Diana is too late to back out now
Whether or whether Charles genuinely revealed his true sentiments to Diana, it appears she had much to be concerned about. Camilla Parker Bowles, whose name will undoubtedly figure frequently here, was Charles's, longstanding sweetheart. At first, she and Diana appeared to be friends until a series of events raised her suspicions. Charles reportedly gave Camilla a bracelet with the letters G and F – for Gladys and Fred, their nicknames for one another – two weeks before the wedding. Diana was so upset that she allegedly told her sisters she couldn't go through with the wedding. Their response? She didn't have a choice.
Diana's first encounter with photographers
Such an amount of attention seemed a world away in 1981, but there were undoubtedly early warning signs. The paparazzi's – and, by extension, the world's – fascination with Princess Diana would lead to her untimely death in 1997. The two had just gone out around 12 times before Charles proposed to Diana. Diana, who was still technically a teen at the time, struggled to cope with celebrity, reportedly falling into tears at the wheel of her automobile. “I realize it's (their) job, but there are times when I wish they wouldn't,” she lamented.