Princess Diana felt 'like wounded animal' after failing to 'claim' Prince Charles's heart
PRINCESS Diana felt "wounded and betrayed" after her attempts to win over Prince Charles following their marriage fell flat, according to expert Anna Pasternak.
Princess Diana ‘felt like wounded animal’ claims expert
Princess Diana was barely 20 when she married the heir to the British throne Prince Charles, and after only being in a relationship with the royal for a little over a year. Expert Anna Pasternak praised the depiction of the Princess of Wales in the latest season of Netflix's The Crown as an "innocent" wife trying to win over her husband. Speaking to the BBC Today programme, Ms Pasternak said: "I think where The Crown is accurate is that Diana was innocent.
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"She went into the marriage thinking she would claim the heart of her prince and that was impossible.
"She was incredibly lonely and she did feel wounded and betrayed, which led to a lot of her more destructive behaviour later on."
The royal author added: "I think she became calculating later on because she was like a wounded animal who then developed this tremendous guile."
Speculation about the state of the Prince and Princess of Wales's marriage began towards the end of the 1980s, as the couple began to appear more and more distant in public.
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It would later emerge Prince Charles had resumed a romantic liaison with former girlfriend Camilla Parker Bowles, an affair he would come to admit to in the mid-1990s.
The pair began to lead an increasingly separate life and would announce their separation in 1992, 11 years after their lavish marriage at St Paul's Cathedral.
Following news of the separation, Princess Diana and Prince Charles became engaged in a tit-for-tat war of words across the British media.
The so-called War of the Wales's reached its apex in 1995 when the Princess of Wales agreed to an unprecedented interview with BBC Panorama.
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During the interview, filmed in secret at Kensington Palace, Diana confessed to her own extramarital affairs as she suggested Charles and Camilla's relationship had proved to be unbearable.
The Queen, who had until then tried not to interfere, reportedly stepped in and ordered the pair to divorce in a bid to save the Royal Family's reputation in the public eye.
But despite the evident unhappiness she was experiencing, Princess Diana had not wanted her marriage to Prince Charles to break down.
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Former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond said: "Diana was pretty unsettled with the divorce, she didn't want the divorce, she told me, 'It's not something I want.'
“I think she felt somehow they could continue as separate but partners and parents to the two boys, and she really did try to make it work and she wanted to make it work.
“She found the day of the divorce extremely hard. She did go out, she was seen in public, but she was hurting badly.
“She told me that it was an extremely difficult day, but she went home and burst into tears.”
Charles and Diana officially divorced in August 1996, less than a year before the Princess of Wales died in a car crash in Paris.