelet to Camilla (a blue disc with “G and F” on it). He was also seen wearing gold cufflinks engraved with interwoven Cs to a formal dinner. His clear affections for Camilla understandingly stirred skepticism and jealousy for Diana, and she even told her sisters she couldn’t go through with the wedding. To that, they told her she had no choice.

What-Really-Happened-Between-Prince-Charles-and-Princess-DianaBRYN COLTON/REX/Shutterstock

Sally Bedell Smith claims in her biography, Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life, that Charles even cried the night before his wedding as he couldn’t get over his infatuation with his ex-girlfriend Camilla Parker Bowles.

According to her personal account, Diana reports she once overheard Charles talking to Camilla on the phone while he was in the bath. After hearing him tell her, “Whatever happens, I will always love you,” Diana confronted Charles about the relationship. His response? The two “had a filthy row.”

As if that’s not heartbreaking enough, the princess also revealed that she witnessed a photograph of Camilla falling out of Charles’ diary.

According to Diana, the stress induced by their failing marriage is what instigated her eating disorder, which she said began after they got engaged. According to the book, Diana reports, “My husband put his hand on my waistline and said: ‘Oh, a bit chubby here, aren’t we?’ and that triggered off something in me.”

It wasn’t until 1994 that Prince Charles admitted to his adultery with Camilla for the first time. Princess Diana famously stated, “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.” The two royals filed for divorce in 1996. Diana died a year later.

The couple’s stark age difference and Diana’s crumbling mental state are said to have been the primary culprits of the failed marriage, in conjunction with Diana’s reluctance to take prescribed medication and keep up with therapy.

What-Really-Happened-Between-Prince-Charles-and-Princess-DianaREX/Shutterstock

A vast majority of the public thrust accusatory fingers at Charles for Diana’s death, dictating she would not have been in the crash had he not committed adultery with Camilla. The extramarital affair is also what is said to have sparked the fallout between Prince Charles and the Queen. Don’t miss these stunning, rarely seen photos of Diana.

Charles later issued a statement shortly following Diana’s death that he had “no intention of remarrying,” but proceeded to wed Camilla in 2005.

In the updated edition of DIANA: Her True Story – In Her Own Words, journalist Andrew Morton recounts the phenomenal story that led to the revolutionary book publication in 1992 and unveils how he was able to get his hands on her story. These are the secrets about Princess Diana that no one knew until after her death. 

But every scandal will inevitably leave behind a cookie crumb trail of clues, and closer inspection indicates that their union was doomed for catastrophe from the get-go. One interaction seems to say it all; in a foreboding clip that People uncovered, Prince Charles and Princess Diana are seen talking to a reporter during the announcement of their engagement in 1981. In response to the reporter’s inquiry of their being in love, Princess Diana firmly responds, “Of course.”

Prince Charles replies with a dry chuckle and an ambiguous, “Whatever ‘in love’ means.”

For more on this tumultuous relationship, check out these photos of Diana and Charles—analyzed by a body language expert.

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Hana Hong
Hana is a journalist and storyteller who writes for Reader's Digest, InStyle, CollegeFashionista, Her Campus and The Fashion Network, among other publications. She hails from the Midwest, where she graduated from the University of Illinois with a BA in News-Editorial Journalism, but has a passion for the East Coast.