Princess Diana Almost Called Off Her Royal Wedding to King Charles III—This Is Who Changed Her Mind

A royal biographer unpacked the events (and influences) that led to Lady Di’s decision.

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A month before Princess Diana was set to tie the knot with then-Prince Charles on July 29, 1981, the future bride was ready to call off the wedding—that is, until her dad, Earl Spencer, convinced her otherwise, according a royal biographer. In an excerpt from Ingrid Seward’s new book, My Mother and I, which the Daily Mail published on February 4, 2024, the author claimed that a series of events at Prince Andrew’s 21st birthday party at Windsor Castle was the reason behind her decision.

Seward wrote that at the party, Lady Di was hoping to dance with her fiancé, who had been traveling the week before. However, the royal biographer alleged that Charles was distant during the soirée. According to Seward, the future monarch “spent the entire evening dutifully working the room and making sure he spoke with as many people as possible.” But Diana wasn’t one of them.

Related: The Real Reason Why the Royal Family Wanted King Charles to Marry Princess Diana

Diana took this behavior personally. “Diana was in despair,” Seward said in the expert. “Her fiancé had been away in America for most of the previous week, yet he clearly had no desire to dance with her. Feeling emotionally drained, she threw herself into dancing frantically with one man after another—and finally, just dancing by herself.” In the excerpt, the royal biographer said footman Mark Simpson saw Princess Diana “looking exhausted and lost in her thoughts yet still moving in slow, rhythmic time to some tune in her head.”

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At 5:30 a.m., Diana, who was “distraught, flustered, angry, and had no intention of every going back,” per Seward, headed to her father’s home in Northamptonshire. “As far as Diana was concerned, the royal wedding was off,” she wrote. Diana shared her feelings with her dad, who talked some sense into her. “But when she explained her decision to her father, Earl Spencer, he was appalled,” the author said. “After calming her down, he pointed out it would be an act of gross discourtesy to break off her engagement to the future king so close to the wedding.”

Her father then reminded her of a past conversation between the two of them. “And anyway, wasn’t it what she’d always wanted?” Seward continued. “Didn’t she remember him telling her that she should only marry a man she loved. And her firm reply: ‘That is what I am doing?’ Diana wasn’t immediately convinced.” The excerpt reveals that after crying and expressing indecision, her father was able to convince her to marry Charles. “She couldn’t deny that she still wanted to be the Princess of Wales. And at 19, she was young enough still to believe in happy endings, despite what her instincts had told her on that terrible night,” Seward shared. 

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