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.

Are velvet pedal pushers what I remember as knickerbockers (very New Romantic)?

www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/2955555981687664/

I think I remember one commentator, while not actually saying the word ‘creased’ giving us a few words about how cramped it would be inside the carriage.

I do remember the designers getting a LOT of publicity after the wedding. And I’m thinking, ‘but it creased, badly.’

I nearly peedmyself laughing. 🤣😂😅

And how did they test that he was a virgin..?

I remember the first perms for long hair, I think they had started to use chopsticks to make a spiral.

Before that you couldn't get a perm if your hair was longer than a certain amount.

Anyone remember rats tails? Short hair but with one bit at the back to one side that was about 6 inches and plaited?

And the 'hard girl' look, a skinhead do but with a full fringe.

I loved my blue mascara. I wonder if anyone wears it now.

Yes I do. I hunt high and low to get it but I've got it.

Still hanker after Boots 17 Bon Bon and Rimmel Heather Shimmer lipsticks.

Yes I've still got my mullet.

The 1980's called, they want their hair back. Nope, I'm keeping it !

I don't care how dated I look, that's me having a joke with myself.

No, knickerbockers were gathered at the bottom - pedal pushers were more like this www.doyouremember.co.uk/memory/pedal-pushers

I wore mine with a frilly blouse - my favourite one had gold threads running through it. A mahoosive perm (home), black eyeliner, lots of blusher on the diagonal and Pacific Prawn lipstick and I thought I was the knees on the bees.

I’ve actually blanked the outfits from my mind.

More importantly
All. Evidence. Has. Been. Destroyed.

No, knickerbockers were gathered at the bottom - pedal pushers were more like this

Ah, yes - I thought that was the case, but I don't remember velvet pedal pushers, only the KBs.
I didn't have either, but I did have a very frilly white New Romantic blouse and a purple shirt with a pussy cat bow.
Goodness, that would be ageing now.

I had burgundy velvet knickerbockers - brought back from Italy by a family member as a gift. I wore them exactly once.

I had a perm. - my hair was was a mass of curls (I had below the shoulder hair) and yep, I had the gold hoop earrings to match. I thought it looked great. It didn’t.

my worst look in the 80s was an apricot terry towelling tracksuit tucked into brown knee high boots. It was a really really bad look.

There are no photos thank heavens.

I was almost a contemporary of Diana and without giving too much away was at school with people who had been at prep school with her am and one whose husband was the subject of Diana’s later affections. It is ridiculous to say that she wasn’t aware of how the court worked she was completely steeped in it , she even grew up in a grace and favour house in the Sandringham estate. Her father was equerry to the Queen and at one stage he was mooted as a husband to Princess Margaret, her sister was married to the Queens private secretary, both her maternal and paternal grandmothers were ladies in waiting to the Queen Mother. Her brother was a page to the Queen in the late seventies. Her family was completely entwined with the court .

That said she had a ghastly childhood , her mother was under huge pressure to produce a male heir, it was almost medieval and she was sent to all sorts of horrible doctors to find out why she only had daughters and there were rumours of DV , Diana’s father was famous for his rages. Then there was the court case where Lady Fermoy testified against her own daughter for purely snobbish reasons .

But Charles also had a horrid time , his mother left on a 9 month world tour when he was four and when she came back she shook his hand . He was bullied at Cheam for being fat and having ears that stuck out and at Gordenstoun for just being him. And then to top it all he wasn’t allowed to marry the woman he loved and instead was forced to marry someone he had literally nothing in common with. He was only 31 , younger than Prince Harry and Meghan who are routinely called a ‘young couple’ . Camilla meanwhile was married to a serial philanderer.

The whole thing was a bizarre and tragic mess with four children in the middle. I hope William is the last child to have this burden placed on him.

And then to top it all he wasn’t allowed to marry the woman he loved

I thought Camilla rejected him and chose to marr APB instead.

I don't think she even 'rejected' him. She was just one of many girlfriends back in the 70s.

The Crown made out that Charles was not 'allowed' to marry her, in the same way that Margaret was not 'allowed' to marry Townsend. But neither story was true. Recently unearthed letters show that Margaret's feelings for Townsend had cooled, and Charles never seriously considered Camilla as a bride in the 70s.

Camilla married APB before Charles even considered prooosing to her. She wasn’t future Queen material at all. No doubt she wouldn’t have wanted that life at the time anyway.

The Crown made out that Charles was not 'allowed' to marry her, in the same way that Margaret was not 'allowed' to marry Townsend. But neither story was true. Recently unearthed letters show that Margaret's feelings for Townsend had cooled, and Charles never seriously considered Camilla as a bride in the 70s.

@IcedPurple yes! I can’t bear the mawkish ‘not allowed’ to marry stories in both cases. Charles might have been happy with Camilla but he did not consider her for marriage. Princess Margaret could have married Townsend but it would have meant giving up her title. She did not love him enough to do that. There is plenty of evidence for this, it’s just not the way The Crown chose to show things because it’s a TV programme which looks for very simple, romantic storylines.

The ‘not allowed to marry’ suits modern narratives about how awful everything was in the past before we all became civilised and in touch with our feelings (apparently). The truth is much more complicated.

I was 10 when Diana was 19 and I remember feeling she was too young for him

I am 60, about the same age as Diana and I grew up in the U.K. (London). I do not recognise or remember all these assertions that she was fashionable at all.

To my eyes at the time her style made her look much older than her years. I thought then that her clothes would have been copied by middle aged women who bought Hello magazine. Absolutely nobody I knew, including my mother, would have considered her stylish or fashionable. Until her divorce she looked to me at the time like a young woman dressing like her upper class country living mother or grandmother. Later on she developed her own style which my friends and I would have characterised as euro trash.

I don't think she'd even have to give up her title, just her place in the succession. And since Elizabeth already had two healthy children by then, there was no realistic chance of Margaret ever becoming queen so that would have been no great sacrifice.

As you say, she simply didn't love Townsend enough. She could have married him had she wanted, but she didn't want. Their romance had run its course. The Crown really dragged that false plot line out, dredging it up yet again in the rather dull 5th series. But as you say, a straightforward story of a young woman falling out of love with someone doesn't make for great TV.

Hello magazine didn’t exist until 1988.

Her style was very ‘Sloan ranger’ fashionable . The pie crust collars , V neck jumpers in bright colours a la Benetton , loafers , pale tights and blue eyeliner.

I agree that Margaret would never have married Townsend and if you want an age gap that one is very shocking, she was only 17. I think in Charles case both he and Camilla knew at the start it was a no go as she was older than him and ‘experienced’ and not quite push enough for the grandees. A bit like Davina Sheffield . He still didn’t get to marry someone if his choice though .

I agree.
She was a bit straight laced and dowdy, ecru tights, big side fringe. Not a leader of fashion by any means.

I remember many weird outfits.

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4252024/Princess-Diana-s-biggest-sartorial-mishaps.html

I saw Diana in Heathrow airport when she was traveling out to Australia? TO stay with family shortly before or after the engagement. She was standing in line with everyone else to check into business class and my little girl tugged my skirt and said, mama that’s that lady who’s going to be a Princess. I knew then I wasn’t seeing things and she was just beautiful not only in looks but she just had something about her.

@speakout Diana was into fashion. The eighties was a strange time for fashion, very inventive. Some of the things that were very on trend I recognise on those outfits. At the time a lot of Royals dressed in a more modern way than they do now.