In 1986, Prince Charles and Princess Diana were at the "Expo '86" World's Fair in Vancouver, Canada,
when Diana suddenly passed out. Diana told "Diana: Her True Story" author Andrew Morton,
"We'd been walking around for four hours, we hadn't had any food, and presumably,
I hadn't eaten for days beforehand. When I say that, I mean food staying down. I
remember walking around feeling really ghastly. I put my arm on my husband's shoulder and said,
'Darling, I think I'm about to disappear,' and slid down the side of him."
Despite her fainting, she had to go to a reception that night, as well, with her then-husband saying,
"She must go out tonight, otherwise there's going to be a sense of terrific drama,
and they are going to think there's something really awful wrong with her."
In fact, there was something wrong with her: as she revealed in recordings featured in the
documentary "Diana: In Her Own Words," Princess Diana was suffering from bulimia nervosa.
That night in Vancouver, in order to brush off what happened to Diana
and get on with attending the reception, Charles said,
"My wife is feeling much better now than she was earlier in the afternoon, and it's
entirely due to the extremely advantageous conditions that pertain in British Columbia:
the weather and the general fertile conditions, which have ensured she's
about to have sextuplets, which is really why she fainted. It's not actually true."
The couple's press secretary reiterated that Diana was not expecting.
"Is there any truth to speculation that she was likely pregnant?"
"Not at all. The princess is not pregnant."
In the new CNN docuseries, "Diana," experts discussed Prince Charles' "sextuplets" joke.
Broadcaster Bidisha Mamata noted that it was a different era,
when people didn't understand eating disorders very well.
"But he actually went one further than that. He made cruel jokes."
Royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith added,
"He showed a lack of sympathy. It was an indication that he didn't care as much,
that something had gone out of the marriage."
Of course, the troubles between Princes Charles and Princess Diana went beyond this one incident.
She was 19 when she married the 30-year-old prince,
a prince she did not know that well and who was in love with someone else.
After Charles and Diana were engaged, they were asked in an interview if they were in love.
Her response was "Of course." He answered, "Whatever love means." Diana said that answer
"absolutely traumatized" her, as revealed in "Diana: In Her Own Words." She added,
"That threw me completely. I thought, 'what a strange answer.'"
Over the years, Diana attempted suicide, harmed herself, and suffered from depression and anxiety,
in addition to the bulimia, according to biographer Andrew Morton. She was also
paranoid that the Palace was attempting to control her and even, reportedly,
feared for her life. According to Christopher Anderson's "After Diana:
William, Harry, Charles, and the Royal House of Windsor," Diana once said,
"One day, I'm going to go up in a helicopter, and it'll just blow up. The MI6 will do away with me."
In August of 1996, the couple's divorce was finalized,
nearly four years after news of their separation was shared. A year earlier,
Diana gave an explosive interview with Martin Bashir of the BBC. When asked if
Camilla Parker Bowles contributed to the end of her relationship with Charles, Diana told Bashir,
"Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded."
As reported by the Independent, Prince Charles started up his affair with Bowles in 1986,
she divorced her previous husband in 1995, and she married Charles in 2005.
And in 1997, when the people's princess died in a car crash,
Prince Charles broke the news to his heartbroken sons. Later,
he's said to have worried aloud, "They're all going to blame me, aren't they?"
He was questioned by the police during the investigation into Diana's death,
as she wrote a note in 1995 to her former butler, Paul Burrell,
who revealed the letter's contents in his 2003 book "A Royal Duty." The letter read, in part,
"This particular phase in my life is the most dangerous.
My husband is planning an accident in my car. Brake failure and serious head injury
in order to make the path clear for him to marry [Prince William and Harry's nanny]."
However, the police never considered Charles a suspect in the case.
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call or chat online with
the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).