Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer Wed

…and they lived happily ever after.  That is how we wanted this ‘would-be’ fairy tale to go, but alas, it was not to be.  What looked like a perfectly lovely romance was not all we thought it to be.  

A most eligible young prince was in love with a woman he couldn’t have, but his royal duty called and the expectation that he would marry and produce more heirs to the throne grew larger and stronger until he finally pursued a beautiful, charming and aristocratic young woman who the world fell madly in love with, even if he didn’t.

We watched their every move and we couldn’t get enough of them.  And in our desire for that ‘happily ever after ending’ to the story, we created a scenario where the Prince and Princess would have that fairy tale life we all dream of having ourselves.

Diana was on every cover of every magazine, every front page of every newspaper….we did absolutely love her and loved what we thought she stood for.   She brought the royal household to the people and the people to the royal household.  Clearly, Diana wanted their marriage to work – she was totally committed to being the wife of Prince Charles and mother to William and Harry.  She adored motherhood and brought her boys up to have hearts.  She made sure that they knew how everyone else lived.  They were taken to McDonalds for a hamburger, to the fun park for rides, to the shelters to greet the homeless.  Diana really made sure that her boys knew how most people lived.

Diana became the “People’s Princess” and Charles took a bit of a back seat to her popularity.  The media attention that Diana was given was difficult for both of them to handle……Charles because he wanted it for himself and Diana because she wanted him to share in it.

Unbeknowdst to most, Charles, although he tried to make their marriage work, never stopped loving a prior girlfriend, Camilla Parker Bowles (née Shand) and, in fact, continued an affair with her for most of his married life.  The newspapers had a field day with all the goings on of the Charles and Diana union.  There was one more scandalous story after another printed in the press – some true, some with just a slight flavor of truth.

During the mid-1980’s, Diana secretly arranged for a television  interview to take place in which she would answer a lot of personal questions, thereby giving her side of the story.  She was obviously “in love” with Charles when they took their vows and, although she became very much aware of his love for Camilla, she believed that it would all work out and that they would live “happily ever after”.  Alas, this was not to be.  The television interview that she did, made some people love her more and some people hate her.  It was very personal and brought out the fact that she also had had affairs.  A lot of telephone conversations were leaked to the press – those of Charles and Camilla and of Diana with various lovers.

What a sad state of affairs this was!  The world mourned the breakdown of this very public marriage.  The fairy tale was over.  Their marriage was made officially over in 1996.

Diana was tragically killed with her boyfriend of the time, Dodi Fayed, in a car crash in Paris in August of 1997.

Charles did go on to marry Camilla, who had divorced her husband, Andrew Parker Bowles.

But our dream of “happily ever after” was not over.  When Diana and Charles’ eldest son proposed to Catherine Middleton, hoped sparked again that we would have our fairy tale.