The Joke Prince Charles Made That Broke Princess Diana's Heart

Life as a royal might seem like a fairy tale, but it's becoming more and more clear that this isn't really the case. Events such as the dramatic split between the Royal Family and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have suggested that things aren't always so rosy for the royals, but they're not the first to have struggled with the weight of their public roles. Take Princess Diana, for example. Prince William and Harry's mother famously endured a very public divorce with her husband Prince Charles, was constantly hounded by the British press, and died tragically in Paris in 1997. But things weren't always rough for Diana, especially her relationship with her husband. Things started off well enough. Lady Diana Spencer and Prince Charles married on July 29th 1981 at St. Paul's Cathedral, officially making Diana the Princess of Wales. The day was a joyful one for Diana, who said in her biography: "I remember being so in love with my husband that I couldn't take my eyes off him." The young princess added: "I just absolutely thought I was the luckiest girl in the world. He was going to look after me. Well, was I wrong on that assumption." But trouble began brewing even on their honeymoon, where they took off for a 14-day cruise aboard the royal yacht, Britannia. According to Diana's biography, Charles wore a gift from his former girlfriend, Camilla Parker Bowles: cufflinks with intertwined "C's" for their names. Despite this rocky start, Charles and Diana went on to conceive their first child, and in June 1982, Prince William was born. While William grew to be happy and healthy, Diana's second pregnancy ended in a miscarriage in September 1983. Thankfully, the Palace announced in February 1984 that Diana was pregnant again, and the baby was due in mid-September. But while this birth brought Diana much joy, it also spurred Charles into making a joke that hurt her to her core. The truth is, Prince Harry's birth came as kind of a disappointment to Prince Charles. Prince Charles had desperately wanted a daughter after the birth of their first child, William. Princess Diana knew that she was expecting a boy during the pregnancy, but kept it a secret from Charles because he was so adamant about having a daughter. So when Harry was safely delivered after a nine-hour delivery, he was given his full name: Henry Charles Albert David Mountbatten-Windsor. According to Andrew Morton's book Diana: Her True Story - In Her Own Words, the first thing Charles said when he saw his son was: "Oh God, it's a boy. And he's even got red hair." According to Morton's book, Diana later told friends that, when she heard Charles' reaction, something inside her died. Charles' comment about Harry's red hair was deeply hurtful to Diana, especially because her older sisters and her younger brother had red hair, so it was clearly a trait that ran in the Spencer family. Morton added that this statement by Charles marked the beginning of the end of their marriage. Prince Charles never really stopped expressing his disappointment at the birth of his second son, either. Later, at Harry's christening, Charles said to Princess Diana's mother: "We were so disappointed, we thought it would be a girl." Diana later spoke about this time, saying that the weeks leading up to Harry's birth were the closest she and Charles had ever been. Once Harry was born, however, their relationship changed forever. Diana herself wrote: "Then, suddenly, as Harry was born, it just went bang, our marriage. The whole thing went down the drain." Their marriage ultimately proved unsuccessful, and British Prime Minister John Major announced their divorce in December 1992. Then, in August 1997, Diana tragically died in a car accident, solidifying herself in the minds of the British public as the so-called people's princess. Suddenly, the narrative had changed, and people came to see Diana as someone who was pushed out of the royal family because she did things differently. As she said in her famous 1995 BBC interview with Martin Bashir: "I do things differently, because I don't go by a rule book, because I lead from the heart, not the head, and albeit that's got me into trouble in my work, I understand that. But someone's got to go out there and love people and show it." Watch the video for The Joke Prince Charles Made That Broke Princess Diana's Heart. #PrincessDiana #PrinceCharles