England rugby icon linked with Princess Diana romance speaks out
A former England rugby star was the focus of romantic speculation involving Princess Diana.
Former England captain Will Carling faced intense media attention following reports linking him romantically to Princess Diana. The rugby star was used to being in the spotlight but faced a different type of scrutiny after claims about his romantic life.
The ex-Harlequins centre became England's youngest-ever captain in 1988 at just 22 years old, going on to win 72 caps for his country. Throughout his international career, Carling secured four Five Nations titles and guided England to the 1991 World Cup final. Yet claims about his private life thrust him into a new kind of media glare. Before his 1996 divorce from television presenter Julia Carling, the rugby legend was claimed to have a romantic link to the royal, who was married to Prince Charles at the time.
Carling has repeatedly refuted claims of a romantic connection with the then-Princess of Wales. Speaking to the Sunday Mirror in 2004, Carling said: "No, no, no – how many times do I have to say it? We were friends.."
The rumours surrounding the England skipper left a lasting mark on Carling. In 2024, he told The Telegraph: "Front page is very different from back page. Yeah, it was not nice."
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He continued: "Hey, a lot of that is my own fault, you can't complain. You have to learn. Relationships that I got wrong... so, that's what they got fascinated by. You look back on it and you think it was all blown out of all proportion, but it made a good story."
Following his divorce, the England captain embarked on a relationship with Ali Cockayne and they had a son together. However, the pair separated shortly before their newborn's first birthday.
The split occurred because Carling had begun a fresh romance with Lisa Cooke, the estranged wife of former Harlequins player David Cooke. Despite the highly publicised start to their relationship, Carling and Lisa remain married and have two children together.
In 2004, Carling admitted: "I have to admit that I didn't handle things very well, not very well at all. But there are two sides to every story, and no one has heard mine. That's my choice, and I live with it."
While plenty had been said publicly about his private life, Carling opted not to speak about the circumstances behind his split with Cockayne, as he wanted to shield his young son. "It was just one of those things... but there are plenty of reasons that go into the breakdown of a relationship, none of which I am going to discuss in public," he said in 2004.
"One person is more important than anyone else in all of this – and it's Henry. The day will come when he will have to know what happened between me and his mum, and when the time is right I will sit down and explain things to him, father to son.
"That's my responsibility. I wouldn't want him hearing it second-hand from someone else."
