It is one of the most well-documented divorces of the 20th century and yet, 23 years later we are still learning new things about the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana’s infamous separation.
A new Channel 5 documentary claims that the late Lady Di and Charles, 70, both cried together on the day they signed their divorce papers.
Ingrid Seward, the editor of Royalty Magazine, reveals the information half-way through the documentary.
‘Diana did tell me something quite interesting,’ she says. ‘She said that on the day of the divorce, she and Charles sat down together on the sofa and they both cried,’ she goes on.
‘It was this crazy separation, but by the time the divorce was finalised, they were on much better terms.’
The Prince and Princess of Wales attend a welcome ceremony in Toronto at the beginning of their Canadian tour, October 1991, five years before their divorce. A new documentary sheds light on the couple’s infamous separation
Ingrid Seward, the editor of Royalty Magazine, said Lady Diana told her Charles and her both cried together on the day of their divorce
This leads to believe Charles and Diana ended things on much better terms then previously thought.
Prince Charles and Lady Diana’s divorce was officially finalised on 24 August 1996, after a very public fall out.
The first part of the new documentary, called The Royal Family at War, revisits the former couple’s fairy-tale-to-nightmare love story.
It claims that, as previously reported, Diana did not want to divorce Charles, but would have preferred a – temporary – separation.
Diana and Charles’ relationship started like a fairy-tale, which an engagement announcement and a beautiful wedding, but the relationship ended with a bitter divorce, or so we thought
It claims that Lady Diana felt threatened early on by Camilla, now Duchess of Cornwall and Charles’ new wife.
In the wake of their engagement, Diana already suspected that something was going on between her groom-to-be and his former flame.
‘At the time of the marriage, Charles was not seeing Camilla, but Diana was convinced he was,’ said Seward, ‘and then her worst fears came true.’
The documentary recounts that Diana intercepted a package from Charles to Camilla, which contained a bracelet engraved with the initials ‘F’ and ‘G,’ for ‘Fred’ and Gladys’, Charles and Camilla’s nicknames for each other.
Charles once made a joke it would have been ‘far easier to have two wives’ during public walkabouts
‘Diana, of course, floods of tears, went to Charles and demanded to know what was going on.
‘But Charles, so insensitive, he insisted on still giving it to Camilla.’
‘Charles did not show huge emotional intelligence, if I’m brutally honest,’ royal biographer Penny Junor said.
The documentary mentions that Charles also wore cufflinks engraved two C’s entwined that Camilla had given him on his honey moon with Diana.
Lady Diana always suspected Charles had feelings for his former girlfriend Camilla and even confronted her at a birthday party in 1989, seven years before her divorce from Charles
Charles with Prince William (center left) and Prince Harry (center right). Princess Diana told a friend she ‘cried herself to sleep’ the day Prince Harry was born
Driven by jealousy, Diana actually confronted Camilla at a common friend’s birthday party in 1989. The content of that conversation has been retold many times.
Diana told Camilla she knew ‘exactly what’s going on,’ and warned her: ‘Don’t treat me like an idiot.’
When Camilla, to defend herself, responded: ‘You’ve got two beautiful children. What more would you want?’ Diana simply replied: ‘My husband.’
![The couple in 1987, two years before Diana confronted Camilla and a friend's birthday party in 1989 and told her not to 'treat [her] like an idiot'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/03/22/16/11332648-6839507-image-m-55_1553272679923.jpg)
The couple in 1987, two years before Diana confronted Camilla and a friend’s birthday party in 1989 and told her not to ‘treat [her] like an idiot’
Former security officer for Diana Ken Wharfe says in the documentary that Charles and Diana did not exchange a word with each other on their way back to Buckingham Palace that night.
The documentary also revisits the media craze around the fall out and how both Charles and Diana tried to control the narrative by talking to the media.
Diana hit first with the Andrew Morton Book Diana: Her true Story. The explosive book recounted how sad her life was and her feelings about Camilla Parker Bowles.
Charles and Diana during their tour of Germany in 1987. The two used the media to address the problems in their marriage
‘She was absolutely miserable, and she felt she was like a prisoner of the Palace,’ Morton says during the documentary.
‘Nothing prepared me for the cascade of information and the controversy that the book aroused,’ he adds.
‘She was speaking like a prisoner in a cell, that just had a few minutes to get the story out.’
Very early on in their relationship, Diana suspected that Charles still held a flame for Camilla and resented him
The book was followed by the 1993 broadcast in the media of recorded phone calls between Charles and Camilla, which is called Camillagate or tampongate.
In the tapes, Charles infamously joked about becoming a tampon.
Charles addressed the controversy in an documentary Charles: the private man, the public role.
‘It gave her a level of justification that had never been before.’
After Diana answered with her own televised interview with Panorama, the Queen sent her an official letter advising for a divorce.
The Royal Family at War airs on Channel 5 at 9pm on Saturday.