Princess Diana almost called off her wedding to then-Prince Charles before her father, Earl Spencer, reassured her to go through with it, a new book has claimed.
Royal biographer Ingrid Seward’s new book My Mother and I includes claims that “a month to go until she married the heir to the throne” in July 1981, Diana had doubts about the wedding.
Diana had attended Prince Andrew’s 21st birthday party in June 1981 at Windsor Castle, where the now-King Charles “spent the entire evening dutifully working the room and making sure he spoke with as many people as possible,” Seward wrote.
But Diana had been hoping to dance with her fiancé.
Seward wrote: “Diana was in despair. Her fiancé had been away in America for most of the previous week, yet he clearly had no desire to dance with her.”
READ MORE: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s overhead is ‘more than their earning potential’
The author continued: “Feeling emotionally drained, she threw herself into dancing frantically with one man after another – and finally just dancing by herself.”
Elton John, who performed at the gathering, called Prince Andrew’s party “Me” as “the world’s quietist disco,” explaining that no one wanted to offend Queen Elizabeth.
According to Seward, staff noticed Diana “looking exhausted and lost in her thoughts yet still moving in slow, rhythmic time to some tune in her head” during the party.
The book then claims that Diana went to her father’s home in Northamptonshire at 5.30am the following morning where she was talked out of making any hasty decisions.
Seward claims that Diana was talked around by her father, Edward John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer, who died 11 years after their marriage in 1992.
Diana became the Princess of Wales when she married Charles at the age of 20 on July 29, 1981, at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.
The pair separated in 1992 – before officially divorcing in 1996, one year before Diana died in a car crash in Paris.
Their wedding saw the largest TV audience for a wedding, with 750 million people in 74 different countries tuning in.
Follow our social media accounts here on facebook.com/ExpressUSNews and @expressusnews
