Princess Diana and then-Prince Charles at Cheltenham Racecourse in March 1982.
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The Gist
Princess Diana reflected on the demise of her marriage shortly before her death in a conversation with royal biographer Ingrid Seward.
According to Seward, Diana said “it wasn’t Camilla who ruined our marriage.”
Instead, Diana blamed “the people around Charles,” a.k.a. the royal household.
The demise of then-Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage can be blamed on a whole host of problems, but apparently the future king’s affair with his now-wife Queen Camilla wasn’t one of them—at least according to royal biographer Ingrid Seward. The author revealed as much during a 2025 appearance on Hello!’s “A Right Royal Podcast,” recalling an interaction she had with the Princess of Wales shortly before her death.
Then-Prince Charles and Princess Diana on their honeymoon in August 1981.
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“She said to me just before she died, it wasn’t Camilla,” Seward said. Quoting Diana, the author added, “It wasn’t Camilla that ruined our marriage. It was the people around Charles”—referring to palace staff and courtiers that were always at hand.
Princess Diana and Queen Camilla, then Camilla Parker Bowles, at Ludlow Racecourse in October 1980.
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“And I could never unpick that comment and quite understand what it meant,” Seward admitted. “But I also remember Diana’s father saying how tricky the royal household was.”
Of royal staffers, she mused, “Are they just a load of overinflated egos in the royal household, or are they really trying to help?”
Princess Diana and then-Prince Charles on a royal visit to Canada in October 1991.
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Charles and Diana ultimately separated in 1992 before divorcing in 1996. Nine years later, he and Camilla tied the knot in a civil ceremony on April 9, 2005. As for his ex-wife, Seward previously said that the late princess “wished people could see the love letters that she had from Charles,” despite the fact that their marriage ended in divorce.
“She really wanted people to know that she loved Charles and he loved her,” Seward said, per The Times. “And I always remembered that. And she wanted the boys [Prince William and Prince Harry] to know that. There was a period of great love between them.”
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