Diana Marries Charles: 700 Million Watch the Fairy Tale

Lady Diana Spencer walked the 650-foot aisle of St. Paul's Cathedral on July 29, 1981, in a dress with a 25-foot train, watched by 3,500 guests inside the church and an estimated 750 million television viewers worldwide. The wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, to his 20-year-old bride was the most watched broadcast event in history up to that point, and it constructed a fairy tale that would unravel in spectacular public fashion. The courtship had been brief and closely managed. Charles, at thirty-two, was under intense pressure from the royal family and the press to marry and produce an heir. Diana, a kindergarten teacher's assistant from one of England's oldest aristocratic families, met the necessary criteria: young, from the right background, and by all appearances, without a romantic past. Their engagement was announced in February 1981 after roughly a dozen dates. When a reporter asked if they were in love, Charles replied, "Whatever love means," a remark that haunted both of them. The ceremony at St. Paul's Cathedral, chosen over the traditional Westminster Abbey for its larger capacity, was a production of extraordinary scale. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Dean of St. Paul's officiated. Diana famously reversed the order of Charles's names in her vows, calling him "Philip Charles" instead of "Charles Philip." Orchestras, choirs, and trumpeters filled the cathedral with music. Outside, an estimated 600,000 people lined the processional route through London. The public celebration masked private misery that was already developing. Charles had maintained his relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles, and Diana later said there were "three of us in this marriage." The couple's incompatibility in temperament, interests, and emotional needs became increasingly obvious through the 1980s, playing out in tabloid headlines and television interviews. Their divorce was finalized in 1996. Diana was killed in a Paris car crash the following year, and the fairy tale that began at St. Paul's became the British monarchy's most painful modern chapter.