As Prince Harry marries Meghan Markle, it is also a time to reminisce about the woman who raised him. Princess Diana’s death was undoubtedly devastating for her sons Harry and William, but they have grown into upstanding men, keeping their mother’s beliefs in the greater good as a guide post in their lives. Though Princess Diana is no longer alive, Prince Harry’s father is still with us and is walking Meghan down the aisle at the 2018 Royal Wedding.
Prior to marrying Prince Charles, Princess Diana was known as Lady Diana Spencer. The wedding was held on July 29, 1981, at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, England, with a traditional wedding service. There were an estimated 3,500 guests at the wedding, which is more than both of her sons’ weddings combined. Like her sons, following the nuptials, Diana and Charles made an appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace for the traditional newlywed kiss.
Princess Diana arrived at the church in the Glass Coach and walked down the aisle as a choir sang “Trumpet Voluntary”. As is tradition in the Royal family, Princess Diana and Prince Charles used Welsh gold for their wedding rings. Princess Diana’s wedding dress was designed by Elizabeth and David Emanuel and it had a 25-foot train. On her head, Diana wore her family’s heirloom tiara.
GettyA boxed slice of wedding cake, from the British Royal wedding of Britain’s Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and his first wife Diana, collected by Leonard Massey, the former first chauffeur to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, is displayed at the Stafford Hotel in London on June 5, 2015, ahead of its auction in Beverly Hills, US, on June 27. Slices from the cakes of five British royal weddings dating back up to 42 years have been put up for auction — accompanied by a health warning that they are “not suitable for consumption”.
When it came to the wedding cake, the Naval Armed Forces made the official cake for the big day, but there were actually 27 wedding cakes involved. There were also cakes made by Belgian pastry chef S. G. Sender and Chef Nicholas Lodge. According to Elle, there are still slices of Princess Diana’s wedding cake available to buy online. A couple of the esteemed celebrity guests who attended the wedding included the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Margaret Thatcher and Nancy Reagan.
Prince Charles’s affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, who is is still with today, reportedly caused a major rift in his marriage to Princess Diana, who made the famous quote, “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.” According to Pop Sugar, Diana also admitted to her own infidelity.
On December 20, 1995, Buckingham Palace announced that the Queen had ordered the couple to divorce. The palace’s official statement read, “After considering the present situation, the queen wrote to both the prince and princess earlier this week and gave them her view, supported by the Duke of Edinburgh, that an early divorce is desirable.” In July 1996, Diana and Charles settled agreements on the divorce and it was finalized in August 1996. After the divorce, Princess Diana lost the “royal highness” in her title.
GettyLady Diana, Princess of Wales and Charles, Prince of Wales are seen during their wedding at St Paul Cathedral in London 29 July 1981.
Princess Diana died on August 31, 1997 as the result of a car accident in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel, Paris, France, according to Telegraph. A man named Dodi Fayed, who she was romantically linked to, also died in the crash, along with the driver, Henri Paul. Diana’s bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, survived the wreck. Ever since her death, there have been countless conspiracy theories that the late Princess was killed and that Princess Diana’s death was not an accident.