Princess Diana was once reportedly left “traumatised” by a remark Charles made in their engagement interview.
It is one of the most replayed royal moments of the past half century. And according to reports, Princess Diana was left deeply shaken by a three-word remark from Charles, now King Charles III, during their 1981 engagement interview.
At the time, the then 19-year-old Diana and 32-year-old Charles were introducing themselves to the world as a newly engaged couple. What should have been a fairy tale moment has since become remembered for a brief exchange that many believe spoke volumes.
Princess Diana and Prince Charles’ awkward engagement interview
On February 24, 1981, Diana and Charles faced the media to mark their engagement.
The footage has since become infamous, largely because of the uncomfortable tone that crept in as the questions unfolded.
When a reporter asked the royal couple whether they were “in love”, Diana answered without hesitation: “Of course.”
Charles, however, responded differently.
“Whatever in love means,” the then-Prince of Wales said, prompting an uneasy laugh from his bride-to-be.
He went on to suggest that being “in love” was open to personal interpretation. When the interviewer commented that they appeared happy together, both agreed, with Diana adding brightly: “As you can see”.
Diana reportedly said the comment ‘traumatised’ her
Although Diana appeared to brush off the remark at the time, years later she is said to have revealed how much it affected her.
In Andrew Morton’s authorised biography, Diana: In Her Own Words, she reportedly reflected on that moment with striking honesty.
Diana allegedly told Morton: “We had this ghastly interview the day we announced our engagement. And this ridiculous [reporter] said, ‘Are you in love?’ I thought, what a thick question.
“So, I said, ‘Yes, of course, we are,’ and Charles turned round and said, ‘Whatever love means.’ And that threw me completely.”
“I thought, what a strange answer. It traumatised me,” she allegedly admitted.
For many royal watchers, it is a comment that has echoed down the years.
What Charles may have meant
In her book, Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbably Life, royal author Sally Bedell Smith offered a more nuanced interpretation of the remark.
“It was a totally inappropriate thing for him to say, but understandable given the way his mind worked and the kind of things he had said in prior years,” she explained.
Smith suggested his words should be viewed in the context of interviews he gave throughout the 1970s about what he hoped for in a wife and how he defined love.
“He can overthink things and was thinking out loud. I don’t see it as a cynical, cruel statement,” she said.
She also argued that the line attracted far greater scrutiny during the very public breakdown of their marriage in the 1990s. Before that, it had not carried the same weight.
Diana and Charles married on July 29, 1981, at St Paul’s Cathedral in a ceremony watched by an estimated 750 million people worldwide. Eleven years later they separated, and their divorce was finalised in 1996.
Decades on, that brief exchange still fuels debate about what was really going on behind palace doors at the start of one of the most talked-about royal marriages in modern history.
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