Princess Diana Had an Unexpected Family Member Who Encouraged Her Not to Marry Prince Charles
- - Princess Diana Had an Unexpected Family Member Who Encouraged Her Not to Marry Prince Charles
Rachel BurchfieldNovember 12, 2025 at 9:48 PM
0
Getty
Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981The Gist -
The whole world was swept up in the fairytale of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer after they got engaged in February 1981.
Their July 29, 1981 wedding was even called “the stuff of which fairytales are made” by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Diana had one family member, though, that encouraged her to not go through with the wedding.
At their July 29, 1981 wedding, the Archbishop of Canterbury said of Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s union that “This is the stuff of which fairytales are made.” That said, one member of Lady Diana Spencer’s family was decidedly not a believer in the fairytale facade that the wedding of the century projected.
Speaking on The Daily Mail’s “Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things” podcast, royal biographers Robert Hardman and Kate Williams discussed how there was one member of Diana’s family who was against her marrying Charles—Diana’s maternal grandmother Ruth Roche, Baroness Fermoy. Williams called her a “dissenting voice,” one that saw beyond the fairytale.
Getty Images / Fox Photos / Hulton Archive Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer after their wedding ceremony at St. Paul's Cathedral on July 29, 1981
Baroness Fermoy was one of Charles’s grandmother the Queen Mother’s most trusted confidantes, so she knew the inner workings of the royal family well. In fact, it was Baroness Fermoy who was rumored to have orchestrated her granddaughter Diana’s marriage to Charles in the first place. Though she publicly supported the marriage, in private the Baroness warned Diana against going through with it.
Getty
Baroness Fermoy in 1963
Diana was only 19 years old when she accepted 32-year-old Charles’s marriage proposal in February 1981; by the time of their wedding five months later, Diana had turned 20 years old just weeks prior. Before their nuptials, “Everyone was so charmed and enchanted by Diana,” Hardman said, particularly after a successful visit to spend time with the royal family at Balmoral, the family’s retreat in the Scottish Highlands.
“They think she’s got a great spirit, a lovely smile,” Hardman added. “Crucially, she’s not fazed. At Balmoral, when they all go stomping up a hill, or it’s pouring with rain, or it’s time to go stalking, or to have a family barbecue—she just takes it all in stride.”
Getty
Lady Diana Spencer in 1981
He added, “Diana just fits in. She’s perfectly happy talking to the Queen Mother because of her grandmother [Baroness Fermoy]. She had childhood friendships with [then-Prince] Andrew and [Prince] Edward.”
Though Charles and Diana’s engagement seemed to be a “perfect fit,” Diana would later tell her biographer Andrew Morton of her “deep unhappiness during the engagement,” The Daily Mail reported.
Getty
Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer on March 9, 1981
“Diana is the only one that doesn’t seem excited about the wedding,” Williams said. “She was suffering from an eating disorder—I think she was very overwhelmed.” At one point, Diana told her older sisters Lady Sarah and Lady Jane that she didn’t want to go through with the wedding, to which they replied—using her childhood nickname—“Bad luck, Dutch, your face is on the tea towels. You can’t go back.”
“She says later that she felt like a lamb to the slaughter,” Williams added.
Diana’s grandmother Baroness Fermoy also sensed something was wrong, with Williams adding that “One of the only dissenting voices was the Baroness.”
Getty
Princess Diana and Baroness Fermoy on July 23, 1983
“She said to Diana, ‘I don’t think their sense of humor or lifestyle is going to suit you,’” Williams said. “But everyone else was so swept up in the idea of marriage.”
It turns out that the Baroness’s reservations—as well as Diana’s—held water. It’s no secret by now that the marriage of Charles and Diana was less than ideal; they separated in 1992 and eventually divorced in 1996, one year before Diana’s death. At the time of Baroness Fermoy’s own passing in July 1993, she and Diana were no longer speaking because the Baroness spoke critically of Diana to the royal family, siding with them over her own granddaughter.
on InStyle
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
