The toll Charles and Diana’s ‘wedding of the century’ took on the ailing princess: 44 years on, this is the troubling truth about why Diana felt like a ‘lamb to the slaughter’ – and her saddening bulimia fit just before

The night before the ‘wedding of the century’, Princess Diana spent a quiet evening with her sisters and bridal party at Clarence House. 

The young bride-to-be had only recently turned 20 and admitted to journalist Andrew Morton ten years later that she ‘had a very bad fit of bulimia the night before’.

Between 1991 and 1992, Diana recorded tapes for Morton, which were the main source of his best-selling authorised biography, Diana: Her True Story.

In the tapes, Diana tells how her public persona was often very different to her real personality. 

‘I ate everything I could possibly find, which amused my sister, and nobody understood what was going on there,’ said Diana.

‘It was very hush-hush. I was as sick as a parrot that night. It was such an indication of what was going on.’ 

In another room, the Queen Mother and Lady Fermoy, Diana’s grandmother, watched Dad’s Army on TV. 

Diana found it hard to sleep and went downstairs, where ‘Backstairs Billy’, the Queen Mother’s Steward, William Tallon, gave her a glass of orange juice. 

Then she spotted his bicycle, leapt on it and cycled around in circles, ringing the bell and singing: ‘I’m going to marry the Prince of Wales tomorrow!

And then came the morning. 

‘I was very, very calm, deathly calm,’ said Diana.

‘I felt I was a lamb to the slaughter. I knew it and couldn’t do anything about it. My last night of freedom was with Jane at Clarence House.’

On July 29, 1981, 44 years ago to this day, Diana married Charles at St Paul’s Cathedral in front of 3,500 guests.

A record-breaking 750million people in 74 countries across the globe tuned in to watch the event on television.

‘I remember being so in love with my husband that I couldn’t take my eyes off him,’ Diana said.

‘He was going to look after me. Well, was I wrong on that assumption?

‘I realised I had taken on an enormous role but had no idea what I was going into – but no idea.’

Charles and Diana had announced their engagement five months prior to the wedding, on February 24, 1981, with an exclusive interview. 

The Prince told the BBC that he was ‘delighted and frankly amazed’ that Diana was ‘prepared’ to take him on.

However, he upset his future wife when he was asked if they were in love. Diana replied, ‘Of course,’ while Charles quipped, ‘Whatever in love means’ – a comment she was believed to find ‘traumatising’.

During the discussion, Diana debuted her £47,000 engagement ring from luxury jeweller Garrard.

It was a 12-carat oval blue Ceylon sapphire, surrounded by 14 diamonds, set in 18-carat white gold.

Diana’s dress featured a substantial skirt complete with a record-breaking 25ft-train and frothy folds of silk taffeta fit for a fairytale.  

To make sure it would fit down the aisle, wedding dress designers Elizabeth and David Emanuel secretly measured St Paul’s Cathedral with a tape measure. 

During the couple’s five-month engagement, Diana’s waist has shrunk from 29in to 23½in and her dress has been taken in five times. 

She attended around 15 fittings and required five bodices to accommodate her rapid weight loss.

In addition to being sewn into the gown after losing more weight ahead of her wedding, Diana accidentally spilt perfume on her dress just hours before walking down the aisle, which she hid by holding that part of the gown.

‘That dress!’ BBC presenter Tom Fleming exclaimed as the soon-to-be princess smoothed the dress around her. 

‘What a dream she looks,’ commentator Angela Rippon added while noting Diana’s tiny waist.

According to journalist Penny Junor’s book, The Duchess: The Untold Story, Charles sent Diana a signet ring that bore his Prince of Wales feathers, accompanied by a note that read: ‘I am so proud of you and when you come up, I’ll be there at the altar for you tomorrow. Just look ’em in the eye and knock them dead.’

However, Diana’s personal astrologer, Penny Thornton, claimed in an ITV documentary that the royal also had a devastating confession for his bride.

‘One of the most shocking things that Diana told me was that the night before the wedding, Charles told her that he didn’t love her,’ Thornton claimed. 

‘I think Charles didn’t want to go into the wedding on a false premise. He wanted to square it with her and it was devastating for Diana.’ 

In 2020, speaking in Channel 5’s documentary, Charles & Camilla: King and Queen in Waiting, former BBC royal reporter Jennie Bond said Diana confided to her about her doubts on her big day.

Bond, who grew close to Princess Diana while working as a royal correspondent from 1989 to 2003, revealed the fairytale appearance of the 1981 royal wedding was very different behind closed doors. 

She said: ‘Diana told me much later in one of our private conversations that she had felt like a lamb to the slaughter as she walked up the aisle, which is very sad, but I think she knew that things weren’t quite right.

‘When she saw Camilla in the congregation, she was immediately uneasy about it.’

Bond added that Diana found a bracelet that Prince Charles had given Camilla during their engagement, which he had engraved with her initials.

‘She was enraged by it, and she wanted to know why he had gifted this to Camilla’.

Charles even wore a set of personalised cufflinks, which read C & C, for Charles and Camilla, on the couple’s honeymoon.

By 1986, both were having extramarital affairs. While Charles was seeing Camilla, the love of his life, Diana was having a dalliance with Army officer Captain James Hewitt. 

In 1992, Prime Minister John Major announced the couple were to separate, but continue living together at Kensington Palace. 

Two years after their separation, Charles would admit to his infidelity on national TV, on the same night that Diana wore the outfit later dubbed the ‘Revenge Dress‘.  

In August 1996, their divorce was finalised, and they continued to co-parent their sons until Diana’s tragic death in a car crash in Paris one year later.

It was not until 1999 that Charles and Camilla felt able to ‘come out’ as a couple. 

They did so by allowing a photo to be taken of them as they left the Ritz hotel in London, having attended a 50th birthday party. 

It would take a further six years before they could marry, and that ceremony was nowhere near as lavish or high-profile as Charles and Diana’s nuptials. 

In 2005, Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles at Windsor Guildhall.

Charles and Camilla – who had both been divorced – opted for a civil ceremony which was followed by a religious blessing.

The couple’s wedding ceremony was attended by their children from their previous marriages – Prince William, Prince Harry, Laura Lopes and Tom Parker Bowles.

Unlike Charles’ first wedding, the couple’s civil ceremony was kept private. 

Buckingham Palace announced that there would be no music or readings featured in the order of service.

After the ceremony, the royal newlyweds took the time to greet royal fans who had gathered on the streets of Windsor to celebrate their marriage.