Skip to main content

 Princess Diana was beloved by the entire world. But the one person she wanted to love her — her husband, Prince Charles — never felt anything but mild disinterest and jealousy.

Eventually, their disastrous relationship became so terrible that Queen Elizabeth urged them to divorce and making a spectacle of themselves.

Even before the Prince and Princess of Wales formally split up, both were carrying on not-so-secret affairs that almost everyone knew about. One man (Hasnat Khan) is even thought to be the real love of Princess Diana’s life, though to this day he refuses to speak much about it.

But if Princess Diana was young, beautiful, rich, and looking for love, then why didn’t she ever get married again?

Princess Diana
Princess Diana | Georges De Keerle/Getty Images

Prince Charles and Princess Diana had a disastrous relationship

It was only five years after their fairytale royal wedding that Princess Diana and Prince Charles started experiencing real problems in their marriage. That’s around the time that Prince Charles allegedly started seeing his former lover, Camilla Parker Bowles, and when Princess Diana began an affair with royal riding instructor James Hewitt.

The Prince and Princess of Wales
The Prince and Princess of Wales | Terry Fincher/Princess Diana Archive/Getty Images

The next few years were filled with drama, accusations, fighting, and multiple affairs, but despite these realities, Princess Diana and Prince Charles stayed legally married. After recordings of a raunchy phone call between Prince Charles and Camilla leaked to the press in 1992, the pair formally separated.

But separated wasn’t the same as being divorced. Even though the separation allowed the couple to engage in other relationships more freely, it still didn’t leave Prince Charles or Princess Diana free to marry anyone else.

The couple formally divorced in 1996

It wasn’t until the legendary Panorama interview with Martin Bashir in 1995 that things really took a turn. Before then, many royal fans believed Prince Charles and Princess Diana would simply continue life married yet separated indefinitely. But after spilling the royal tea on the Prince of Wales carrying on with Camilla, the queen intervened and begged the couple to formally cut ties.

Prince Charles and Princess Diana
Prince Charles and Princess Diana | Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images

Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s divorce was finalized in August 1996, just one year before Princess Diana lost her life in a tragic Paris car crash. And that’s a huge part of the reason she never got remarried.

Princess Diana would have probably married again

There are still rumors that Dodi Fayed, Princess Diana’s billionaire boyfriend who was killed alongside her in the 1997 accident, was planning to propose to his 36-year-old girlfriend Princess Diana. His father claims Fayed had even purchased the ring. But he never got the chance to ask her.

Princess Diana
Princess Diana | Michel Dufour/WireImage

Even though she went through a terrible time in her marriage with Prince Charles, Princess Diana was a hopeless romantic at heart and still believed in love. And even if she wasn’t rushing into another marriage, it’s reasonable to believe that she would have married again eventually.

Prince Charles waited decades to make his relationship with Camilla official. The two wed in 2005, though by that point the ceremony was mostly a formality. The two remain just as close as ever.

It’s uplifting to think that Princess Diana would have found true love and happiness just like her ex-husband and two sons did.