Meghan Markle attended her first evening event as a royal-to-be last night – at the venue where a shy Lady Diana Spencer had done exactly the same thing in 1981.
Thirty-seven years on, Diana’s son Prince Harry and his fiancee were at the historic Goldsmiths’ Hall in the City of London at an awards ceremony for service personnel.
The hall was also the scene of Diana’s first public engagement with her fiance Prince Charles in March 1981, five months before Meghan was born.
It was a black-tie event in aid of the Royal Opera House and saw the princess-to-be turn heads – much to her embarrassment – in a low-cut Emanuel gown that exposed her cleavage as she stepped from her car.
Charles apparently hated it – not least because it was black and was thus seen as a colour only suitable for those in mourning.
Meghan too wore black last night with a version of a man’s tuxedo teamed with a crisp white shirt with a bow by Tuxe costing £285 and named The Boss.
Meghan Markle in black at the Goldsmiths’ hall last night and Diana at the same venue in March 1981
Unusually, since she isn’t yet a member of the Royal Family, Meghan introduced and handed out the second award of the night, to the winner of ‘celebrating excellence’
Meghan applauds veteran soldier Daniel Claricoates after she presented him with the Celebrating Excellence Award during the Endeavour Fund Awards at Goldsmiths’ Hall
Thirty-seven years ago – five months before Meghan Markle was even born – Diana carried out her first evening engagement at the very same venue where her son’s fiancee dazzled last night
Thirty-seven years ago – five months before Meghan Markle was even born – Diana carried out her first evening engagement at the very same venue where her son’s fiancee dazzled last night, writes SARAH RAINEY. But, oh, what a different occasion.
Crippled with nerves, all 19-year-old Lady Diana Spencer hoped for was to get through the evening without making any terrible faux pas or embarrassing her prince. But it was not to be.
As she stooped down to step out of the Rolls-Royce, her low-cut, borrowed dress slipped down to reveal an ample – but decidedly un-royal – mass of cleavage.
On March 9, 1981, ‘Shy Di’ as she had been dubbed was attending a black tie event with Prince Charles at Goldsmiths’ Hall in London in aid of the Royal Opera House developmental appeal.
Their appearance had been much-anticipated, with the public eager to catch a glimpse of the bashful young blonde who’d won the heart of the heir to the throne, last seen in those staid engagement portraits, posing outside Buckingham Palace in a blue two-piece suit and pussy-bow blouse.
On March 9, 1981, ‘Shy Di’ as she had been dubbed was attending a black tie event with Prince Charles at Goldsmiths’ Hall in London in aid of the Royal Opera House developmental appeal
And Diana defied expectations. As one breathless royal commentator put it: ‘When she stepped out of that limousine, it was the best sexual theatre since Cinderella traded in her scuffed scullery clogs for Prince Charming’s glass slippers.’
But she, a meek teenager, didn’t see it that way. And no one could have predicted how disastrously the evening would go, or quite how indelibly it would mark her for years to come.
Embarrassed by her outfit, scared she would humiliate herself (or him), Diana later described the evening as a ‘horrendous occasion’. She admitted: ‘I was terrified, really – at the time everything was all over the place. I remember that evening so well. I was nearly sick.’
The first thing to go wrong, even before Diana reached the venue, was her dress. She’d borrowed a strapless, black taffeta ballgown from Elizabeth and David Emanuel, the chic young design duo who would go on to make her wedding dress.
A sample originally lent to the TV actress Liza Goddard, the dress – according to Elizabeth – just happened to be hanging on a rail when she came into the designers’ Mayfair studio. ‘It wasn’t made for her, but she didn’t mind one bit,’ Elizabeth explains. ‘We went through all the options and in the end we thought black was the best. It was formal.’
What Diana, and indeed the Emanuels, didn’t realise was that black was a royal no-no – only worn in mourning and entirely unsuitable for a celebratory occasion.
Diana told royal biographer Andrew Morton: ‘I thought it was OK because girls my age wore this dress. I hadn’t appreciated that I was now seen as a royal lady, although I’d only got a ring on my finger as opposed to two rings.
‘I remember walking into my husband-to-be’s study, and him saying, “You’re not going in that dress, are you?” I replied, “Yes, I am”. And he said, “It’s black! But only people in mourning wear black!” And I said, “Yes, but I’m not part of your family yet”.
‘Black, to me, was the smartest colour you could possibly have at the age of 19. It was a real grown-up dress.’
Elizabeth Emanuel remembers receiving letters from angry members of the public, chastising her and then-husband David for allowing Diana to make such a mistake.
‘We had no idea black wasn’t really “done”, that it was only for funerals,’ she recalls. ‘We were very young and we had no press adviser. We didn’t get any advice from the Palace. She trusted us and we did our best. We thought she looked perfect – young and beautiful and elegant.’
But the colour was the least of Diana’s problems. Then a healthy size 12 – she would shrink to a six, with a 23.5-inch waist, by her wedding in July – she had a full bust which strained against the low-cut ruffles on the neckline.
As she stepped into the rainy March evening, one royal photographer who was in the press pack that night remembers Charles’s rather gauche reaction. ‘Beaming from ear to ear, he told me, “Wait until you see what’s coming next!” ’
Diana was clearly uncomfortable in the gown, repeatedly tugging it up at the front and shielding her cleavage with her hands and bag. ‘I was quite big-chested then,’ she said later, ‘and they [the photographers] all got frightfully excited.’ Indeed, some deliberately chose a vantage point at the top of the stairs, in order to catch a mortified Diana at her most revealing angle.
One picture shows her emerging from the car, apparently cleavage first, with the camera lens pointing directly down the front of her dress.
Her jewellery – a diamond necklace borrowed from her mother, which trailed down to her decolletage – only served to draw attention to her bust.
Lady Diana Spencer And Prince Charles At Goldsmiths Hall In London In March 1981
‘Because we were all so green about everything, we didn’t anticipate that she was going to be getting out of a low car,’ explains Elizabeth Emanuel.
Diana’s body language that night spoke volumes; as did Charles’s. While he stood tall and straight, his bride-to-be slouched. Archive footage from the event shows her hunching forwards and hanging her head, as if trying to disappear from view. Keen not to dwarf her husband, who was the same height, Diana had steered clear of heels, choosing instead to wear a thoroughly Sloane Ranger pair of frumpy flats.
She was unsure, too, of how to juggle her many possessions – her bag, shawl, a programme from the event and, later, a single red rose given to her by a
patron. As she told Andrew Morton: ‘I didn’t know whether to go out of the door first. I didn’t know whether your handbag should be in your left hand or your right hand.’
Unlike Meghan’s Hollywood hair and immaculate make-up – meticulously applied by a Palace-approved make-up artist – Diana had no help with her beauty regime and wore her trademark blue kohl eyeliner, pink lipstick and her cropped, un-highlighted hair in a simple blow-dry.
She felt so out of her depth, and so fearful about what this woeful evening meant for her future as a princess, that she sought solace in Princess Grace of Monaco, then 51, with whom she was pictured chatting conspiratorially.
Noticing how frightened she was, Princess Grace – whom Diana later described as ‘wonderful and serene’ – whisked her off to the ladies’ for a pep talk.
The young Diana poured her heart out, confessing her fears about what lay ahead, and in reply Princess Grace said: ‘Don’t worry. It will only get worse.’ Her words would prove all too true.
Anxiety clearly got the better of Diana, who, at the end of the evening, left with her shawl wrapped firmly around her, covering both her cleavage and the red stress rash that had developed across her chest.
The following morning, photographs of the princess-to-be were splashed on the front pages of every newspaper in the country. Diana, downcast, refused to look at a single one.
The Queen Mother was said to have comforted her following her nightmare evening, adding a kindly word in her ear about the blunder of wearing black on public engagements.
Diana returned her dress to the Emanuels’ studio, where it ended up in storage until 2010 – and was eventually sold at auction to a Chilean museum for £192,000.