Diana told me real reason her marriage to Charles failed just before she died – and it wasn’t Camilla, expert reveals

• Before she was a member of the royal family, Princess Diana was known as Lady Diana Spencer.
• The King first met his future bride when she was just 16, in November 1977.
• He had been dating her older sister Lady Sarah, but it wasn’t until the summer of 1980, when Diana watched him play polo during a country weekend, that he took a serious interest in her as a bride.
• Charles and Diana are known to have had a very tumultuous relationship.
• The future king proposed to Diana on February 6, 1981, but the news was kept secret for a few weeks.
• The couple officially announced their engagement on February 24, 1981.
• The wedding took place on Wednesday July 29, 1981 at St Paul’s Cathedral.
• It was estimated to have been watched by a global TV audience of 750 million, and the UK had a national holiday on the day too.
• Yet the couple barely knew each other. Diana later admitted: “We met only 13 times before our wedding day.”
• On the very first day of their honeymoon onboard the yacht Britannia things began to unravel.
• Diana noticed Charles was wearing a pair of cufflinks with two entwined letter Cs.
• She would later recall: “So I said, ‘Camilla gave you those, didn’t she?’.
• He said, ‘Yes, so what’s wrong? They’re a present from a friend’. And boy, did we have a row. Jealousy, total jealousy.”
• Weeks before their marriage, Diana had come across a bracelet inscribed with the letters GF among their wedding gifts.
• They stood for Gladys and Fred, their pet names for each other.
• The widening rift was put aside and on November 5, 1981, when the Princess’s first pregnancy was officially announced.
• In 1984, pregnant with Prince Harry, Diana suspected that her husband was seeing Camilla at other times, too.
• But as the birth approached, Diana recalled: “Charles and I were very, very close to each other the six weeks before Harry was born — the closest we’ve ever, ever been and ever will be.
• “Then, suddenly, as Harry was born, it just went bang, our marriage. The whole thing went down the drain.”
• The couple famously split in 1992 and finalised their divorce in 1996.
• Charles is alleged to have told his friends “how awful incompatibility is”, and by mid-1986, he is said to have rekindled his affair with Camilla.
• In June 1994, Charles confessed to Jonathan Dimbleby in a TV interview that he had been unfaithful to Diana, saying he rekindled his relationship with Camilla in 1986 only after his marriage had “irretrievably broken down”.
• Then in November 1995, Diana chose BBC’s Panorama to give her side of the sorry story, telling presenter Martin Bashir: “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.”

While he might not have been present during Kate’s courageous video address on Friday — make no mistake, he has been by her side every step of the way.

William has stepped up with school run duties and provided a “great source of comfort and reassurance” to his wife.

But he has also been a comforting and reassuring presence for the public.

From leading members of the Royal Family at the Commonwealth Day Service to enjoying cheerful banter with youngsters on a youth centre visit, he hasn’t put a foot wrong.

Just this week he visited Sheffield to highlight his Homewards project to end homelessness in the UK.

Even then there were few chinks in his facade — but Kate was clearly on his mind.

“She needs to be sat here to hear this,” he smiled, when the discussion turned to the challenges of young families.

But ultimately he is only human.

To have your father and your wife diagnosed with cancer within such quick succession is heart-shattering.

It’s a remarkable insight into the character of this young man that he has been so incredibly brave.

Theirs is a very private turmoil which has been brought into the public arena by nature of their roles as future King and Queen.

William must feel the weight of enormous responsibility, both personally and for the monarchy, of which he is now the public face.

But he knows his most important role is that of dad and husband.

He will make that his priority.

This is a distinct difference from the ways of the past, where your royal role came before the role of spouse and parent.

Think back to when the Queen was young.

WILLS’ PRIORITY

It was a man’s world then — and she was forced to abandon her children in a way that William is determined not to.

William and Kate waited until the school term was over and their children were home before making their public announcement.

They needed to be prepared.

In this, they will have had the wholehearted support of Charles — who knows what it feels like to be brought up by nannies.

William was also acutely aware of the lack of his own father’s presence in his life, especially when things went wrong.

In 1991, he was accidentally hit over the head with a golf club when he was at school and Diana was having lunch in her favourite restaurant San Lorenzo.

The call came through that William had been bashed on the head and they thought he might die so it was very serious.

Both Charles and Diana rushed down to Ludgrove.

William was taken to the Royal Berkshire Hospital and then to Great Ormond Street Hospital and Diana went with him.

But ever a man of duty, Charles prioritised his engagements.

William is determined to do things differently.