When Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer married on July 29, 1981, there were 3,500 people at St. Paul’s Cathedral to watch them exchange vows, and an additional 750 million people watching from home. “Decades later, we now know the fairytale ceremony didn’t continue into a fairytale marriage,” The Mirror writes. “But that does not mean the day itself wasn’t something to behold.”
The outlet added that “excitement reached fever pitch” when Diana, who had just turned 20 years old earlier that month, emerged from her carriage at St. Paul’s in her ivory silk taffeta gown, “and there were cheers all around when the couple said ‘I do.’” Now, nearly 43 years later, lip readers have decoded what the late Queen Elizabeth said to her new daughter-in-law, Princess Diana, on the famed Buckingham Palace balcony as throngs of people waited to see them below. As they waved at the crowds assembled, Her late Majesty, according to the lip reader, advised Diana to look at the people who had been there “all day to see her.”
Charles also apparently told his bride “you look perfect” when he first saw her during the ceremony, and then asked her to give him her hand. He then, interestingly, said “kissy.”
The couple’s interaction on their wedding day is fascinating to pay attention to, considering what had happened the day before. The Mirror reports that, on the eve of their big day, to ease the rather shy Diana’s tensions, Charles sent his bride-to-be a secret note that offered sweet advice: “The night before the wedding, which Diana spent at Clarence House with her sister, Jane, he [Charles] sent her a note, along with a signet ring bearing the Prince of Wales feathers,” royal author Penny Junor wrote in her book The Duchess: The Untold Story. Charles wrote “I’m so proud of you, and when you come up I’ll be there at the altar for you tomorrow. Just look ‘em in the eye and knock ‘em dead.”
But, as sweet as that was, that note was in opposition to the admission Charles made to Diana, also the night before the wedding, because he “did not want to go into the marriage on a false premise,” according to Diana’s astrologer Penny Thornton, who worked closely with the then Princess of Wales. Thornton said that Charles told his soon-to-be wife that he didn’t love her, which naturally left Diana devastated.
“One of the most shocking things that Diana told me was that the night before the wedding, Charles told her that he didn’t love her,” Thornton said on the ITV documentary The Diana Interview: Revenge of a Princess. “I think Charles didn’t want to go into the wedding on a false premise. He wanted to square it with her, and it was devastating for Diana.”
Charles’ heart was likely otherwise occupied by one Camilla Parker-Bowles, now known as Queen Camilla, whom he had met and fallen head over heels for in the early 1970s. Charles and Camilla carried on an extramarital affair for a large chunk of Charles and Diana's marriage; Charles and Diana ultimately separated in 1992, 11 years after marrying that day in 1981. Their divorce was finalized in 1996, almost one year to the day before Diana died in a car accident in Paris at just 36 years old.
