Prince Charles given 'ultimatum' about marrying Diana

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The Prince of Wales and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall are set to visit the Republic of Ireland next week in commemoration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. It will be the first overseas visit of the year for Charles and Camilla, who have both recently recovered from COVID-19. The royal couple are also expected to travel to Rwanda in June to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

The prince and the Duchess will celebrate their 17th wedding anniversary next month.

It’s been 52 years since the pair first met, but their love story has been anything but conventional. 

Despite having feelings for each other, both Charles and Camilla married other people. 

It’s believed that Camilla was not deemed suitable for the role of a royal bride by senior royals. 

The Duchess went on to marry Andrew Parker Bowles, a British Army officer, while Charles married Lady Diana Spencer, who later became Princess Diana. 

One royal commentator has claimed that Prince Philip played a role in influencing his son to marry Diana.

Jennie Bond, royal journalist, told the 2020 Channel 5 documentary ‘Charles & Camilla: King and Queen in Waiting’ that the Duke of Edinburgh gave Charles an “ultimatum”.

She said: “He was given — more or less — an ultimatum by his father, to either marry Diana or let her go.”

Charles and Diana began dating shortly after the funeral of Lord Mountbatten, who Charles was said to be particularly close to. 

Ms Bond said: “Charles had been very very upset.

“Diana said to Charles, ‘I saw you at that funeral and you looked so terribly sad’, and he was very touched by this.

“There was this beautiful, young girl showing him attention.

“Clearly he felt a lot of responsibility to fulfil what was necessary as the heir to the throne and get married.

“He thought she was the kind of girl he could grow to love.”

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Katie Nicholl, royal editor at Vanity Fair added: “Diana ticked all the boxes, she didn’t have any baggage.

“She hadn’t had any relationships really before meeting Prince Charles.”

The couple formally announced their engagement to the world in February 1981. 

When a reporter asked Charles if they were in love, he famously replied, “whatever ‘in love’ means”. 

The couple had only met a dozen times prior to their engagement. 

Their incompatibility soon became apparent, and both parties engaged in extramarital affairs. 

Charles told his official biographer, Jonathan Dimbleby, in 1994 that he picked things back up with Camilla in this year. 

Meanwhile, it’s alleged that Diana’s affair with army captain James Hewitt started around a similar time.

The couple separated in 1992 — a year known now as “annus horribilis’ — soon after the breakdown of their relationship became public knowledge. The marriage ended in divorce in 1996. 

Charles and Camilla got married in a civil ceremony in 2005 — 35 years after they’d first met. 

At the time, it was announced that the Duchess would be known as Princess Consort when Charles became King. 

However, last month, the Queen expressed her desire for Camilla to assume the title of Queen Consort once Charles ascends the throne. 

In a statement on her Accession Day, she said: “I remain eternally grateful for, and humbled by, the loyalty and affection that you continue to give me.  And when, in the fullness of time, my son Charles becomes King, I know you will give him and his wife Camilla the same support that you have given me; and it is my sincere wish that, when that time comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service.”

Both Charles and Camilla were “honoured” by Her Majesty’s endorsement. 

The couple’s wedding anniversary will be bittersweet this year as it also marks a year since the passing of Prince Philip. 

Both the prince and the Duchess are expected to attend a memorial service for the Duke of Edinburgh at Westminster Abbey on March 29.

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