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.

I was a child at the time. I remember the talk that she was too young, but that anyone age appropriate would obviously not work because the bride had to be a virgin. So there was an acceptance of the reality that adult women would have pre-marital sex. Perhaps if there wasn’t, people would have been willing to turn a blind eye and let him choose a more suitable candidate, but no one was going to believe even a 25 year old woman was a virgin.

Fertility treatments have also come quite a long ways since then. Not just ivf, but things like Clomid and IUI. A younger woman with maximum egg production and no possibility of sexually transmitted diseases having impaired fertility is a rational choice if her purpose is not to be a partner, but to produce at least 2 children.

Apologise for what? And to whom?

It's quite funny to read young people's views of what the 1980s were like, as if it was somehow indistinguishable from the 1400s.

I'm the same age as Diana. Nobody I knew was getting married at 19. Nobody. I also can't recall anyone I know from that period marrying a man 13 years older. Most of the 19-year olds I knew weren't virgins.

The truth is that the royal family were not - and are not - like the rest of us. They have a weird set of rules for behaviour that don't apply to other people. At the time, plenty of us thought the whole set-up was ghastly - like many other feminists, I wore a "Don't do it, Di!" badge.

This. They didn't want him to marry someone with 'history'.

What I think is especially awful is that her mother was married to Earl Spencer at 18 with a similar age gap (just Googled and he was 30) and the marriage was a disaster. She literally ran away from him after producing a male heir.

Why the Spencer’s thought it was a good idea to do something similar to Diana is beyond me. It must’ve been the prestige of marrying into the royal family, no consideration for the people involved.

If it’s on Netflix it must be true?

You have to apply your brain cells to the things you read and watch. Lots of it is entirely unsubstantiated. This is an example of something that is entirely unsubstantiated, it’s also an example of something that is obviously ridiculous.

Just because some royal ‘expert’ is wheeled out to give an interview doesn’t mean what they say is factual. Netflix is purely an entertainment platform, it does not have the fact checking standards of Nat Geo or the BBC. I make content for all three platforms so I can tell you that for a fact.

Most people realise this. If you truly don’t, then you need to take some steps to educate yourself. If you are bringing up children you need to understand how the media works. Right now I’d be more concerned about your ability to prepare your children to cope with an age of mass media, than my children’s manners.

I'm a fairly similar age to the late Diana, and went to a grammar school. Over half the year left after O levels, and probably less than a third of those who went to sixth form went to university. And we were the academic ones!

Neither nursing nor teaching required university in those days, of course. Secretarial college was a popular destination.

Marrying as young as 19/20 wasn't that common though, unless up the duff. I'd say it was 22-26 ish. And their age gap seemed huge

Does it genuinely matter OP?

It feels like this is yet another thread to sling mud at the BRF 😐.

It's a long time ago and all the royals who have got married in the last 10 or so years are a lot older with very small age gaps. Times have changed. I mean Harry was 34 and Meghan 37, she was a geriatric mother when she was expecting her dc, which is not ideal, I know this as I was one too.

Yes, that's why I don't blame Charles so much as he was forced into it by the machine and I think he probably thought Diana had accepted on the basis that she understood the arrangement given everyone else around him did. I don't think he behaved impeccably of course, but I think he was brought up in a very particular world.

Her family, however, behaved utterly utterly atrociously.

The Queen was 13 and when she met the 18 year-old Philip at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth. Philip started writing to her at that stage

Imagine trying to justify that on MN these days ?

I was born about two years after Diana. Only three people I was at school with married as teenagers, two of which were 'shotgun' weddings (one of which the couple are still together today). The third had known each other for about three years.

I wonder the same thing. She was young but she did move in these circles - I find it hard to imagine that she wasn't aware that it was part of the deal.

I am also not sure to what extent she had feelings for Charles Vs wanting to be a princess and then finding it wasn't what it was cracked up to be

To the both of them. It was the 1980s they basically just want a brood mare they weren't bothered about the marriage working. He didn't need heirs he had two brothers and a sister
Many monarchs have died unmarried and without marriage and it passes on to the sibling. Prince Andrew as king though 🤢🤢🤢

Thank you. I'm 60 too, so we were similar ages. I was at University when she got married. None of my friends got married so young, nearly all my friends went to University. I went to a Comp.

Getting married at 19 wasn't unusual. The age gap was but not really frowned upon. She was considered an adult who could make her own decisions. It wouldn't be up to other people to decide. Of course he wasn't expected to have an affair with Camilla- She was married to someone else by then.
All the stuff about her being tested for virginity is rubbish. How would anyone know?

are you sure? i remember the spectator having articles that said that kate middleton still had her 'v' plates when she got engaged to william.

I'm the same age as she was, and got married aged 21. Hate to break it to you OP, but getting married in your late teens/early 20's was not at all uncommon in the early 80's and prior. In those days of course, you didn't have to live with parents until our 30's in order to save up for a deposit to buy a home.

As soon as you left school you went on the council house waiting list, and after a few years you got somewhere to live. Probably a flat to start with, but your own place all the same.

Didn’t William and Catherine live together?

Knowing about the ruthless approach by the Royals using Diana as a commodity makes me wonder about Harry and Meghan's claims. Not a family I would want my child associated with.

I’m a lot older than the majority here ( 76) but when I was 19 I was going out with a man 12 years older than me. It lasted 4 years.

Camilla wasn't mentioned and all the details of that relationship became public much later

Camilla wasn't the only mistress at that point, and there was no reason whatsoever to think that she would become a more enduring fixture in his life.

Yes it does matter, it helps you understand the dynamics and the problems Harry and William are having. It seems like a utterly dysfunctional set up , like an aristocratic Jeremy Kyle.

I think Kate knew exactly what she was getting into though and they’d been dating for close to 10 years when they married so they really knew each other well.

Plus, and I think this is crucial, she has her own close knit and supportive family, not a runaway Mum, a Dad with MH problems ( Earl Spencer suffered from depression, so I’ve read) and a step-Mum that no one liked.

Kate has a really strong support system, unlike Diana.

Just to add the establishment's objection to Philip was that most of his immediate family were nazi sympathisers.

(In fairness, the royal family had similar problems.)