King Charles And Princess Diana Interactions That Made People Uncomfortable
In July 1981, Prince Charles (now King Charles III) married Lady Diana Spencer in a lavish wedding with all the pomp and circumstance to be expected for the future King and Queen of England. But despite appearances, there was already unrest in the relationship, which continued throughout their 15-year marriage. Diana knew Charles never got over his first love, Camilla Parker Bowles (now Camilla, Queen Consort), whom he had a continued affair with during his marriage. Charles allegedly confessed to Diana the night before their wedding that he wasn't in love with her. Given the rocky foundation, it's no wonder the couple struggled throughout their relationship. On top of those core issues, they had the added pressure of their royal duties and public scrutiny.
Despite often being unhappy together, Charles and Diana did their best to make the marriage work. But as early as their engagement announcement, people began to notice uncomfortable interactions between them. The couple often seemed stiff and nervous together. On several occasions, Diana was visibly upset in front of the public. Charles also made jokes, which only seemed to make the tension between them worse. Looking back at these awkward moments, it's clear to see the problems which eventually led to their divorce.
When Charles didn't say he was in love with Diana
One of the most awkward public moments in King Charles and Princess Diana's relationship happened in 1981 during an interview announcing their engagement. The interview was meant to showcase the happy prince and his bride-to-be but ended up being quite an uncomfortable watch.
Talking about their engagement, Charles joked he was amazed Diana was brave enough to take him on. He was making light of the situation but also may have been referring to some of the struggles Diana was having adjusting to all the media attention. The interviewer then said he assumed they were in love. Diana responded how you'd expect a newly engaged and happy couple to with a quick heartfelt, "Of course." However, Charles' answer took people off guard when he infamously said, "Whatever 'in love' means." In the uncomfortable moment that followed, Diana tried to laugh his statement off but appeared confused and slightly hurt. Years later, in a series of candid interviews with Peter Settelen (via YouTube), Diana admitted the incident "absolutely traumatized me."
In the moment, the reporter also seemed surprised by Charles' comment but found his footing well, clarifying that he meant they looked very happy together, in which Charles agreed. Even apart from that specific exchange, the entire interview felt stilted and awkward. When the hit TV show "The Crown" reenacted the moment in the dramatized series, viewers were still shocked by the king's response.
Diana's tearful parting with Charles was not the sweet moment it seemed
Princess Diana drew public attention in 1981 when the press caught her teary-eyed goodbye to King Charles. The young Diana was newly engaged and just getting used to royal life and all that came with it. But her fiancé Charles was unable to stay by her side to help her adjust, as he had royal engagements calling him away to Australia and New Zealand. Diana saw him off at the airport and was seen crying as the plane took off.
Upon first glance, this moment appeared romantic, as the press and public assumed Diana was sad to see Charles go and would be missing him while he was gone. Sadly, the famous clips of Diana become less sweet and more uncomfortable when you know the real context behind them. Diana later recounted the moment from her perspective, saying, "You may recall seeing a picture of me sobbing in a red coat ... That was nothing to do with him going" (via National Geographic). The princess went on to explain she was upset because of what happened before Charles' flight, not because he was leaving. While she was talking to Charles about the upcoming trip, he received a call from his former girlfriend and on-again-off-again lover, Camilla Parker Bowles. Diana's tears were because she was distraught by Charles taking the call from Camilla right before leaving on a five-week trip.
Princess Diana appeared nervous at her wedding
There is no denying that Princess Diana made a beautiful bride. She wore a custom-designed dress with a 25-foot train and voluminous sleeves that matched her flowing veil and tiara. Standing next to King Charles in his military garb, the pair certainly looked impressive and were dressed for the part of a perfect royal couple. But a lot went wrong on Princess Diana's wedding day. While she looked lovely, she also appeared unsettled. In many moments from the day, the couple seemed stiff together, and Diana appeared shy or scared.
One clip shared on TikTok shows Diana smiling nervously at the camera, then looking from side to side as if not sure what to do next. TikTok users were quick to pick up on her apparent discomfort with one commenting, "You can tell in her eyes she knew what a mistake it was marrying him. He treated her very badly."
Years later, Princess Diana admitted she considered calling off the wedding. After learning of Charles' continued affair with Camilla, Queen Consort, Diana said she told her sisters, "I can't marry him. I can't do this. This is absolutely unbelievable" (via National Geographic). But after her family calmed her down, she decided to go through with the marriage. Likely due to these misgivings, Diana appeared more nervous than joyous in the footage from her wedding day.
Diana made a telling face during one of Charles' speeches
After they were married, King Charles visited Australia once again, this time with Princess Diana. During their visit, Charles made a speech with his new wife sitting behind him in an eye-catching red gown and sparkling jewelry and a tiara. In his speech, Charles talked about his Australian tour a couple of years before. "At that time, everybody was saying, 'Good luck!' and 'Hope everything goes well!' and 'How lucky you are to be engaged to such a lovely lady.' And my goodness, I was lucky enough to marry her," Charles boasted.
At that point in his speech, there was an unexpected interruption as the crowd erupted in laughter. From her seat, Diana made a telling face, suggesting that perhaps they weren't so lucky to be married. The crowd and Charles seemed to take the moment in good fun, with the then-prince joking, "Amazing what ladies do when your back is turned." This quip earned another laugh from the audience and from Diana herself.
At the time, it seemed like a happy and playful moment between the couple. However, looking back and knowing what a difficult time Diana had in her marriage with Charles, it's hard not to take her face and its possible implications a little more seriously. One user commented on the video of the 1983 speech, saying, "She's letting everyone know that it's not so magical and lovey dovey behind closed doors!"
Princess Diana broke down in front of a crowd in Sydney
King Charles and Princess Diana's 1983 Australian tour was full of tumultuous moments for the young couple. The pair were struggling in their relationship, and because their visit to the country was highly publicized, many of their low moments were seen by the world. At one particularly low point on the trip, the Princess of Wales burst into tears in full view of an adoring crowd in front of the Sydney Opera House. Her tears were obvious to anyone close enough to see her face, and a photographer captured the instant.
The photographer, Ken Lennox, took many famous photographs of Diana over the years and saw how her and Charles' demeanor changed throughout their relationship. He recalled getting this specific shot while speaking on "Inside the Crown: Secrets of the Royals" in 2020. Lennox said he sympathized with Charles during the Australian tour because the public weren't interested in him — they wanted to see Diana. This created tension between the couple that built up to the moment Lennox snapped a photo of Diana crying. "I'm about four feet from the princess and I'm trying to get a bit of the opera house in the background and some of the crowd, and Diana burst into tears and wept for a couple of minutes," Lennox claimed. Charles was looking away in the photo and didn't seem to see his wife's distress.
King Charles once joked he should have had two wives
During King Charles and Princess Diana's 1983 Australia and New Zealand tour, Charles was speaking to an assembled crowd near the end of their visit when he joked, "I've come to the conclusion that really it would have been far easier to have two wives to have covered both sides of the street. And I could have walked down the middle directing the operation." This comment was made in reference to how popular his wife was while they were on the tour together. He found that the public was more interested in meeting Diana than him and joked that he wished he had a second wife to greet the public. The audience laughed, but when the camera cut to Diana, she was looking down and seemed uncomfortable.
Years later, the princess revealed how difficult her popularity had been for Charles. "Everybody always said when we were in the car, 'Oh, we're in the wrong side, we want to see her, we don't want to see him,' and that's all we could hear when we went down those crowds and obviously he wasn't used to it and nor was I ... He was jealous. I understood the jealousy but I couldn't explain that I didn't ask for it," Diana said (via Newsweek). The moment is even more tense watching it today. The knowledge of his ongoing affair with Camilla, Queen Consort, makes his comment about a second wife incredibly insulting to Diana.
Charles was reportedly frustrated after Diana danced with John Travolta
Princess Diana was beloved by the people and the press, often taking over the headlines. She gained widespread attention once again while on an official visit to the United States with King Charles. During the 1985 visit to the White House, Diana danced with "Grease" star John Travolta. Now-iconic photographs from the evening show the pair dancing in the White House entrance hall with President Ronald Reagan, Nancy Reagan, and the rest of the guests in the background. Diana was seen smiling as the actor twirled her around in a beautiful black evening gown.
Travolta was quite a well-known celebrity at the time, therefore, photos of their combined star power gained a lot of attention. Unfortunately, that attention may have rubbed her husband the wrong way. "He was very frustrated the only thing the media cared about was Diana and John Travolta," explained royal commentator Rachel Bowie (via Express). This frustration led to another awkward public moment between the royal couple. At a press conference (via Getty Images), when Charles was asked if Diana enjoyed dancing with the movie star, the then-prince said he couldn't speak for her, but went on to say, "She would be an idiot if she didn't enjoy dancing with John Travolta, wouldn't she?" Although Charles seemed to be kidding, the crowd laughed uncomfortably, and Diana looked tense, particularly after he said she'd be an "idiot."
Charles and Diana had a disagreement in the middle of an interview
In 1985, Princess Diana and King Charles sat down for a tell-all interview with ITN's Alastair Burnet. The journalist questioned them about their marriage, the couple's experience with the press, Diana's adjustment to royal life, and much more. Diana and Charles spoke openly throughout the interview and seemed to have true lighthearted moments. However, there was still some tension.
One tense moment came when the interviewer asked them about an apparent disagreement they had while skiing. On a documented ski trip in Liechtenstein earlier that year, the couple seemed to be a bit disconnected and disagreed on how long they wanted to spend on the slopes. Responding to Burnet's question about the ski day, Charles was ready to admit they have their arguments just like any other couple. However, Diana was quick to stop him from saying this, interrupting with a fervent, "But we don't [argue]!" Charles answered that they do occasionally, but Diana remained insistent that they didn't fight.
In a strange interaction of the couple bickering about whether or not they argue, the disagreement is even more uncomfortable knowing how much unrest there was in their marriage. One viewer commented on the video, "If I'd watched this in 1985 I would have loved it. But today it makes me feel terribly sad."
A PDA moment between Charles and Diana looked forced
Throughout their relationship, King Charles and Princess Diana rarely engaged in public displays of affection. In a TikTok video, which shows several clips of the couple sharing chaste kisses after polo matches, viewers can see the progression of their body language becoming more and more stiff with each other. In the last clip, from a 1992 match, Diana turned her head away from Charles so that he kissed the side of her head instead of her lips or cheek. Watching the moment back made many viewers sad for the couple. One commenter wrote, "You can even tell how out of love she was becoming." In response to one user saying it seemed like a kiss between friends, another wrote, "More like 'I'm kissing you [sic] cause we can't let the public know.'"
Body language expert Judi James spoke to Express about this viral moment, saying, "Charles and Diana are mainly remembered for the shocking miss-kiss at the end of their marriage when Diana rejected Charles by turning her head away." However, James pointed out that they had PDA moments in earlier years that were much more passionate. "Diana would smile coyly as they kissed full on the lips and her head tilt looked loving," James said. This contrast between their early kisses only makes the 1992 moment all the more uncomfortable to watch.
The press noticed Charles and Diana seemed miserable on a trip to South Korea
Despite trying to play a happy couple and fulfill their royal duties, the cracks in King Charles and Princess Diana's relationship became more and more obvious over the years. Moreover, their troubled marriage was always particularly easy to see at official events and royal tours when they were spending a lot of time together in front of cameras and crowds. As their marriage floundered, the couple seemed to have a hard time pretending things were fine.
Eventually, Charles and Diana's marital troubles reached a boiling point in 1992. In May, Andrew Morton released a tell-all titled "Diana: Her True Story," which revealed private details of the couple's lives, Charles' affair with Camila, Queen Consort, and Diana's personal struggles. Despite the bad press, Charles and Diana had an overseas diplomatic trip to South Korea in November of the same year. The royals tried to put on a brave face and fulfill their scheduled events, but the tension between them was impossible to ignore. Reporters even took to calling them "The Glums" because of how miserable they seemed in each other's company while on the trip. It's obvious they were suffering during the trip, and just one month later, their separation was announced. Their divorce wasn't finalized until 1996, a final blow which Diana's private secretary says still affects Charles.