It was the 80s extravaganza watched by millions back in 1981, but a new biography suggests that Prince Charles wanted to call off his wedding to Lady Diana Spencer.
In the biography Charles At Seventy: Thoughts, Hopes And Dreams written by Robert Jobson, the Prince of Wales, who was 32 when he tied the knot, confessed that calling off the wedding “would be cataclysmic” but as he spent more time with Diana, he realised that they were totally incompatible.
The Prince was reduced to tears and reportedly told friends, “I desperately wanted to get out of the wedding in 1981, when during the engagement I discovered just how awful the prospects were, having had no chance whatsoever to get to know Diana beforehand.”
Charles realised that marrying Diana would be a mistake and says he deeply regrets his decision. (Image: Getty Images)
Even though he went through with the marriage, it’s a regret Prince Charles has lived with for years as he he believes that he let down not only himself and Diana on a personal level, but the monarchy itself.
According to Diana, the two had met only 12 times and barely knew one another before they agreed to get engaged. Charles was placed under a lot of pressure to take a wife and the young, pretty, virginal Diana, who came from the aristocratic Spencer family, was the perfect candidate.
Diana herself was an innocent 20 year-old when she walked up the aisle and had her own concerns and fears.
When she confided in her sisters that she wanted to cancel the wedding, they talked her out of it.
“Well, bad luck, Duch,” her sisters said, using her childhood nickname short for ‘Duchess’. “Your face is on the tea towels, so you’re too late to chicken out.”
In the documentary Diana: In Her Own Words, Diana revealed in audio recordings, “It was like a call to duty, really.”
“He sat me down and said, ‘Will you marry me?’ I thought the whole thing was hysterical, getting married. It was so grown up. And I laughed. I remember thinking: ‘This is a joke.’ And he was deadly serious.”
It was pretty obvious looking back that the two were very incompatible.
WATCH: Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s awkward engagement interview.
After they were married and welcomed sons William and Harry, both engaged in extramarital affairs and they officially divorced in 1996.
A year later, Diana was tragically killed in a car accident in Paris.
READ MORE: Duchess Camilla haunted by her past once again.
Of course, without Charles and Diana we wouldn’t be blessed with William and Harry so history could’ve turned out very differently. And we highly doubt the 69-year-old regrets the birth of his sons.
But that’s not the only scandalous titbit from the biography. Robert Jobson also claims that Prince Charles was dismayed when he was left out of William and Harry’s 2017 documentary, Diana: Our Mother, and that Prince Harry had a “meltdown” ahead of his wedding to Meghan Markle.
But judging by their loved-up moments on their royal tour, we reckon Harry and Meghan are doing just fine now.
