Diana's age at time of marriage.

[Peedoffo]

I'm in my 20s so I really don't remember Diana. I did more reading on the subject and I can't believe the establishment thought it was ok to marry a 19 year old off to a man 13 years older than her who had no interest in her. No wonder she struggled this was the 1980s as well not the Victorian times! Could anyone around then tell me , why did her family back/support the marriage? Was there any concerns from the public ? I would be horrified at the thought of marrying my DD off at 19 to a much older man who wasn't really interest.

Christ, how nasty

No but really isn’t. Standards were far higher in the past and courses were more academic.

Not nasty, a reflection of the times.

Sam Fox was sixteen when she appeared, tits full out, on page three and she was a national sensation.

@TerraNostra , when Charles & Diana got engaged only about 8% of the population were going to university. A lot of what are now universities were polytechnics, technical colleges and teacher training colleges.

Yes, that’s right. I’m a few years younger than Diana would be and I went to a comprehensive school. We were told only about 5% of the population historically went to university, though it was creeping up at that point. I did go to university. Most kids left school at 16. Those that stayed to do A levels often only did two and went on to do nursing or other allied health jobs that didn’t need a degree then, or secretarial college, or polytechnics, or technical colleges etc. One went to a specialist music college, I remember. Nursing training I think was done by individual hospitals.

A lot of what are now universities were polytechnics, technical colleges and teacher training colleges.

Yes, this has made a big difference to the percentage of people who have gone to Someplace University.

I really don't remember anything about Diana being checked out to ensure she was a virgin (as many PPs have said, it's impossible). I was in my mid-teens, so I think that sort of detail would have stuck.
It was probably accepted that she was - standards were different then.
DH and I lived together in the late 80s when we were students - my parents eventually came round to it, but his never accepted it and didn't visit us until we were married. Even some of our contemporaries thought it a bit racy.

I certainly remember there being a lot of talk about Fergie's "past" and the fact she'd lived with (ie slept with) a former boyfriend.

Diana was much too wild to be Queen.

This^

But, especially this:

Yes Diana was naive and sheltered in the ways of the world, poorly educated and living in the sloaney bubble. But she would have been very familiar with the marrying patterns of the aristocracy and I don't buy the fact that she thought he was madly in love with her. More that she really really wanted to be Princess of Wales and thought that the rest of it would follow in time - the idealistic teenage "i'll make him fall in love with me" thing.

Diana had the Royal and family connections and frankly, the time, to be floating around Balmoral Castle in the Summer/s of the early 1980's. Helping the Queen with the daily bbq preparations etc.

She flirted with Charles (whom she had a crush on when he was dating her sister) i.e. teach me to fly fish, Charles. (Although she was anti-blood sports, so that doesn't bear close scrutiny.)

One summer night, whilst sitting around the camp fire, Diana whispered in Charles' ear, 'I know you were close to your uncle Louie' meaning L. Mountbatten.

This, it would seem, is all Charles needed to feel it was as his deceased uncle had prophesised in a letter regarding his possible future bride. (That and Phillip hinting, phwoar, go on son, if I was twenty years younger I would.)

So, that Summer seemed to be the sum total of their courtship. I wondered, did they never go out ? Stay in ? Have a row ? Go for a walk ? All the normal coupley things, IMO.

Charles proposed marriage to Diana in the nursery at Windsor Castle. The implication being, 'marry me and produce babies, please.' There was no excitement on either side regarding proposal and acceptance. No real hint of romance, either. I accept there's no formula for proposals regardless.

He immediately phoned his mother afterwards and stated, 'it's done or I've done it' or words to that effect.

So, I'm not sure about Lady Fermoy and the Queen Mother pushing Diana forward as a likely candidate as Charles' bride. Albeit Lady Fermoy was one of the very few people who knew how unstable Diana was and, like the rest, said nothing as the pressure was on to get Charles wed and not only did Diana fit the bill, she was daft/naive enough to fall for it. On her own agenda as well i.e. she thought by marrying the Prince of Wales, the future king cannot get divorced. Which may have been a response to her parent's failed marriage. She fancied being a princess and living in a castle, too. Until after getting married, she realised it was all codswallop and she was stuck with boring old Charles.

What she needs is a riding instructor/tennis coach. Which is Royal speak for, why don't you have an affair ? We can arrange one for you.

On getting engaged, Charles careless remark, 'whatever love means' didn't bother me as much as describing Diana as, 'rather lovely.'

Looking back on footage of that interview, it's obvious how pointed that question put to Charles by Dimbleby was.

@Krakenwakes , in the 1980s, only 2% of the population were unversity-educated, and the intake would have been about 5-8%.

In my age-group (mid-1980s), a lot of the bright kids went to do apprenticeships, nursing, work in a bank, secretarial course at the local tech etc.
In my DC's age-group, a lot of school leavers were going to university.

A colleague who studied in the UK after doing her IB in a mainland european country in the 1990s said that she was surprised at how poorly educated her british fellow students were when she started her course.

@ToffeeNotCoffee , are you an insider in the royal household?

Yes, that roughly fits with my experience too. I went to university in ‘84.

The palace would never comment on something like this, particularly not in 1981. All the reputable press including The Times wrote articles about the virginity issue and indeed it was still a general issue for some people - being a virgin when you married was desirable. I certainly remember the Pinker doctor man from those days and some kind of health check was probably carried out.
I (rarely) went to university - many didn't then so all the talk in 2022 about the free university fees is always so very wrong - most people didn't get to go and most did not get free fees. In 1981 I was in year 2 at university when Diana married. I married at 21 which was relatively young for the few women who were university students.

But I was asking about combined stats for university and further education, not just university.

What do you mean @Xenia “most did not get free fees”? There were no tuition fees payable for UK students in the 1980s.

@TerraNostra , in the 1980s, the system was different. Most of my cohorts applied to university and possibly a polytechnic or FE/teacher training college. I went to a non-selective state comprehensive.

Many of those who went to poly or FE college did an HND, then might have done a degree.

Nursing led to a RGN qualification.

Many of the people I work with have specific field-related HNDs. They are roughly my age or older. The younger colleagues have degrees.
The number of graduates now being awarded a 1st or 2:1 is much higher than it was in the 1980s.

It is difficult to compare like with like.

I think you’re missing the point. This is a thread about whether Diana was too young to marry. The suggestion is that quite a lot of people were going off to do more education/training after school and so would ah we been busy doing other things at 19 instead of thinking about getting married. So Diana was in the minority. No need to get bogged down in detail of what they were all studying, and what qualifications they had to get their places, what jobs they were going to do afterwards etc. it’s just looking at what other 19 year-olds were generally up to.

I think it’s amazing what people will believe.

Are you sure about that? When I went to university in 1968 it was 12%. There had been a big expansion with the new universities - Sussex, Kent, Essex etc. I am pretty sure it hadn't gone down by the 80s.

We got married at the end of my first year - you weren't allowed to live together otherwise, so quite a lot of people did. Still married 53 years later as are most of our friends.

“most did not get free fees”?
Only that when I went I think only 15% of people (in 1979) went to university so 85% of the UK population did not receive free fees at univesrity and they could not even fo and their wages paid the taxes to fund the 15% who got to go as to their fees (I got a very very small minimum grant which my parents kindly made up to the maximum but I certainly had the free tuition feeds denied to 85% of the population).

Yes, it's a serious post, because there are still people who will throw doubt on Harry's paternity. I have said this before: when Harry was a boy and we found out that there had been an affair with James Hewitt I think it was fair enough to wonder if James was Harry's father. I was one of the people who wondered. Now that Harry has the face of a 30+ man I don't have any doubt that he's Charles's child, and whoever said that Harry looks more like Charles than William does now, I agree. That doesn't mean that I think William is not Charles's child.🙂
Faces are interesting. We look like all sorts of our ancestors as our faces change throughout our lives.

What a weird way to look at it. Like saying “most did not get unemployment benefit” because you are including in your statistics the people who have jobs!

I read on another thread that to have ginger hair, you need to have the gene on both the father and the mother's side.

You do know the Queen is a direct descendant of The Grandfather of Queen Mary the 1st. Henry the 8ths dad.

I think it's so insulting to Diana to think that Harry wasn't Charles' son.

I think Harry looks nothing like Charles. I think he looks very much like the late DoE when he was young though.