Princess Diana Part 1: The Royal Romance That Was Over Before It Began

2026-07-21

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Princess Diana thought she was marrying into a fairytale. By the honeymoon, she had to send a memo just to have lunch with her own husband. This is Princess Diana before the icon, before the cameras, before the People's Princess the world thought it knew. In Part 1 of our Princess Diana trilogy, we go right back to the beginning: a wealthy but emotionally cold childhood, parents locked in a bitter divorce, and a young Diana Spencer who grew up convinced she was never quite good enough. We follow her into the strangest courtship imaginable, a handful of heavily c...

In Part 1 of our Princess Diana trilogy, we go right back to the beginning: a wealthy but emotionally cold childhood, parents locked in a bitter divorce, and a young Diana Spencer who grew up convinced she was never quite good enough.

We follow her into the strangest courtship imaginable, a handful of heavily chaperoned dates with Prince Charles, a royal “audition” she didn't know she was failing or passing, and an engagement agreed after the couple had met barely a dozen times.

From the first day, the cracks are there. The press hounds her relentlessly, the palace offers no support, and Camilla Parker Bowles never quite disappears. Behind the gloss of the 1981 royal wedding watched by 750 million people sits a lonely teenager, struggling with bulimia and the slow, dawning realisation that this was never going to be the love story she imagined.

A story of family, fame, royal scandals and the human cost of becoming a symbol.

This is where it all begins. Part 1 of 3.

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