April 19, 2026

1. Diana's Wedding

Show Notes
Transcript

July 29, 1981. Charles, 32, marries Lady Diana Spencer, 19, at St. Paul's Cathedral in a ceremony watched by 750 million people worldwide. It's the fairy tale of the century. But as Diana walks down the aisle, Charles's heart belongs to another woman. "Whatever 'in love' means," he tells reporters. The marriage is doomed before it begins. Camilla watches from the congregation, knowing she'll always be part of this triangle.

While no one truly knows what happens behind closed palace doors, this series uses news sources, on-the-record quotes, and some artistic license to craft this entertainment series. Some moments have been dramatized for storytelling effect. AI narration was used in creation of this series.

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Calorogu Shark Media, July twenty ninth, nineteen eighty one. London

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is draped in red, white and blue. Millions of people

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line the streets, pressed shoulder to shoulder, waving flags, weeping openly,

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holding up hand painted signs that read we love you Die.

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The sun is shining over the city, as if the

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heavens themselves have signed off on this fairy tale. Seven

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hundred and fifty million people around the world are watching

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on television. It is being called the wedding of the century,

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and by every visible measure it is exactly that. But

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behind the gilded doors of Saint Paul's Cathedral, something far

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more complicated is taking shape. Charles Philip Arthur Jaw, Prince

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of Wales, heir to the British throne, is thirty two

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years old. On this morning. He is dressed impeccably, his

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naval uniform pressed to perfection, his posture the product of

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a lifetime of discipline and duty. He stands at the

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altar and waits to the watching world. He is every

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inch the Prince, dignified, assured, ready. But Charles is not

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thinking about the seven hundred and fifty million people watching.

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He is not thinking about the weight of the crown

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that will one day sit on his head. He is

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thinking about a woman who is not walking down that

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aisle toward him. Her name is Camilla Parker Bowles, and

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she is seated in the congregation right now watching. To

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understand this moment, you have to go back. Charles and

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Camilla first met in the early nineteen seventies. Introduced through

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mutual friends in the easy, aristocratic social world, they both inhabited.

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The chemistry between them was immediate. Camilla was warm, earthy, funny,

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and completely unintimidated by Charles's title. She made him laugh.

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She made him feel like a person, not a symbol.

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He fell deeply in love with her. But Camilla was

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not considered suitable to marry the heir to the throne.

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The palace expected a bride who was aristocratic, yes, but

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also young, untouched by scandal, Protestant, and above all malleable. Camilla,

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who had a romantic past, did not fit the profile.

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While Charles was away on naval duty in the early

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nineteen seventies, Camilla married Andrew Parker Bowles. Charles was heartbroken

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in a way that would quietly define the rest of

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his life. The years passed Charles dated. He was linked

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to a string of young women, of them eventually deemed

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unsuitable or unwilling to take on the suffocating constraints of

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royal life. The palace and the press grew impatient. The

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heir to the throne needed a wife. He needed an

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heir of his own, and then came Lady Diana Spencer.

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Diana was nineteen years old. She was the youngest daughter

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of an earl, raised in the aristocratic world, and she

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had grown up on the royal estate at Sandringham. She

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was shy, warm and achingly beautiful. The press adored her

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from the first photograph. The palace approved of her background,

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and Charles, now thirty two and under enormous pressure to marry,

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found her charming and sweet. But what Charles felt for

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Diana was not what he had felt for Camilla. He

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cared for her, he appreciated her warmth, he did not

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want to hurt her, But it was not love, not

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the kind that sustains a marriage, which When a reporter

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asked Charles and Diana during their engagement announcement whether they

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were in love, Diana beamed and said yes immediately without hesitation.

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Charles paused, and then he said, in words that would

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echo for decades, whatever in love means, Whatever in love means.

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Diana laughed it off in that moment, nervous and young

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and perhaps not fully understanding what he had just revealed.

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But those four words told the whole story. They were

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the confession he made in plain sight to the entire world,

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and almost no one understood what they were hearing. This

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is Crown and Controversy, King Charles. Episode one, Diana's wedding

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inside Saint Paul's cathed on the morning of July twenty ninth.

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The organ music swells, the congregation rises, and Lady Diana

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Spencer begins her walk down the aisle in a dress

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that has been kept secret from the world until this

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very moment. It is ivory silk taffeta with a twenty

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five foot train, designed by David and Elizabeth Emmanuel, and

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it is magnificent. It is also slightly crumpled from the

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carriage ride, a detail that Diana will later laugh about.

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She is holding a bouquet of gardenias and white roses.

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She is walking toward a man she has known for

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less than two years. She is nineteen years old. Charles

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watches her come toward him, and by all accounts, he

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has moved. She is beautiful, she is brave, She is

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so very young. There is something in his expression in

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the photographs from this moment that is difficult to name.

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It is not the expression of a man who is indifferent,

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but it is also not the expression of a man

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who is certain. The ceremony proceeds with the full splendor

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of the Church of England. Vows are exchanged. Diana famously

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muddles Charles's names, calling him Philip, Charles, Arthur, George instead

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of Charles Philip. Charles mixes up his own vows, pledging

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her goods rather than his. The congregation smiles. The world

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watching on television smiles. It seems charming, human, endearing. What

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no one watching can see is what Diana will later

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describe in painful detail, the tension beneath the surface, the

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feeling even then, even on that day, that something was

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not right. She had already begun to suspect that Camilla

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was still in Charles's life. There had been signs she

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could not quite name yet, things she would only fully

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understand in the years to come. But on this day

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she pushes those feelings down a princess. Now she is

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living a fairy tale. The whole world says so. After

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the ceremony, the newly married Prince and Princess of Wales

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appear on the balcony at Buckingham Palace. The crowd below irrupts.

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Charles and Diana kiss once briefly, to the roar of

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a million people who have gathered in them all. It

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is one of the most famous kisses in history. The

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cameras capture it from every angle. That image will be

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printed on tea towels and commemorative plates and framed photographs

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in sitting rooms across the Commonwealth for generations. And then

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they go inside, away from the cameras, away from the crowd.

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The honeymoon takes them first to Broadlands in Hampshire, the

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estate of the late Lord Mount Batton, Charles's beloved great

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uncle and mentor, who had been assassinated by the IRA

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just two years ago earlier. It is a sentimental choice

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for Charles. For Diana, it is the beginning of a

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rude awakening. She will later describe the honeymoon as deeply lonely.

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Charles brought books with him, books filled with the philosophy

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and teachings of the thinkers he admired. He read while

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Diana sat beside him, hoping for something different from a

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new husband. He was set in his routines in ways

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she had not anticipated. He was older than her by

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thirteen years, and those years might as well have been

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a chasm. And then there were the cufflinks. Among Charles's

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personal effects on the honeymoon, Diana would later say she

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discovered cufflinks engraved with two intertwined seas, not for Charles,

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for Charles and Camilla. He had been given them as

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a gift by Camilla before the wedding, and he had

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packed them. He had brought them on his honeymoon. Diana

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confronted him. Charles did not deny the gift. He did not,

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it seems, fully understand why it was devastating. He had

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compartmentalized his life in the way he had been trained

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to do from childhood, separating duty from feeling, public from private.

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He loved Camilla, he had married Diana. In his mind,

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perhaps these were simply two different facts that could coexist.

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For Diana, they could not. She was nineteen years old,

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newly married, far from home, and she had just discovered

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that the man she had married had packed a token

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of devotion to another woman for their honeymoon. Whatever illusions

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she had carried with her to the altar began to crack.

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The fairy tale of the century was already unraveling. The

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honeymoon continued. The couple traveled to the royal yacht Britannia,

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cruising the Mediterranean. In the photographs from this leg of

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the trip, Diana looks stunning and occasionally happy. Charles looks relaxed.

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The world sees two young newlyweds enjoying the beginning of

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their life together. Behind closed doors, Diana is already struggling.

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She's crying more than she expected. Charles does not know

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how to respond to her tears. He retreats into himself,

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into his books, into his routines. Diana reaches out and

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finds distance. She is not equipped for this. Nothing in

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her upbringing, however, aristocratic, has prepared her for the emotional

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isolation of royal life. She has no one to turn to.

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The Palace does not offer counseling. The institution does not

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do feelings. Stiff upper lip, carry on, do your duty.

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These are the rules. Diana did not write them, and

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she cannot yet figure out how to survive them. Back

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in London, as the summer of nineteen eighty one gives

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way to autumn, the couple settles into Kensington Palace. They

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begin the public duties that will define their life together.

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On the surface, it is all the fairy tale the

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world expects. They are photographed at engagements across Britain and beyond.

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Diana is radiant. The press cannot get enough of her.

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Charles appears proud, but inside Kensington Palace the marriage is

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already defined by loneliness and misunderstanding. Diana wants closeness. Charles

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retreats to his private pursuits, his painting, his garden, his correspondence.

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He was raised by parents who showed love through duty

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rather than affection, and he does not know how to

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give Diana what she needs. She does not yet know

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how to tell him. Camilla Parker Bond remains on the

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edges of their life. She is part of the social

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world they both inhabit. She and Charles remain in contact.

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Diana is aware of this. It is the wound that

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will not close by the time the year nineteen eighty

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one draws to a close. The Princess of Wales is

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pregnant with their first child. The nation is overjoyed, The

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palace is relieved. The line of succession is secure. William

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will be born the following June. Charles is dutiful, He

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is present. He is also fundamentally irreparably somewhere else. The

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wedding of the century has produced a marriage of profound sadness.

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Two people who cared for each other in their own

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complicated ways, trapped together in an institution, neither of them

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fully controlled, haunted by a love that came before and

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would never quite leave. Seven hundred and fifty million people

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watch them mass. They saw the dress, and the kiss,

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and the balcony and the joy. They did not see

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the cufflinks. Next time, on Crown and Controversy, King Charles

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the fairytale curdles into open warfare, Diana's struggle with Bolimia

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becomes severe, a secret book reveals pallas secrets to the world,

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and a tape recorded phone call between Charles and Camilla

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becomes one of the most embarrassing royal scandals in modern history.

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The War of the Waleses has begun. Crown and Controversy

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is a production of Calaroga Shark Media executive producers Mark

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Francis and John McDermott. While no one truly knows what

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happens behind closed palace doors, this series uses news sources,

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00:13:56.440 --> 00:13:59.960
on the record, quotes, and some artistic license to craft

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00:14:00.080 --> 00:14:05.399
this entertainment series. Some moments have been dramatized for storytelling effect,

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00:14:06.639 --> 00:14:12.919
where appropriate character perspectives and motivations are drawn from reported accounts, interviews,

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and biographical sources. AI narration was used in the creation

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00:14:18.440 --> 00:14:21.720
of this series. To keep up with the modern day

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Royal family. Follow our podcast Palace Intrigue, a seven day

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a week, ten minute update on the Royals.