On This Day in Royal History: Princess Diana Almost Didn’t Walk Down the Aisle originally appeared on Parade.
Princess Diana experienced deep doubts in the days leading up to her wedding to then-Prince Charles. Their significant age gap, his ongoing relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles, and her growing uncertainty about the marriage all fueled anxiety she couldn’t shake. These concerns reportedly ran so deep that, on this day in royal history, Diana nearly didn’t walk down the aisle at all.
Ahead of their wedding day, Diana’s doubts deepened after she learned that her husband-to-be had a gift made for Camilla. It was a bracelet with the initials F and G for their pet nicknames, Fred and Gladys.
Per the book Diana: Her True Story by Andrew Morton, Diana revealed, “I opened it, and there was (the) bracelet, and I said: ‘I know where this is going.’ I was devastated. This was about two weeks before we got married.”
Additionally, she also reportedly overheard a phone call between Charles and Camilla ahead of the wedding. His declaration of love shook the soon-to-be Princess of Wales.
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“I once heard him on the telephone in his bath on his hand-held set, saying: ‘Whatever happens, I will always love you.’ I told him afterward that I had listened at the door, and we had a filthy row,” Diana said in the book.
Additionally, Diana struggled with the fact that she really didn’t know her future husband at all. PEOPLE Magazine reports the couple only met 13 times before their wedding day.
Per Diana’s astrologer, Penny Thornton, the future Princess of Wales was also plagued with doubts about Charles’ true feelings. “One of the most shocking things that Diana told me was that the night before the wedding, Charles told her that he didn’t love her,” Thornton revealed in the 2020 ITV documentary, The Diana Interview: Revenge of a Princess
“I think Charles didn’t want to go into the wedding on a false premise. He wanted to square it with her and it was devastating for Diana. She didn’t want to go through with the wedding at that point, she thought about not attending.”
It was also reported that days ahead of the spectacular royal event, Diana shared her doubts with her sisters. The princess told Morton, “I went upstairs, had lunch with my sisters who were there, and said: ‘I can’t marry him, I can’t do this, this is absolutely unbelievable.'”
“They were wonderful and said: ‘Well, bad luck, Duch, your face is on the tea towels so you’re too late to chicken out.’ So we made light of it.”
Diana was 20 when she married Charles, 32, on July 29, 1981. They had two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, before splitting for good in 1996.
One year later, Diana died in a car accident in Paris, France. She was 36.
On This Day in Royal History: Princess Diana Almost Didn’t Walk Down the Aisle first appeared on Parade on Jul 29, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 29, 2025, where it first appeared.
