August 28: On This Day in World History … briefly
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
1996: Charles and Diana – Britain’s most infamous marriage comes to an end
Charles, Prince of Wales (Charles Philip Arthur George – born 14 November 1948) is the heir apparent to the British throne as the eldest child of Queen Elizabeth II. He has been Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay since 1952, and is the oldest and longest-serving heir apparent in British history. He is also the longest-serving Prince of Wales, having held that title since 1958.
Charles first met Lady Diana Spencer in 1977 while visiting her home Althorp. He was the companion of her elder sister, Sarah, and did not consider Diana romantically until mid-1980. While they were sitting together on a bale of hay at a friend’s barbecue in July, he mentioned Lord Mountbatten’s death, to which Diana replied that Charles had looked forlorn and in need of care during his uncle’s funeral. Soon, according to Charles’s chosen biographer, Jonathan Dimbleby, without any apparent surge in feeling, he began to think seriously of her as a potential bride and she accompanied Charles on visits to Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House.
Charles’s cousin Norton Knatchbull and his wife told Charles that Diana appeared awestruck by his position and that he did not seem to be in love with her. Meanwhile, the couple’s continuing courtship attracted intense attention from the press and paparazzi. When Prince Philip told him that the media speculation would injure Diana’s reputation if Charles did not come to a decision about marrying her soon, and realising that she was a suitable royal bride (according to Mountbatten’s criteria), Charles construed his father’s advice as a warning to proceed without further delay.
Prince Charles proposed to Diana in February 1981; she accepted and they married in St Paul’s Cathedral on 29 July of that year. Upon his marriage, Charles reduced his voluntary tax contribution from the profits generated by the Duchy of Cornwall from 50 percent to 25 percent. The couple lived at Kensington Palace and at Highgrove House, near Tetbury, and had two children: Princes William (1982) and Henry (known as ‘Harry’ – 1984).
Charles set a precedent by being the first royal father to be present at his children’s births. Persistent suggestions that Harry’s father is not Charles but James Hewitt, with whom Diana had an affair, have been based on a physical similarity between Hewitt and Harry. However, Harry had already been born by the time the affair between Hewitt and Diana began.
Separation and divorce
Within five years, the marriage was in trouble due to the couple’s incompatibility and near thirteen-year age difference Diana’s concern about Charles’s previous girlfriend, Camilla Shand (later Camilla Parker Bowles), was also visible and damaging to their marriage. Their evident discomfort in each other’s company led to them being dubbed ‘The Glums’ by the press. Diana exposed Charles’s affair with Camilla in a book by Andrew Morton, Diana, Her True Story. Audio tapes of her own extramarital flirtations also surfaced.
In December 1992, British Prime Minister John Major announced the couple’s formal separation in Parliament. Earlier that year, the British press had published transcripts of a passionate bugged telephone conversation between Charles and Camilla from 1989. Prince Charles sought public understanding via a televised interview with Jonathan Dimbleby on 29 June 1994. In the interview, he confirmed his own extramarital affair with Camilla, saying that he had rekindled their association in 1986 only after his marriage to Diana had ‘irretrievably broken down’. Charles and Diana divorced on 28 August 1996. Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris on 31 August of the following year; Charles flew to Paris with Diana’s sisters to accompany her body back to Britain.
The Princess is said to have received a settlement of around £17 million, but was not allowed to continue using her HRH title.
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