King Charles Changed Forever After Princess Diana's Death

This article includes references to substance abuse.

Looking back on King Charles' life, it seems as though his marriage to Princess Diana was just a fever dream. The two first met in the late 1970s when Charles was dating then-Lady Diana Spencer's older sister, Sarah Spencer. While sparks didn't immediately fly due to the circumstances, Charles and Diana reconnected in 1980, and their romance blossomed from there. They'd go on to tie the knot in 1981, and they welcomed two sons — Prince William in 1982 and Prince Harry in 1984 — about a decade before things really went south. Charles and Diana ended their marriage in 1992 due to unhappiness, incompatibility, and extramarital affairs. Their divorce was finalized in 1996.

No one could have predicted what would happen next. While in Paris, Princess Diana was involved in a car wreck while being pursued by paparazzi. The Mercedes-Benz she was riding in was totaled inside the Pont de l'Alma tunnel on August 31, 1997, and she was pronounced dead at the hospital shortly after, along with her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, and driver Henri Paul. "The public response to Diana's death has been equally quite remarkable and indeed in many ways overwhelming. And I think many of you will know from the experience of family loss in your own lives, it is inevitably very difficult to cope with grief at any time, but perhaps you might realize that it is even harder when the whole world is watching at the same time," the then-Prince of Wales said in a press conference nearly three weeks after Diana's tragic death.

Though Diana has been gone for nearly three decades, it's clear that Charles' life has been forever changed by that moment frozen in time. In fact, he's never been the same.

Perhaps the biggest way that King Charles' life changed following the sudden death of Princess Diana was how he became a single father in the blink of an eye. Raising kids during some of their most formative years of life isn't always easy, but it has to be especially challenging when said children have gone through something traumatic, like losing a parent. Naturally, Charles had plenty of help with his two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, who were 15 and 12 respectively when they lost their mom, though he was very hands-on with them, often taking them on trips, from family time in Balmoral to ski trips in Switzerland.

While Charles did the best he could, his son Harry has said that his dad wasn't cut out to be a single parent. The comment came during an interview with ITV's Tom Bradby in 2023. "I never want to be in that position, part of the reason why we are here now," Harry told Bradby via Newsweek. "I never, ever want to be in that position. I don't want history to repeat itself. I do not want to be a single dad. And I certainly don't want my children to have a life without a mother or a father."

Following Princess Diana's death, Prince Charles sprang into action. Although he and Diana were divorced, it was Charles who traveled to France to collect Diana's body alongside her two sisters, Lady Jane Fellowes and Lady Sarah McCorquodale. According to The New York Times, Diana's body was transported in a "simple wooden coffin" that was "wrapped in the royal standard" and boarded onto a royal aircraft for the trip back to the U.K. Royal watchers were surprised to see Charles step up in such a way, given that his marriage to Diana was over. However, many have made peace with Charles' involvement due to the fact that the former couple shared two children together, regardless of what else happened between them.

In addition to arranging some of the proceedings for Diana's return to the U.K. and her funeral service, Charles also had to do the unthinkable. He had to tell his two sons that their mother had died. At the time, the boys were at Balmoral for summer vacation. Years later, Prince Harry recalled that difficult conversation. "One of the hardest things for a parent to have to do is to tell your children that your other parent has died," Harry said on the BBC documentary titled "Diana, 7 Days," which came out in 2017 via Today. "How you deal with that? I don't know. But you know, he was there for us. He was the one out of two left, and he tried to do his best and to make sure that we were protected and looked after. But ... he was going through the same grieving process as well."

King Charles went above and beyond to ensure that his ex-wife received an appropriate funeral — she was the People's Princess, after all. There have been rumors that Queen Elizabeth was against Charles flying Diana back to London on a royal flight and that she wanted a private funeral for her former daughter-in-law, but that Charles went against his mother's wishes to honor the mother of his own children, regardless of their complicated past. 

In the documentary "Diana, 7 Days," journalist Richard Kay said that some of Charles' plans for his ex-wife didn't make the queen happy. "This was a surprising and brave move," Kay said of Charles' decision to use the royal flight to transport Diana's body, according to the Mirror. "He was an ex-husband, he had no right to be there other than as the father of her sons. Charles wanted to take the royal flight to Paris, but the Queen wouldn't allow it. Charles fought harder for Diana than he had ever fought for her in her lifetime," Kay added. 

There was also a report that Queen Elizabeth wanted Diana's funeral to be private — and that she didn't want Diana's body in any royal palace — but Buckingham Palace dismissed the chatter as "just mischief making," according to The New York Times. Regardless of what happened or didn't happen between Charles and his mother, Diana's funeral took place on September 6, 1997, at Westminster Abbey. More than 2,000 people attended the ceremony, which was also televised. According to People, more than 2 billion people tuned in to watch the proceedings worldwide.

It's safe to say that King Charles' reputation declined following his divorce from Princess Diana. It seems as though things really went downhill after Diana's interview with Martin Bashir on "Panorama" in 1995. At the time, Lady Di delivered one of her most famous lines, saying, "There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded," referring to her ex-husband's affair with Camilla Parker Bowles (via PBS). Things didn't get any better for Charles when the palace confirmed that he and Diana were ending their marriage.

It only makes sense that the public's distaste for Charles worsened after Diana died. In fact, many people blamed Charles for Diana's demise, especially after hearing that Diana had written a note that suggested that Charles was "planning 'an accident'" that involved her car. In an interview with the Daily Mail, former head of Scotland Yard John Stevens said that there was an investigation into Charles' potential involvement in the accident that took Diana's life. "Yes, allegations had been made about the Prince of Wales and other royals, but we had to find or examine the [existing] evidence before we approached him with formal questions," Stevens told the outlet. "We found no other evidence to support the scenario suggested in Diana's note." 

This did nothing to help Charles regain any respect from the public, many of whom had already made up their mind about him.

King Charles was raised to be the next king of England following the reign of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. Being a part of the royal family has shaped how Charles has lived his life and how he brought up his sons, but no one could have prepared him for his ex-wife's death and the aftermath. Aside from being a single parent, Charles faced these additional challenges when it came to his kids living with the trauma of losing their mom — something both boys seemed to handle very well, all things considered.

In his first public address following Princess Diana's death, Charles praised Prince William and Prince Harry for how they'd been handling the unimaginable circumstances. "I am unbelievably proud of William and Harry, they have been quite remarkable and I think they have handled an extraordinarily difficult time as I am sure all of you can imagine with quite enormous courage and the greatest possible dignity. They are coping extraordinarily well, but obviously Diana's loss and death has been an enormous loss as far as they are concerned, and they will always feel that loss," Charles said in September 1997, according to the Associated Press.

One thing that often seems glossed over when it comes to Princess Diana's death is that King Charles was absolutely gutted. Yes, Diana was his ex-wife, but as the mother of his children and a woman who was so beloved by people all over the world, it was undoubtedly a blow. Moreover, he was well aware of the public's opinion of him, and sources say he was expecting to be blamed for what happened on that fateful night. "He was absolutely distraught. He fell apart. He knew, instantly, that this was going to be a terrible thing, that ... he will be blamed, that they will be blamed, for the death of Diana," author Tina Brown wrote in her book, "The Diana Chronicles," according to Town & Country magazine.

Moreover, the whole situation really irked Charles, who felt "unbearable emptiness" after Diana died, according to a letter he sent to Peter Houghton months later. In the handwritten, three-page note that was auctioned off in 2024, Charles wrote that he struggled with "bewilderment and confusion that accompanies the removal of someone so young from the world," according to the Daily Mail. It is, perhaps, the best piece of evidence that Charles was deeply affected by Diana's death to a degree that was never shown to the public. The royal family is known to keep their emotions in check, after all.

King Charles had a lot of things fall into his lap at the same time when Princess Diana died. And while he may have put on a strong front for the public, royal experts have surmised that Charles was truly carrying a heavy weight far greater than what anyone realized. "I think by the end of Diana's journey, I see [Charles] as grief-stricken," royal expert Matt Robins told Us Weekly in 2021. "I see him as somebody who carried an enormous burden through her death and her funeral, somebody [who] has to make impossible decisions," he added. What's perhaps even more interesting is that Robins noted that Charles' demeanor seemed to change a bit, albeit slightly. 

Charles showed "this willingness to be slightly more emotional and language ... slightly more personal in behavior, you know, that the idea that the Queen and the family would talk about themselves in a way that they hadn't before would be relatable to you and me in ways that they hadn't before," Robins told the outlet. In some ways, Charles was softened by the tragedy, which could arguably be the biggest change he experienced throughout his life.

After ending his marriage to Princess Diana, King Charles was ready to embark on his next journey, and he was, for lack of a better term, excited to introduce the world to the woman he truly loved: Camilla Parker Bowles. The timing for his happily ever after was delayed, however, due to Diana's death. As the story goes, Charles was expected to officially go public with Camilla at his 50th birthday party in November 1997, but no such thing happened, according to The Guardian. He was said to have abandoned those plans out of respect for his kids and his ex-wife, as it was too soon after Diana's death.

In the months that followed, Charles slowly brought Camilla into the fold, introducing her to his sons first. "Yes, Prince William and Mrs. Parker Bowles have met," a spokeswoman for the Prince of Wales said in July 1998, according to The Guardian. "Meetings between the children and Mrs. Parker Bowles are a private family matter, which we are not prepared to discuss, and we hope for their sakes, the media will now leave this very personal matter alone," the spokeswoman added.

Charles married Camilla on April 9, 2005. On May 6, 2023, Camilla was crowned queen after the coronation of King Charles III.

As Prince William and Prince Harry got older, some things got even more challenging when it came to parenting. As the future face of the monarchy, King Charles had to uphold a certain demeanor, and he held his two sons to the same standards. And while William was relatively respectful of the royal way of life, Harry definitely pushed the envelope. Harry was known as the wild child and was starting to experiment with different things, including drugs and alcohol, which he wrote about in his memoir, "Spare." Once his father got wind of his actions, Harry learned some valuable lessons.

According to The Independent, King Charles sent Harry to Featherstone Lodge Rehabilitation Centre in Peckham, South London. "The visit was at the request of the Prince of Wales, who is our patron," Bill Puddicombe, the chief executive of Phoenix House Treatment Service for Drug Dependency, told the outlet. "Prince Harry came for a couple of hours on a day in late summer and talked to several people in recovery, heroin and cocaine addicts mostly. They told him what had happened in their lives, which must have been quite harrowing for him."

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8, 2022, which meant that her son would become king. Plans for a coronation quickly got underway and King Charles was officially introduced to the world on May 6, 2023. For most people, this was the first time watching a coronation and witnessing the sort of changing of the guard, so to speak. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there was plenty of negative chatter surrounding the newly crowned king, with many past grievances brought to light on that historic day.

According to Business Insider, it seems as though longtime Princess Diana fans came out of the woodwork to bash Charles and his wife, Camilla, who was crowned queen the same day, with all sorts of negativity popping up on social media. Most royal watchers made it clear that they felt as though Diana should have been queen, and many let it be known that they didn't approve of Camilla, nor did they really care for Charles, given his colorful past.

"There are always going to be people who love Diana — that's not going to change," Grant Harrold, Charles' former butler, told Insider. "In reality, how many people in this country have affairs? How many marriages break down?" he continued, adding, "It's tricky when people judge and point fingers, but I don't think people should judge others ... It's their private life, things happened whether right or wrong. But it was the right decision for all of them and we have to close the door on it."

As the years pass by, one might think that people would find some grace in their hearts for King Charles, but the truth is, people still don't care for the guy. When Netflix released "The Crown," it seemed to open up old wounds. Despite the differences in the show in relation to the reality of how things transpired, Charles definitely got a lot of hate in the wake of any episode that portrayed his likeness.

The utter disdain for King Charles was never more evident than after his cancer diagnosis in February 2024. Following Buckingham Palace's announcement, the feedback from the public was incredibly surprising at times, with some people wishing the worst possible outcome for the father of two. In fact, a Reddit thread with more than 300 comments shows just how much people really haven't forgiven or forgotten the past.

"Not saying he deserves cancer at all, but he's objectively not a very likeable human," one Reddit comment read. "We hate how he treated Diana. We all know he should never have married her in the first place but that's no excuse for treating her like s***," another Redditor wrote. "He is a narcissistic spoiled man child who only cared about what he wanted & to be king enough to consistently s*** on his own mother," a third Reddit user added.