Princess Diana didn’t want to marry Prince Charles back then. Yes, a royal biographer revealed in a new claim that the late Diana nearly called off her wedding to then-Prince Charles. The now-75-year-old monarch refused his to-be bride’s dance request at Prince Andrews’s 21st birthday celebration.
According to royal author Ingrid Seward’s new book My Mother And I , set to be published on February 15, Diana was invited to the Duke of York’s birthday at Windsor Castle. The celebrations involved a disco, dry ice wafting smoke across the dancefloor, with Elton Johnson providing the cabaret, per The Mirror.
Diana, who had not seen Charles the week before Prince Andrew’s celebrations, expected to spend quality time with her to-be-husband. However, the now-king didn’t seem to fancy the idea and was away almost the entire evening. Ingrid’s book reveals he (Charles) “was dutifully working the room.”
This irked Diana, and she was in “despair.” According to the book , the Princess of Wales “threw herself into dancing frantically with one man after another – and finally just dancing by herself.” At one point in the book, Seward wrote Footman Mark Simpson looked out the window and saw the late princess “looking exhausted and lost in her thoughts yet still moving in slow, rhythmic time to some tune in her head.”
Later in the night, at 5.30 am, Princess Diana left the party and went to meet her father, telling him she no longer wanted to marry Prince Charles. The author continued, “She was distraught, flustered, angry, and had no intention of ever going back. As far as Diana was concerned, the Royal Wedding was off.”
However, this “appalled” Diana’s father, Earl Spencer, because the wedding day was fast approaching, and he thought his daughter was convinced with her groom-to-be. Eventually, she “allowed her father to talk her around” and changed her decision.
Seward further wrote in her book that Diana ensured she was taking an interest in royal engagements and recreational activities, thus making a good impression on the family. She’d wake up early, walk in the garden, and go around “telling everybody how much she loved Balmoral and that it was such a magical place and how she loved it beyond imagination.”
The late Queen Elizabeth doubted Diana’s behavior and secretly wanted her to marry Andrew instead of Charles. Seward continued in the book, “The Queen, alert to a possible new woman in her son’s life, had just two reservations. She wondered whether anyone that young could differentiate between the man and the prince. And she couldn’t help thinking that the Spencer girl would be far better suited to her younger son, Andrew.”
In a new National Geographic documentary, Diana: In Her Own Words , recordings of Princess Diana revealed she described her wedding day with Charles as “the worst day of my life,” per TODAY. The late princess said in the tape, “I can’t marry him. I can’t do this. This is unbelievable.”
Documentary producer Tom Jennings said, “I’d like to think we’ve created the definitive Diana documentary from Diana’s point of view. This is her story. This is her point of view. This was her truth at the time.”