This royal relationship ended in tears,
but what did Diana Spencer think when she first met her Prince?
The wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana made TV history in 1981, with a whopping
750 million people around the world tuned in to watch the event. But, unfortunately,
it wouldn't be happily ever after for the couple.
Although they welcomed sons Prince William and Prince Harry during their marriage,
Charles and Diana officially separated in 1992 and were divorced four years later.
Looking back, the Princess of Wales called her wedding "the worst day of [her] life,"
explaining that she felt like a, quote, "lamb to the slaughter." Her perspective was largely
based on her belief that Charles was still in love with his former girlfriend, Camilla Parker Bowles.
As the princess revealed in audio tapes used in the documentary "Diana: In Her Own Words,"
"I don't think I was happy. I never tried to call it off,
in the sense of really doing that, but I think [it was] the worst day of my life."
After finding a bracelet that Charles had designed and engraved for Camilla,
Diana confided in her sisters Sarah and Jane about her devastation. As Andrew Morton detailed
in his 1992 book, "Diana: Her True Story — In Her Own Words," her siblings' advice apparently was:
"Well, bad luck, Duch, your face is on the tea towels so you're too late to chicken out."
It appeared to be a little tough love for Diana, who reportedly looked up to her two older sisters.
In fact, it was Sarah that introduced Charles to a
teenage Diana years before their celebrated wedding.
Looking back, there was nothing ordinary about the way Charles and Diana met.
At the time, in 1977, Charles had been dating her older sister,
Sarah. Diana recalled of her introduction to Charles as her sister's boyfriend, via Newsweek,
"My sister was all over him like a bad rash and I thought: 'God, he must really hate that."
As for Charles, he was entirely impressed with then 16 year old Diana's charismatic and happy
demeanor. During the couple's official 1981 engagement interview, he described her as,
"great fun, and bouncy and full of life and everything."
As the Prince's story went, in 1980 he had just broken up with a girlfriend and a close friend
of his had also died. Following all of the heartbreak, Diana was a breath of fresh air,
so she and Charles began their romantic journey together.
A young Diana recalled in the doc "In Her Own Words" that she wanted to reach out to
Charles just to make sure he was alright amid such deeply personal loss. Diana explained,
"We were talking about Mountbatten and his girlfriend and I said, 'You must be so lonely.'
I said, 'It's pathetic watching you walking up the aisle with Mountbatten's coffin in front,
ghastly, you need someone beside you.' Whereupon he leapt upon me and started kissing me."
As we now know, things between Charles and Sarah fizzled out fast,
but according to the Guardian, Sarah approved of her sister's romance with the Prince of Wales.
But while the royal marriage wasn't meant to last,
Diana's bond with her sisters endured. According to People, she once called Sarah,
"The only person I know I can trust."
After Diana died in 1997, both of her sisters — along with her
brother — remained close to their nephews, William and Harry. Sarah's daughter, Celia,
even paid homage to her late aunt at her 2018 wedding by wearing Diana's bridal tiara.
As for Charles, he moved on from his marriage to Diana rather quickly. At least, it appeared
that way to the rest of us. Following their separation, Charles was finally free to pursue
his rumored relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles. Although the royal family had deemed
the duo an unfit match during their early romance, the pair tied the knot in 2005.
And — like it or not — as Queen Elizabeth announced, Camilla is set to become queen consort.