Lhe union of Charles and Diana in 1981 had not been welcomed with enthusiasm by everyone at court. My Mother And Ia new book by the authoritative English royal watcher Ingrid Seward (out on 15 February in British bookstores), reveals that, a few months before the wedding celebrated on 29 July of that year, Queen Elizabeth had expressed serious doubts: Charles and Diana had too different characters. AND according to the sovereign, the future princess would have been more “suitable” for another of her children: Andrea.
Elizabeth had anticipated Charles and Diana’s problems
Seward, who in the book focuses on the relationship between Elizabeth and her son Charles, claims that the sovereign was also worried about the age difference: Carlo was 32 years old, Diana was just 20. Spencer was a young girl who wanted to have fun and Andrea, just a year older than Diana, was much more sociable and extroverted than her brother heir to the throne. But the queen probably didn’t know that, a month before the wedding, Diana too had doubts, so much so that she took it into her head to cancel the ceremony.
That party that changed Lady Diana’s mind
Seward says that, shortly before her wedding to Charles, Diana had been invited to Prince Andrew’s 21st birthday party, organized at Windsor Castle. A well-known fan of pop music, Diana had asked Carlo to dance with her, but he wouldn’t hear of it. According to the accounts of witnesses, Diana then began to go wild on the dance floor, first with others and then alone, lost in her thoughts.
The next morning, back home in Althorp, Diana told her father that she no longer wanted to marry Charles, but Count Spencer managed to change her mind. It was too late to think about it again. The wedding of the century was just a few weeks away.
The Queen with Charles and Diana on their wedding day, Buckingham Palace, 29 July 1981 (Getty Images)
At Balmoral Diana had lied to all the Royals
Even during Diana’s first visit to Balmoral the Queen had expressed doubts about the young woman’s ability to adapt to Royal life, with all its rituals and expectations. Diana, for her part, had confided to Mark Simpson, Edward’s valet, that she felt neglected by Charles, but to gain acceptance from the Royals she had told everyone that she liked the Scottish estate very much, insisting on getting up first in the morning and taking a walk walk in the surrounding woods. In reality, unlike the countryman Carlo, she couldn’t bear to be there.
But would Diana and Andrea have been happy?
When the union with Charles began to deteriorate, Diana turned to the queen, who however was unable to help her. And after years of bitter battles between her son and daughter-in-law, it was Elizabeth who pushed them to divorce, which was finalized in 1996. If Diana had married Andrea instead of Carlo, the history of the English Royals would have taken a different course. Would the princess have been happier? Nobody can say. But the wise Queen Elizabeth, who had seen it right, must have asked herself several times.
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