Princess Diana insisted that Princes William and Harry were under no illusions that their father, King Charles, loved her, a royal biographer has claimed.
Ingrid Seward, friend of the late princess, claims the then-Prince Charles genuinely cared for his first wife, though the pair were fundamentally mismatched at that stage of their lives.
“He was plagued by guilt because he knew he was the one who should have made it work,” Ms Seward told Hello magazine.
“But her intense jealousy and many, many other things… they were just not suited at the time.”
The expert’s remarks come as Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, published his own memoir about the late princess.
Titled Swan Song: Diana my Sister, the book offers his personal account of her life, including her marriage to the then-Prince of Wales.
Describing his latest work, Earl Spencer wrote on Instagram: “When I finished the recording, I thought: ‘That is exactly what I wanted and needed to say – and she would, I reckon, have approved of every word’.”
Despite later doubling down, insisting his sister would be “cheering from the rafters” at its publication, he has been met with scepticism over his intentions for the memoir.
Princess Diana insisted that Princes William and Harry were under no illusions that her ex-husband, King Charles, loved her, a royal biographer has claimed
| GETTY
Earl Spencer insisted his sister would be ‘cheering from the rafters’ at the memoir’s publication
| GETTY
The expert even added one damning detail: “She said, ‘It’s very important to me, Ingrid, that my boys know that their father loved me. It’s really, really important’.”
The couple wed at St Paul’s Cathedral in 1981, when Diana was just 20, and the future King was 32 – an age gap of 12 years.
They went on to have two sons, William and Harry, but their marriage was beset by well-documented difficulties throughout.
Diana herself addressed the troubles in her now-famous 1995 BBC Panorama interview, declaring that “there were three of us in this marriage.”
Charles and Diana married in 1981 and divorced in 1996
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The pair formally ended their marriage in 1996, finalising their divorce after years of public speculation and private anguish.
Tragically, Diana died just a year later, leaving behind a legacy that continues to captivate the nation.
King Charles subsequently married Camilla, now Queen Camilla, in 2005.