July 29: On This Day in World History … briefly
Referring to Charles's relationship with Camilla, Diana said "Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded." She also expressed doubt about her husband's suitability for kingship.
1981: 700 Million watch the royal wedding
The heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, married Lady Diana Frances Spencer in front of 750 million people today. The ceremony in London’s St Paul’s Cathedral was televised live throughout the world. In Britain the official public holiday was celebrated in street parties by thousands of people. Of the few people working, one staunch trade unionist, Harry Crapper of Sheffield, said he ‘did not agree with all this junketing.’
Another note of discord was sounded by the King and Queen of Spain who declined their invitation to the wedding because the royal couple’s honeymoon plans included picking up the royal yacht ‘Britannia’ in Gibraltar – a long-standing bone of contention between Britain and Spain.
Five years into the marriage, the couple’s incompatibility and age difference of almost 13 years became visible and damaging. Charles resumed his relationship with his former girlfriend Camilla Parker Bowles, and Diana later began an affair with Major James Hewitt, the family’s former riding instructor.
Although she blamed Camilla Parker Bowles for her marital troubles, Diana began to believe that her husband had also been involved in other affairs. In October 1993, the Princess wrote to her butler Paul Burrell, telling him that she believed her husband was now in love with his personal assistant Tiggy Legge-Bourke – who was also his sons’ former nanny – and was planning to have her killed ‘to make the path clear for him to marry Tiggy’. The fairy-tale ended in divorce on August 28, 1996.
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.
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