Happy Arrivals

To the world at large, Prince Charles and Princess Diana were deeply in love, and their fairytale marriage was the perfect union. Of course we know now that things were far from perfect, but the arrival of Prince William and Prince Harry helped bring the couple closer together than every before…

Right from the start it is said that the new Princess found it hard to adjust to her new Royal lifestyle, and the cracks in their relationship started to show even during their post-honeymoon stay at Balmoral, her husband’s favourite home. Prince Charles enjoyed fishing, reading books and fraternising with his friends, and he assumed Princess Diana would share his happiness. She, however, felt somewhat lost, because like any new wife she expected to be the main focus of her husband’s attention and she clearly wasn’t.

She was also worried about Prince Charles’ ongoing close friendship with Camilla Parker Bowles, who though married had been linked with her husband in the press. This friendship even cast a shadow over their honeymoon on Brittania, because Prince Charles talked to Camilla on the phone every day and at one point two photographs of her fell out of his wallet, upsetting Princess Diana greatly.

Though she revered her new in-laws, especially the Queen, Princess Diana was basically very shy and it was left to the Duke of Edinburgh to offer her moral support. He did his best to jolly her along, taking her in to dinner with him and making sure she was fully accepted. She also got along well with Prince Andrew, whom she had known and liked since childhood. Probably her closest friend and champion at this time was Princess Margaret, who empathised with the newcomer, having been a glamorous media star in her youth, both idolised and criticised in equal measure.

The media interest in Princess Diana was intense to a degree that nobody could have foreseen, however. On the couple’s first public engagement, a three-day tour of Wales, the world’s press turned up in force, with Japanese and American film crews descending on towns that none of them had probably ever heard of before.