you took on the vow of marriage? yes. until it became irretrievably broken down. there was this bombshell confession that yes, he had been unfaithful with camilla parker bowles. it s not something that i went into marriage with the intention of this happening. or in any way in a cynical frame of mind. i mean, i charles clearly was fighting against it. you could see it with every sort of inflection, every move of his body. because it reflected not just on him and, of course, camilla, but also on diana. it must have been so incredibly hard for her to hear those words. but if she refused to simply sit at home when a documentary goes out in which she s represented as the cheated-on wife diana, she has a public engagement that night. she reached into her closet, she
it was the summer of 1990, and charles was playing polo, and he fell badly off his horse and broke his arm. and he was rushed to the local hospital. it was a major fall, a major break. and it takes time for the swelling to go down. diana was 100 miles away in london when she heard about the accident, and she jumped into the car with her bodyguard and drove to the hospital. it was a very big story. lots of reporters, photographers, film crews outside of the hospital he was being treated. inside royal palace staff were stunned to discover charles very first visitor wasn t diana, it was camilla parker bowles. she had sidled through the backdoor so the media hadn t caught sight of her. prince charles bodyguard from buckingham palace were
writing a note about how she s feeling. she writes, i m sitting here at my desk today in october, longing for someone to hug me, and encouraged me to keep strong and hold my head high. diana is feeling very vulnerable. it s the first time that she s actually feeling that she s losing the support of the public. as well as being sidelined and undermined by charles supporters. diana continues, i ve been battered, bruised and abused mentally by a system for 15 years now. and weary of the battles but i will never surrender. she felt she really needed to put her case directly to the public. everyone wanted to get a sit down with her and says diana. this was the biggest tv interview you could get. this was the ultimate get. some of the top names in both america and britain were angling for diana to sit on the couch oprah winfrey, barbara walters, david frost, really big hitters.
the fear was, if charles were to divorce and then remarry to camilla, he then wouldn t be able to take up the throne. because he would also be head of the church of england, which was at the time opposed to remarriage for divorced people. diana s number one priority is maintaining custody of her boys. diana was very well aware that the two boys were the property of the crown, and if the establishment took its strong line against her, she could cease to have a part to play in their future. diana s fears weren t out of left field, either. her own mother had been denied custody of her children. so diana was drawing from her own personal experience about what would play out. the separation negotiations were seen by some of prince charles advisers as an opportunity to diminish her royal role. for example, denying her use of royal aircraft or downgrading the protocol required at diana s
at the center of their lives. these things all came from the prince s supporters. they said diana s accusations of an affair with camilla parker bowles were unhinged, were deranged. they would call her paranoid, obsessed. at this point, the affair between charles and camilla had been going on six years. it s chilling to see the degree to which in their determination to try and blacken diana, smear diana, there was really no depth these people wouldn t go to.