The marital woes that plagued Prince Charles and Princess Diana were never kept all that
private. Diana herself eventually spoke publicly about her marriage in interviews. In one such
interview with the BBC, Diana delivered the infamous remark about her then-husband's affair
with Camilla Parker-Bowles.
"Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded."
In the same interview, the princess opened up about a number of other factors contributing
to her unhappiness in the marriage, including feeling isolated and unloved. While the Prince
of Wales was never as outspoken as Diana about his marriage, he didn't have much tact about
it, either — especially when it came to hiding his true feelings towards her during
their many public appearances. One comment that he'll never live down took place shortly
after the couple got engaged. During a post-engagement Q&A, a journalist asked Charles and Diana
if they were in love. Diana's reply made sense, but Charles' quip raised more than a few eyebrows.
"And, I suppose, in love."
"Of course."
"Whatever 'in love' means."
Unfortunately, this wouldn't be the last time that Charles would make a cruel joke at Diana's
expense. When Princess Diana and Prince Charles were on a royal tour in Vancouver, Canada
in 1986, their days were long and busy with events and important visits. On one such day,
the pair visited The World's Fair, also known as the Expo '86. During the event, Diana fainted;
at the time, the princess was dealing with bulimia, which caused her to vomit immediately
after eating and likely contributed to her feeling ill. In tape recordings for Andrew
Morton's biography on Diana, the princess confirmed that her eating disorder contributed
to the incident. She revealed that she had "been walking round for four hours" and "hadn't
eaten for days beforehand" without throwing her food back up.
Diana revealed that aides assisted her in recovering from the incident while her then-husband,
Charles, insisted she attend an evening dinner reception. Instead of offering support to
his wife, the Prince of Wales chose to make a joke about her eating disorder, telling
attendees:
"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."
Diana later suggested that comments made by Charles at least partially triggered her eating
disorder in the first place, including him telling her that she was, in his words, "a
bit chubby." After dealing with the disorder for many years, Diana eventually sought therapy
to address her mental health.
Despite cracks in the veneer along the course of the Prince and Princess of Wales' 11-year
marriage, the public was devastated when the couple announced their separation in 1992.
The separation was followed by a divorce four years later. Behind the scenes, however, it
may not have come as much of a surprise — they even went into their marriage on the wrong
foot.
After the princess went public about her anguish over being married to a man who was in love
with another woman, Charles revealed that he had felt trepidation prior to their wedding.
Speaking specifically to biographer Robert Jobson, the prince said:
"I desperately wanted to get out of the wedding in 1981, when during the engagement I discovered
just how awful the prospects were having had no chance whatsoever to get to know Diana
beforehand."
In Andrew Morton's biography, the author quotes a similar hesitation in Diana, who told him:
"I felt I was a lamb to the slaughter. And I knew it."
Nevertheless, the marriage continued and brought with it two children, Prince William and Prince
Harry — along with plenty of sadness and frustration on the part of everyone involved.
When Charles and Diana finally divorced, Queen Elizabeth generously allowed the princess
to keep her place in the royal family, since she was the mother to the likely future King
of the United Kingdom. All that came crashing down, however, when Diana was killed in a
car accident in Paris in August 1997. Seven years later, Prince Charles married Camilla
Parker Bowles — the woman with whom he'd had an affair during his marriage to the late
Princess of Wales.
If you are struggling with an eating disorder, or know someone who is, help is available.
Visit the National Eating Disorders Association website or contact NEDA's Live Helpline at
1-800-931-2237. You can also receive 24/7 Crisis Support via text (send NEDA to 741-741).