Prince Charles and Princess Diana Were “All Over Each Other” During This Part of Their Marriage, Royal Photographer Says
Princess Diana and Prince Charles in Australia on March 29, 1983.Credit: GettyThe Gist
Longtime royal photographer Arthur Edwards has snapped pictures of the royal family for more than 50 years—including during Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s often tumultuous marriage.
Early in their marriage, though, rumors that Charles didn’t love Diana were “not true,” Edwards said in a recent podcast appearance.
When the couple visited Australia together in 1983, “they were all over each other,” he said.
As history looks back on Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s often tumultuous marriage, it is sometimes described as one lacking affection or romance. And, while the union eventually deteriorated—culminating in their separation in 1992 and their divorce in 1996—it was anything but loveless, according to a veteran royal photographer.
Arthur Edwards has photographed the royal family for more than 50 years, and during a recent interview on Hello!’s “A Right Royal Podcast,” he described a period in the Prince and Princess of Wales’ marriage where “they were all over each other.”
Princess Diana and Prince Charles in Australia on April 7, 1983.Credit: Getty
“People say to me, ‘Well, he never really loved her,’” Edwards said. “Well, that’s not true, because I did that five-week tour to Australia, and I promise you, they were all over each other.”
After marrying on July 29, 1981 and welcoming son Prince William on June 21, 1982, the family of three went on a royal tour to Australia and New Zealand from March 20 to April 30, 1983. Charles and Diana would also return to Australia in 1985, and again in 1988.
Prince Charles and Princess Diana in Australia on March 29, 1983.Credit: Getty
“It was a wonderful tour,” Edwards added. “But she liked shopping and he liked shooting, and that’s the difference, and they didn’t agree on those things.”
Edwards said that after he and Diana split up, Charles “acted with great dignity,” adding, “I know that he wrote to all of his friends saying, ‘Do not any of you say bad things about Diana. Please don’t speak badly of Diana or you’ll lose my friendship.’ That’s what he said to them.”
“One of his friends told me that,” Edwards continued, noting that a friend of Charles’s told him “they were queuing up to say things about Diana, but [Charles] wouldn’t have that, because she was the mother of his children.”
Prince Charles and Princess Diana during their marriage.Credit: Getty
Princess Diana and Prince Charles in Australia on March 21, 1983.Credit: Getty
To the point that there was romance in their marriage—at least in the early days of it—royal biographer Ingrid Seward previously said in an interview (per The Times), “Diana told me very shortly before she died that she wished people could see the love letters that she had from Charles.”
Diana wanted “the early days of her romance with the heir to the throne to be properly reflected,” Seward said.
Prince Charles and Princess Diana sharing a kiss.Credit: Getty
“She really wanted people to know that she loved Charles, and he loved her,” she continued. “And I always remembered that. And she wanted the boys [William and Prince Harry] to know that. There was a period of great love between them.”
Prince Charles and Princess Diana on their 1981 honeymoon.Credit: Getty
Speaking on the podcast, Edwards said that after Diana’s tragic death in an August 31, 1997 Paris car crash, he refused to take a photo of William and Harry viewing floral tributes to their late mother.
“Well, there’s a 12-year-old boy [Harry] reading these letters about his mother and his face just creased up,” Edwards said. “Well, what are you going to do? No one’s going to publish that picture anyway, so why would you do it? And also, I thought it was brave of them.”
“It was a hard week that week,” he continued, adding, “Harry was a little boy, and I remember that funeral so well because I was opposite Westminster Abbey. And as the cortege came ‘round, it was silent. Everywhere was silent. All you could hear was people sobbing—not crying, sobbing. And this woman said, ‘God bless you, Harry.’ It was just so moving. It was probably the worst job I ever did, that funeral.”
Prince William, Prince Harry, and Prince Charles at Princess Diana’s funeral.Credit: Getty
There was another photo after Diana’s death that Edwards took but never published—one of Charles and Diana’s sisters Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes in Paris, where they went to bring Diana back home to the U.K. “I saw Prince Charles there at the hospital—he was very upset,” Edwards said. “I took the picture of them, but I didn’t send it.”
“That was real grief—the sisters were in a terrible state,” he added. “And I couldn’t do it. It was a sad moment.”
on InStyle
Source: Entertainment
0 Comments