Prince Charles did not tell Diana of his relationship with Camilla before the engagement. And when he did, he promised that he has no feelings for her.
We believe love is what motivates partners to take their relationship to the next level. However, knowing that your partner is not yet sure of their love towards you after taking that step is a big disappointment to any individual. When a 19-year-old Diana got engaged to the future king of England, Prince Charles she was joyous. She looked forward to the new chapter of her life with him. But, soon after the engagement, she was shocked to see him struggle to give a straight answer when asked if he was in love with her.
Like any other royal couple, Diana and her husband posed for official engagement photographs and sat down for an interview to celebrate their union with the world. While they were all smiles in the photographs, the interview turned into a nightmare, at least for the 20-year-old Diana. The interviewer asked, "Are you in love?" and Diana immediately replied with a giggle, "Of course." She expected Charles to give a similar answer but to her surprise, he had a really weird reply. "Whatever love means," replied Charles, according to Mirror Online.
Though the princess sat through the interview as if everything was just fine, she was shocked to hear him respond in such a manner. Years later, Diana revealed her emotions and thoughts at the time of the interview. "That threw me completely, I thought 'what a strange answer'. It absolutely traumatized me," said the princess.
Princess Diana and Charles first met each other while he was dating her sister in 1977. However, their romance was brief and so it paved the way for Diana to unite with Charles. "I remember thinking what a very jolly and amusing and attractive 16-year-old she was. I mean, great fun, and bouncy and full of life and everything," said Charles of their first meeting during the interview, according to Harper Bazaar. Diana too was smitten by Charles when she first met him but neither of them thought they would get married. Charles then stated that he eventually realized Diana was the one for him.
Though they had only met 12 times before getting engaged, Diana was clearly head over heels for Charles. The prince, however, was still deeply sad about the way his life turned out.
Royal author Penny Junor stated that the prince was upset just before the night of his grand wedding, according to The Sun. Still, in love with ex-girlfriend Camilla, he wept over his broken dreams of marrying her.
According to Daily Mail, Charles gave up his dream of marrying Camilla because of the pressures from the royal family. Charles met Camilla in the seventies and was instantly attracted to her. He adored her and the two started dating. At the time, Prince Charles’s great uncle, Lord Mountbatten, who noticed Charles's interest in Camilla warned him against marrying her. "Lovely for you two to have a fling, but this absolutely cannot end in marriage," said Lord Mountbatten to Charles, according to Express UK. The royal household did not consider Camilla to be worthy of becoming the wife of the future king. They thought she was not aristocratic enough and also regarded her as “experienced” due to her past relationships.
Added to their opposition to his love, Camilla had set her heart on Andrew Parker Bowles. Despite Charles begging her not to marry Parker Bowles, Camilla was not ready to change her mind. In spite of knowing how much she wanted to marry Parker Bowles, Charles kept writing letters to her until a week before her wedding. “He did have one last-ditch attempt to get Camilla to change her mind, however. At the end of June 1973 — the week before the wedding — he wrote asking her not to marry Andrew," wrote Kay, according to Express UK.
Finally, he consoled himself saying, "I suppose the feeling of emptiness will pass eventually." However, it did not.
Meanwhile, Diana was kept in the dark about his feelings for Camilla and the past relationship he had with her. It was only after the engagement that she came to know the truth. "Instead of explaining to Diana at the outset that Camilla was an old girlfriend, he had presented her as nothing more than a friend," stated Juror in The Duchess: Camilla Parker Bowles and the Love Affair That Rocked the Crown, according to Good House Keeping.
She added, "It didn't occur to him that she needed to know before someone else told her... He came clean after the engagement, admitting that Camilla had been one of his most intimate friends, but reassured Diana that from now on there would be no other women."
References:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/princess-diana-traumatised-charless-answer-13683883
https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/latest/a29823824/when-prince-charles-met-princess-diana/
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3873979/prince-charles-cried-before-marrying-princess-diana-and-begged-camilla-not-to-wed-her-husband-new-book-claims/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4634144/Camilla-s-story-revealed-explosive-new-book.html
https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/950226/camilla-parker-bowles-duchess-of-cornwall-prince-charles-affair-princess-diana
https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/1282684/prince-charles-news-camilla-parker-bowles-princess-diana-leave-husband-affair-royal-spt
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/a20900063/camilla-parker-bowles-at-princess-diana-royal-wedding/
