In 1981, everyone was enchanted by Princess Diana and her storybook romance with Prince Charles. She was adored by the public — a lovely, shy young woman who had won the heart of the Prince of Wales.
However, behind the fairy tale, things were not as wonderful as they seemed.
That year was a turning point for Princess Diana, marking a change that would affect her life forever. While she was working as a nursery teacher’s assistant, she got engaged to Prince Charles, who was next in line for the British throne.
Their royal wedding in July became a global event, with millions tuning in to watch as Diana became the Princess of Wales. But beneath the glitz and the magical wedding, there were hidden struggles that nobody knew about.
At first, everything looked calm and perfect for the happy couple. When Charles went on a five-week royal tour in 1981, cameras caught Diana in tears as she said goodbye, which many thought was just sadness from being apart from her future husband.
But the truth behind Diana’s tears was much more tragic.
Real reason behind Diana’s tears at the airport
One of the most unforgettable and sad moments of 1981 happened on March 29, when Lady Diana waved goodbye to Prince Charles at Heathrow Airport with tears in her eyes. The Prince was getting ready to leave for a five-week royal tour that would take him to the United States, Venezuela, New Zealand, and Australia.
Wearing a red coat, a fawn skirt, and brown leather shoes, Diana walked next to the Prince, splashing through puddles at the airport after arriving in the Queen’s Rolls-Royce.
Just a few days before, Queen Elizabeth had officially approved Prince Charles’s marriage to Lady Diana Spencer, which marked the beginning of their storybook engagement.
As the RAF VC 10 was getting ready to take off, Diana stood by to say goodbye to Charles. The Prince kissed her on both cheeks at the rainy and windy airport ramp.
A painful truth
This touching moment was significant for a few reasons. It was the first time the couple shared a public kiss after announcing their Royal Engagement earlier that year, and it became one of the key images that represented Diana’s early days in the spotlight.
On that day, reports indicated that Diana was crying as she said goodbye to Charles. The farewell was described as very emotional, and Charles seemed to be affected by it too.
According to the Western Daily Press in 1981, “The Prince tried to cheer her up, kissed her once on each cheek, then with a broad smile patted her left shoulder and said, ‘Take care.’”
This moment was captured in photos and reported by journalists all over the world, with the media calling it a “tender farewell.”
Airport officials said, “We’ve never witnessed such an emotional goodbye.”
However, as we would discover many years later, the reality was much more complex and painful.
Princess Diana’s own words
In a 2017 documentary called Diana: In Her Own Words, the world finally got to hear Diana’s perspective. In recordings she made for biographer Andrew Morton back in 1991, she shared that her tears weren’t about Charles leaving. Instead, they were because of a heartbreaking news she received just hours earlier.
“You might remember seeing a photo of me crying in a red coat when [Prince Charles] boarded his plane,” Diana explained in the tapes. “That had nothing to do with him leaving. The most terrible thing had happened right before he left.”
The cameras were completely unaware of the true events taking place behind closed doors.
At only 19 years old, Diana was still quite young and didn’t fully understand the complicated world of royalty and relationships. However, she stumbled upon a shocking truth that would change everything: Charles was still involved with Camilla Parker Bowles.
“I was in his study discussing his upcoming trip,” Diana remembered. “Then the phone rang; it was Camilla, right before he was about to leave for five weeks. I thought, ‘Should I be nice or just stay here?’ I decided to be nice and left them alone. It really broke my heart.”
The revealing bracelet
While Charles was away, Diana discovered that he had created a bracelet for Camilla, which hit her right in the feels.
“I walked into his office one day and asked, ‘What’s in that package?’ He replied, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t look at that.’ But I couldn’t help myself and opened it to find the bracelet inside.”
“I was crushed,” she said. “I thought, ‘He’s going to give it to her tonight.’ I was filled with anger, thinking, ‘Why can’t you just be honest with me?’ But he completely shut me out. It felt like he had already made his choice, and if things weren’t going to work out, then that was it.”
Even though it hurt, Diana tried to keep her head up, facing the tough truths about her engagement.
A lunch with Camilla, which was supposed to be fun, turned into something much more serious when Camilla made it clear that she had a special connection with Charles that Diana couldn’t overlook.
Camilla asked, “You’re not going to go hunting, right?”
“I told her, ‘No.’ Then she replied, ‘I just wanted to know,’ and I figured that was her way of communicating,” Diana remembered.
Another idea: Tears of anger
Royal biographer Tina Brown, in The Diana Chronicles, thinks that the tears Diana cried at the airport were not from sadness, but from anger. “Diana’s tears at the airport were not from grief but from rage,” Brown explained. And that rage was exactly what Diana was feeling. Her fiancé, the man she was about to marry, had given a very personal gift to another woman. To Diana, that was a bad sign for their future.
“He found the innocent one, the one to sacrifice – and in a way, he was obsessed with me, but it was like a rollercoaster, up and down, you never knew what mood he would be in,” Diana said, thinking back on the emotional ups and downs of her relationship with Charles.
Right before the wedding, Diana had lunch with her sisters.
“I went upstairs, had lunch with my sisters who were there, and I said, ‘I can’t marry him. I can’t do this. This is absolutely unbelievable,’” Diana shared in an audio recording from the documentary Diana: In Her Own Words.
Diana opened up to her sisters, looking for some encouragement, but they gave her a reality check. “Well, tough luck, ‘Duch.’ Your face is on the tea towels, so it’s too late to back out now.”
Even though she was feeling conflicted inside, the wedding still happened. By 1996, after years of cheating and emotional struggles, Charles and Diana got divorced, following a letter from the Queen suggesting they end their troubled marriage.
“There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded,” Diana later remarked.
When Diana confronted Camilla
Charles and Camilla’s romance began in 1986, as mentioned in Charles’ official biography and reported by Town & Country. At that time, Charles was still married to Princess Diana, who eventually discovered the affair.
In 1989, Diana confronted Camilla about the situation, urging her to stay away from Charles. Camilla remembered Diana saying, “I know what’s happening between you and Charles, and I just want you to be aware of it,” in a tape shared by The Telegraph, as noted by Town & Country.
Diana told Camilla, “You have everything you could ever want. You have men falling for you and two lovely kids. What else do you need?”
Camilla replied, “I want my husband. I’m sorry for being in the way, and I can only imagine how hard this is for both of you. But I do know what’s happening. Don’t treat me like I’m clueless,” she explained.
Sadly, Princess Diana died in a car accident on August 31, 1997. At that time, no one really understood her feelings, but looking back at those photos from Heathrow, it’s clear they reveal a different story.
This is how Princess Diana found Prince Charles was cheating on her, 1996 pic.twitter.com/XqhSREsmts
— Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) November 19, 2024
What seemed like a sweet, emotional farewell was in fact much more complicated.
Looking back, it’s crazy how much more we understand now. What’s your take on it all?