Heartbreaking reason Princess Diana did not want to divorce Prince Charles

Prince Charles and Princess Diana on their last official trip together, a visit to South Korea. Photo / Getty Images

Princess Diana had a very good reason to not want to divorce Prince Charles.

Diana said she "desperately" wanted her relationship to work as she did not want to repeat the "pattern" of her parents' separation.

The princess did not want to put her sons, William and Harry, through what she had been through with her parents' divorce.

In a Panorama interview which recently resurfaced on social media, she explained her expectations about marriage.

"I think like any marriage, specially when you've had divorced parents like myself, you'd want to try even harder to make it work and you don't want to fall back into a pattern that you've seen happen in your own family," she said.

According to her friend Kenni Rivett it wasn't until Queen Elizabeth II got involved that divorce even got mentioned.

Rivett said Diana did ask Charles for a trial separation but it was the Queen who pushed for a legal dissolution.

"Given the choice, she would have stayed and tried to make a happy marriage," her friend said, according to the Mirror.

Prince Charles and Diana announced their separation in 1992.

The divorce was only finalised four years later.