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.

No wonder they had absolutely nothing in common.

Yep, totally smitten. So much so that she wanted to call the wedding off at the last moments and had to be reminded her face was already on the tea towels. That’s not very smitten behaviour.

She wanted to call the marriage off last minute because she realised that Charles wasn't going to give up Camilla! It wasn't about her feelings towards him, it was his lack of feelings towards her!

If she'd just been interested in becoming queen, as a pp said, she'd have happily gone ahead with the marriage and had the status and accepted the fact Charles loved Camilla. But what she actually wanted was reciprocated feelings and a family life.

That was a definitely a tragic admission on her part. Whether we are talking about royals or commoners, it feels very wrong to be celebrating those two as being a king and queen. Their failings to stand up for their own relationship at the right time has left a trail of destruction (Diana, Harry etc) Then again, the royals are very good at passing the buck ('he was under pressure to marry' 'they never started shagging again until x or y event').

She was too young and sheltered to understand what real love was, she was little more than a girl infatuated with a fairytale.

He was boring and stuffy and could not cope with her teenage emotions and immature tantrums (not surprising given the pressure and scrutiny she was under)

And yet she dazzled and they shared their devotion to the crown and their children. So appeared to have some sort of magic.

Camilla is perfect for him and we have now witnessed what a happy, settled and supported Charles looks like.

I believe Diana would've found her true love and happiness, if she had still been alive, she may have gone on to have further children. Her and Charles would've been amicable and friends even.

@googlejourney Yes. She would have been happily married to a nice well off man and bringing up her kids and grandchildren somewhere in the Cotswolds. Sad really

It wasn’t looking that way was it? A playboy with a scheming father wasn’t very promising material.

I've no idea how their lives would have played out if Diana had survived. Somehow I can't imagine Diana cosily settling down in the Cotswolds - but who knows?

One thing that does seem clear, as she was vocal about it herself, is that she was head over heels about Charles at first. Of course, that's not mature, authentic love, but she was clearly smitten and I believe craved security and love. She had been raised in an aristocratic family with the advantage of having seen two older sisters marry into the aristocracy so it was hardly like she knew nothing of that world.

She was equally clear that the reason she wanted to call the wedding off last minute was because it became clear Charles was not going to give up Camilla. I think it's fairly well documented that Charles commissioned a special piece of jewellery for Camilla shortly before the wedding and Diana found it. I don't believe wanting to call off the wedding was because she'd changed her feelings towards Charles at all... she desperately wanted him to be in love with her and feel as passionate as she did towards him.

It wasn’t looking that way was it? A playboy with a scheming father wasn’t very promising material.

I think it’s highly unlikely that Dodi Al Fayed would have been anything more than a summer fling, despite what his father later tried to claim.

Wasn't Dodi Al Fayed engaged to some actress until a couple of months before he and Diana were killed? I doubt the thing with Diana would have lasted long!

Yes he was but his father put pressure on him to 'court' Diana and he was forever trying to gain favour with his dad. I agree his relationship with Diana would not have lasted, despite what Mohammed Fayed wanted, because she was just having a fling, on the rebound from Hasnet Khan. I don't blame her for that, she was very unlucky in love and Dodi Al Fayed was, by all accounts, a very amiable, easy going sort of chap. Disappointing for his ex fiancee though. However - he's dead, his father must have felt some responsibility for that having engineered the relationship and has had to live with it every since. I wish them all peace.

I agree that young, teenage Diana from the chaos of the Spencer family craved a romantic, happy ending with a man who loved her. Years ago I carried out interviews with teenage mums to understand why they had become pregnant. It was almost never by accident - they wanted to be loved. I don't really see Diana as any different to those badly treated girls from poorer homes in that regard.

Grown up Diana was a different beast though. Enjoying and understanding her power as a beautiful woman and mother of the future king. She also understood the Royal Family and aristocratic norms. I am certain that Dodi would only have every have been a headline grabbling fling to her. I don't think she'd have settled for the Cotswolds life either, it bored her. She would have found something and some one - or possibly several some ones - who were glamorous and fun.

Every single time Charles tried to rehabilitate Camilla by taking her to an event, you just know that Diana would turn up in fuck-off dress resulting in worldwide media coverage.

Even if C & C had married and he had managed to persuade the nation (Ok the Daily Express) that Camilla should be crowned beside him, come next Saturday we'd all still be more interested in what Diana would be wearing.

How very true.

Her older sisters did not marry into aristocracy.

It is also the naivety of youth to judge your predictable outcome by superficial criteria. She may have thought to herself 'I'm young, gorgeous, the public adore me, he'll never get back with that older, equine faced trollop'. Unfortunately, C and C had something going on which was not fully understood by a teenage bride. It remains their fault. They should have stood up for their relationship when it became serious in the beginning. They were game playing towards one another over a long time range and Diana became the sacrificial lamb.

@RosettaStormer , you are right. They were aristocratic by birth.

So many blame Dian's sister, her father, her stepmother, her friends for not intervening.
But funny how the 32 year old man Charles gets a free pass.

You’d expect her friends and family to have her interests at heart, wouldn’t you? Of course they were to blame. Charles doesn’t get a free pass but there was huge pressure on him to get married to someone suitable and nobody his own age fitted the bill.

Yes I meant Diana was raised within an aristocratic family and had the advantage of seeing two older siblings marry within the aristocracy, so she would have been very familiar with how it all worked. Obviously she would have expected to marry within that class too. I don't think she was dragged screaming to the altar to marry charles by parents who had schemed all along for it to be him though. She was besotted with him and wanted that for herself

@Blossomtoes The 32 year old man marrying a young vulnerable barely adult woman takes the most blame.

It could have gone swimmingly. Charles could have fallen properly in love with her and ditched the OW. They both knew that there was a percentage chance of success in the beginning.

Rubbish. He was backed into a corner. You’re judging him by standards that didn’t apply 40 years ago, particularly in those circles.

@Blossomtoes If Charles was put under so much pressure that he had no choice about marrying Diana as you suggest, then it is legally a forced marriage. Which means the Royal Family members who backed him into a corner were abusing him. Is that really what you are saying?

I’m saying you’re judging events of over 40 years ago by today’s standards. Of course it wasn’t legally a forced marriage or the result of abuse. It was in line with a lot of marriages at that time in those circles.

Lots of my friends got married in their early twenties, it wasn’t so unusual then. Also, people didn’t have the horror of younger people going out with older men as they do today. It was more accepted back in the early eighties.

Also, age gap aristocratic marriages are still happening, such as Rose Hanbury who married a much older man. She is 39 and he is 62.