Princess Diana confessed heartbreaking details about her marriage to then-Prince Charles. In a new book, Diana admitted, “I just want to be loved,” says her longtime friend and dance teacher, Anne Allan.
Princess Diana admitted she ‘loved’ Charles, but he didn’t feel the same way
Dancer and London City Ballet mistress Anne Allen, Princess Diana’s longtime dance teacher, revealed intimate details of her conversations with the late Princess of Wales in her new book, Dancing With Diana. Allen said Diana was torn in her marriage to then-Prince Charles, admitting she “loved” him, but believed he didn’t feel the same.
People Magazine published excerpts from the soon-to-be-released memoir. Diana’s talks with Allen spanned years during her private dance training with the Princess of Wales.
“I just can’t seem to do anything right when it comes to my husband. I do love him so much and want him to be proud of me, but I don’t think he feels the same way,” Diana reportedly said to Allen in 1986. The dancer wrote, “I just let her talk, not offering advice, but just listening. She continued, ‘I don’t understand why I am not enough for him; I think he prefers an older woman.’”
Diana confessed to Allen that Charles had a mistress, Camilla Parker Bowles. “I know he is seeing Camilla again. Am I expected to accept that, like the other Princesses of Wales before, one just turns a blind eye to husbands having a mistress!”
The passage continued, “Why does he not love me? I really don’t understand. I have tried everything, tried to conform to his wishes even though I don’t always agree.”
“There’s no affection between us, and I am always on my own. I just want to be loved. I can’t keep going on like this. They are really expecting me to just say nothing and keep going. How do I do that?” Diana concluded.
Princess Diana never gave up on her relationship with Charles
Anne Allen believed that at the core of Princess Diana’s heartbreak was that she never wanted to give up on her relationship with Prince Charles. As a child of divorce, she did not want that same outcome for her and Charles’ sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.
Allen recalled Diana’s “deep anxiety and dread” about the end of her marriage. She wrote of her “fear for the future.”
Diana was in a “complex situation, and she was searching for honest answers and solutions,” Allen wrote. However, Diana told Allen she never really wanted a separation or divorce from Charles.
Allen wrote, “Diana wanted Charles to be with her and to love her. Even though she was in her own romantic affair, at this point, Charles was still the man she desired, and that was why it was so agonizing for her. ‘Keeping my family together is the most important thing to me,’” Diana admitted.
Princess Diana wanted a fairy-tale marriage
Prince Charles proposed to Princess Diana in February 1981. Although they had only met 13 times before their engagement, Diana was reportedly besotted by Charles.
However, behind the scenes, Charles felt pressured by his father, Prince Philip, to propose to Diana despite Charles’ feeling that they were mismatched. Diana married Charles, who was 12 years her senior, in July 1981. Millions of people worldwide watched the royal wedding.
The couple welcomed two children, Prince William and Prince Harry. But despite some moments of happiness in their marriage, it appeared Charles was never genuinely devoted to his wife.
He continued to keep a mistress, Camilla Parker Bowles, whom he first met in the early 1970s. Although Camilla was not the only reason for the collapse of Diana and Charles’ marriage, Diana’s insecurities that Charles could never truly love her caused irreparable damage to their union.
Princess Diana and Prince Charles divorced in 1996. One year later, Princess Diana was dead after complications from a car crash in Paris ended her life at just 36 years old.
Dancing With Diana is due to his bookshelves Sept. 10.
