The Prince and Princess of Wales were on a royal tour to India in 1992 and Diana was left alone after Charles left her to visit the Taj Mahal alone, while he jetted off to a business meeting in Bangalore. Diana had a picture taken of her outside the Taj Mahal looking lonely and miserable – a picture that then circulated around the world. According to royal commentators, this was her message to the British public that she was not happy at all.

In the 2013 Amazon Prime documentary ‘Royalty Close Up: The Photography of Kent Gavin’, royal biographer Anthony Holden explained this.

He said: “Towards the end, during what we called the War of the Waleses, she certainly knowingly, consciously used the press photographers, particularly that famous picture of her alone and looking miserable outside the Taj Mahal.

“It was a kind of postcard home to the general public to say ‘I’m not happy in this marriage, there are three people.’”

Mr Holden was referring to a now-infamous phrase uttered by Diana in a tell-all interview with BBC Panorama’s Martin Bashir in 1995.

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Alluding to her husband’s affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, she said: “Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.”

Diana was clearly very hurt by Charles’ infidelity and overtly blamed it for the breakdown of their marriage.

Broadcaster and journalist Anne Robinson claimed that the picture at the Taj Mahal sent a strong message to this effect.

She said: “The marriage was completely apart, it was hopeless, it had broken down, it was no speaking on a major scale.

“And the minx of Diana went and photographed herself sitting alone on this bench really marks the point at which the public became aware that she had no deal within that family any longer.”

It was less than a year later that the Palace announced Charles and Diana were officially separating.

However, it was clear to many people beforehand that the marriage was not going to last, due to these hints sent by Diana.

Royal press secretary Dickie Arbiter said: “What people tend to forget is the Taj Mahal is a memorial, and Kent did a picture of Prince Charles in 1980 sitting on exactly the same bench in exactly the same place.

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“Unfortunately, what he said was ‘one day I would like to bring my wife here’.

“And unfortunately, 10 years later while she was at the Taj Mahal, he was several hundred miles away in Bangalore at a business meeting.”

In his 2016 book ‘On Duty With The Queen: My Time as a Buckingham Palace Press Officer’, Mr Arbiter claimed that the Taj Mahal incident left Diana angry and determined to get her own back on her husband for abandoning her.

She was due to hand out prizes at a polo match on Valentines’ day, but was so furious that she initially refused to do so.

According to Mr Arbiter, he and another press officer eventually persuaded her to do it, but the final straw was when Charles forgot to kiss her in front of the camera.

He wrote: “Realising his mistake, he hastily returned and, with an uncertain crowd looking on, moved to kiss his wife’s cheek.

“Incensed, the Princess swivelled her head so that the kiss landed near her ear.

“The crowd, as well as those accompanying the royal couple, could only cringe.

“The prince had clearly been intentionally humiliated, and we knew he’d be furious.”

In this way, Diana again used the press to her advantage as she waged her public war against her husband.

Royal photographer Kent Gavin, who captured both these moments in India on camera, immortalising them, said that once he shot the picture of her outside the Taj Mahal, the photographers were asked to leave.

He told the documentary how he watched Diana walk up to the side of the Taj Mahal and sit out of shot.

He mused: “I wonder what thoughts were running through her mind at that moment.

“I always think that. Never did find out.”

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