Princess Diana’s death in a car crash in Paris, August 31, 1997, shocked the world. Never could anyone remotely imagine the impact the death of the ex-wife of England’s Prince Charles would make upon history itself.
As the married Princess Diana, she took her job as princess seriously, treating those less fortunate with respect and kindness. Divorced, she continued in her efforts to help the less fortunate. In death, she became a legend. All this from a commoner with an unremarkable past.
If she had lived to marry the man who died with her, boyfriend Dodi Al Fayed, would she have continued to have such a strong influence on the world at large? It is an answer we’ll never know. What is absolutely certain is that unique circumstances caused this young woman to become the most celebrated person of modern history. It also captured forever details of a relationship doomed from the very start, her marriage to Prince Charles.
Were you one of the millions who tuned in to watch the fairy tale wedding July 21, 1981, between Lady Diana Spenser and the Prince of Wales? Did Prince Charles’ choice of Diana for his wife surprise you? He was the proper gentleman in line to be King of England and she was far from the trend-setter and public personality she was destined to become.
Were you surprised when the dream couple officially divorced almost 15 years later? Did you believe the romance would last? The collapse of the marriage between Charles and Diana should prove beyond a doubt that wealth, fame and duty to country cannot hold a troubled marriage together. Celebrities and other public figures have a difficult, if not impossible, time keeping their private lives private. Fame comes with a high price. The problems in this royal marriage kept the presses running.
Diana was not Charles’ first love nor the woman destined to be his soulmate. That distinction belongs to Camilla Parker Bowles, the girlfriend who, even while married to Andrew Parker Bowles, continued a love affair with Prince Charles. Did Camilla help Charles cope with problems in his marriage, such as Diana’s reported binge-and-purge problem? Or was Camilla the primary reason for the problem?
Princess Diana, too, reportedly committed adultery early in her marriage. Was it in retaliation for Charles’ lack of interest in her, her jealousy of Camilla Parker-Bowles, or a search for emotional intimacy that Charles couldn’t or wouldn’t provide?
The marriage was officially ended, but media coverage never skipped a beat as comparisons of ex-sisters-in-law Diana and “Fergie” demonstrated how ex-royals behave in public. At the same time, there was plenty of speculation regarding the type of marriage Diana would seek the second time around.
Princess Diana made the following statement in a 1995 BBC interview: “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.” It’s the same year that Camilla and Andrew Parker Bowles divorced. The prior year, Prince Charles publicly admitted to adultery, and his authorized biography, The Prince of Wales, was released which also confirmed his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles.
On April 8, 2005, The Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles married. When Prince Charles becomes the King of England, his wife will become the Queen.