Before her famous royal wedding to the now King Charles III, Princess Diana expressed serious doubts about going through with the marriage, according to her brother.
In his new memoir “Swan Song: Diana, My Sister,” Diana’s younger brother, Charles Spencer, recalls learning that the princess had gone to their father, John Spencer, expressing that “she could not go through with marriage to a man who clearly did not love her.”
Diana and Charles were first linked in July 1980 and became engaged in February 1981.
Spencer details that Diana had attended the birthday party of Prince Andrew with her fiancé, whom she was very excited to be reunited with, as he had just returned that day from an official trip to New York. Andrew has since been stripped of his royal titles.
Spencer goes on to write, “Diana had dreamt of spending the party at Windsor Castle at her fiancé’s side. But he had shown next to no interest in her, and she — deeply hurt, confused and increasingly concerned — danced with others, including me, instead.”
Diana went to her father to share her feelings of uncertainty after that night. However, Charles Spencer says he didn’t find out the details of the conversation until much later.
Diana’s father, John Spencer, did not support her idea of ending the engagement. “My father was appalled and said it was impossible to pull out of such an enormous commitment at that point,” Spencer writes.
Spencer reflects on why he believes their father responded that way, pointing to his long connection to the royal family and sense of duty to the monarchy.
“He always adored Diana, but what she was proposing was counter to the code on which he had been brought up, and which he never seemed to question.”
Ending the engagement, Spencer says, would have meant “deeply embarrassing the Royal Family.”
Diana ultimately went through with the wedding, marrying Charles on July 29, 1981, at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Diana called the wedding “the worst day of my life,” in a series of recordings taped in 1991 for a biography titled, “Diana: Her True Story.”
Their marriage would eventually crumble, the royal pair separating in 1992 and finalizing their divorce in 1996, just a year before her death at 36.
Spencer’s account also notes a happier relationship that formed the night of Andrew’s birthday, when Elton John performed.
“The day after Prince Andrew’s party, with her usual impeccable manners, Diana wrote by hand to Elton John, her letter applauding him for his brilliance the previous night” he says.
Spencer says the exchange marked the beginning of a friendship that would continue throughout Diana’s life and ultimately became one of the most memorable moments at Diana’s funeral in 1997, when John performed a reworked version of “Candle in the Wind.”
