King Charles III Reportedly Didn't Want Images of Princess Diana To Haunt Him in Australia
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King Charles III embarked on his first tour since his cancer diagnosis as he and Queen Camilla travel throughout Australia this week. The country greeted the royal duo on Oct. 18 with a spectacular display of photos projected onto the Sydney Opera House from their visits over the years. Still, there was a noticeable presence that was absent from those images.
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The four-hour display showed Charles in his younger years playing cricket and enjoying a day on Bondi Beach, but there was no snapshot of Princess Diana to be seen. According to GB News, the photos were carefully curated by Australia and the palace, so Diana was conspicuously absent from the moment. Hardcore royal fans will remember Diana’s triumphant tour to the country in 1983 — she was 21 years old and less than two years into her troubled marriage to then-Prince Charles.
Her popularity soared during the trip as Charles became increasingly jealous of the attention she was receiving — fans of The Crown know this narrative well. “Victor Chapman, the press secretary on the tour, got used to late-night phone calls from Charles complaining about the scant coverage of himself in the press compared to the hagiographic acres accorded of his wife,” author Tina Brown wrote in her book, The Diana Chronicles.
For Diana, the trip was “utterly traumatic” for her. He took it out me,” she told biographer Andrew Morton via the New York Post. “He was jealous; I understood the jealousy, but I couldn’t explain that I didn’t ask for it.” The tour was a success in the public’s eyes, but behind closed doors, it was an absolute disaster.
“The prince was embarrassed the crowds so clearly favored her over him,” Sally Bedell Smith wrote in her biography, Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life. “For her part, Diana was upset by the disproportionate interest in her, especially when she realized that it was disturbing Charles. She collapsed under the strain, weeping to her lady-in-waiting and secretly succumbing to bulimia. In letters to friends, Charles described his anguish over the impact ‘all this obsessed and crazed attention was having on his wife.’”
So, it’s understandable that King Charles didn’t want a reminder of his 1983 tour and how his late ex-wife. Diana truly was the people’s princess. He nor Queen Camilla have ever reached that same level of adoration from the public.
Before you go, click here to see all of our favorite photos of Princess Diana.
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