Princess Diana Revealed the Happiest—and Worst—Times in Her Marriage

When Princess Diana and Prince Charles (now King Charles) were married on July 29, 1981, the world watched a vibrant, happy couple exchange vows and share a kiss on the balcony at Buckingham Palace. What no one seemed to know, however, was that their relationship was tumultuous from the very start. In 1991, Diana began recording interviews for royal biographer Andrew Morton, and she revealed just how difficult—and lonely—her marriage to Charles had been. In one interview, she explained that the couple only shared one brief happy period in their marriage, and it came just before their entire relationship imploded.

According to The Daily Mail, Diana told Morton that the six weeks leading up to the birth of Prince harry was one of the happiest times in the couple’s relationship. She said they were closer than they’d ever been, but she had also been keeping their second baby’s gender a secret. “We were very, very close to each other the six weeks before Harry was born, the closest we’ve ever, ever been and will be,” she said at the time. “Then suddenly, as Harry was born, it just went bang, our marriage, the whole thing went down the drain.”

Diana noted that Charles only wanted two children, and he had dreamed of having a son and a daughter. With Prince William already at home, he had been hopeful that their second baby would be a girl. Diana also told Morton that she had learned of the baby’s gender during an appointment, but she kept that information from her then-husband. “I knew Harry was going to be a boy because I saw on the scan. Charles always wanted a girl. He wanted two children, and he wanted a girl. I knew Harry was a boy and I didn’t tell him,” she said in the recordings.

Harry was born on September 15, 1984, and rumors of infidelity in Charles and Diana’s relationship began swirling by 1986. In 1992, Morton’s biography was published, and the couple announced their separation a few months later. The timeline is in keeping with Diana’s assessment that the relationship “went down the drain” in the weeks following Harry’s birth.

Though Diana referred to her second son as “a miracle,” the royal couple never regained their happy footing after his birth. The pair finalized their divorce in August of 1996, just one year before Diana was tragically killed in a car crash in Paris.