Royal Author Revealed Charles Married Diana for The Most Absurd Reason: "It Was About..."

The marriage of Prince Charles and Princess Diana was reportedly influenced by an 'archaic requirement of virginity' for a royal bride. According to Tina Brown, author of The Palace Papers, this standard shaped the search for a bride for the heir apparent and ultimately played a significant role in Charles choosing Lady Diana Spencer.

In an interview with The Cut, Brown described the challenge of finding a bride in modern society who met this outdated criterion and likened it to looking for the 'Loch Ness monster.' “Finding an intact woman in her late twenties amongst his contemporaries might have seemed easy from the Queen Mother’s point of view, but in the freewheeling sexual mores of seventies London society, it was about as likely as a sighting of the Loch Ness monster,” Brown wrote. 

Brown argued that these strict requirements proved 'lethal to his future happiness' because Charles reportedly wanted to settle down with Camilla Parker Bowles, a married woman but also the love of Charles’ life. “Camilla understood that the achingly archaic requirement of virginity in a royal bride was a deal-breaker in her relationship with Charles,” Brown noted in her book.

The issue of Diana’s virginity extended far beyond the palace’s walls. The public and media were fixated on the matter, especially after the 'Love Train' incident of November 1980. Reports surfaced of Diana meeting Charles late at night on the Royal Train in Wiltshire. The incident fueled public scrutiny, with Brown suggesting that the palace may have orchestrated efforts to maintain Diana’s image as a virgin. According to Vanity Fair, six days before the story broke in the media, Diana’s uncle, Lord Fermoy, declared, “Purity seems to be at a premium when it comes to discussing a possible bride for Prince Charles at the moment. Diana, I can assure you, has never had a lover.”

Brown also supported the statement, saying Queen Elizabeth II likely favored Diana as a bride because of her youth and lack of prior relationships. She was just 19 when Charles proposed, and there were no ex-boyfriends in the picture. Brown explored this further in The Diana Chronicles, noting that Diana likely cooperated with the palace’s efforts to uphold appearances. “It seems clear now that Diana, for reasons of panicked self-protection, colluded with the Palace machine to protect the anachronistic façade of virginity right up to the altar,” she wrote. 

While there is no law in the United Kingdom mandating a royal bride be a virgin, the Royal Marriages Act of 1772 requires descendants of George II to seek the reigning monarch’s permission before marrying. This applied to both Charles and Prince William. Nevertheless, public perception at the time heavily emphasized Diana’s supposed innocence.