Diana called her marriage “ridiculous” and claimed Charles was "disappointed" that Harry, his second son, was a boy. Photo / Getty Images
Diana called her marriage “ridiculous” and claimed Charles was "disappointed" that Harry, his second son, was a boy. Photo / Getty Images
Recordings of Princess Diana describing her “ridiculous” marriage to the now-King Charles have come to light 26 years after her tragic death.
The tapes, recorded by author Andrew Morton for Diana: Her True Story, his bombshell 1992 book, have been made public for the first time and will be featured in the upcoming documentary Diana: The Rest of Her Story, according to TheNew York Post.
In an excerpt played on US breakfast show Good Morning America, the “People’s Princess” details her controversial marriage to Charles, who was then Prince of Wales.
“It was so grown up. Here’s Diana, a kindergarten teacher. I mean the whole thing was ridiculous,” she said.
Another snippet of the newly released tape features her claim that Charles was “disappointed” when he discovered their second child, Prince Harry, was a boy.
Diana – who was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997, aged 36 – revealed on the record that Charles had expressed his disappointment to her mother, Frances Shand Kydd, at Harry’s christening in 1984.
The Prince and Princess of Wales with the newborn Prince Harry in September 1984. Photo / Getty Images
“My husband won’t even talk to Mummy, barely,” she says. “Because of Harry’s christening, Charles went up to Mummy and said, ‘You know, we were so disappointed, we thought it would be a girl.’
“And Mummy snapped his head off,” she went on, “and said, ‘You should realise how lucky you are to have a child that’s normal’”.
“Ever since that day, the shutters have come down,” she revealed. “That’s what he does when he gets somebody answering back at him”.
The upcoming documentary special was produced by Tom Jennings, who told GMA that “it is important as part of Diana’s legacy to allow more of those tapes to be heard”.
The film will also detail Diana’s relationship with her stepmother, as heard in clips of the audio recordings that were released on Friday.
Princess Diana with her stepmother Raine. She is known to have referred to her as "Acid Raine". Photo / Getty Images
“I was so angry,” Diana confessed in one of the recordings. “I said, ‘I hate you so much. If you only knew how much we all hated you for what you’ve done. You ruined the house. You spent Daddy’s money. I have said everything I possibly could.’ Raine said, ‘You have no idea how much pain your mother put your father through.’
“I said, ‘Pain, Raine? It’s one word you don’t even know how to relate to,’ ” Diana went on. “ ’In my job, I see people suffer like you never see. You call that pain? I said you’ve got a lot to learn.’ I remember really going for her gullet.”
The documentary is set to be a sequel to the 2017 documentary Diana: In Her Own Words, in which previously unseen videos provided a glimpse into the princess’s life.
Charles and Diana on the balcony of Buckingham Palace on their wedding day on July 29, 1981. Photo / AP
It was additionally detailed in the documentary that Diana struggled with an eating disorder after discovering that Charles had been unfaithful to her with Camilla Parker Bowles, now Queen Camilla.
Her good friend Dr James Colthurst, who gave the tapes to Morton, claimed that things went downhill for Diana after she found out about Charles’ affair.
Charles and Diana's body language on a royal tour to Canada only three months after their marriage hints at their future difficulties. Photo / Getty Images
“You could see her fading physically,” Colthurst revealed. “It was clear to all those who knew her that the bulimia was a reaction to the circumstances she found herself in.”
