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his mistress, Camilla Parker Bowles. She said she approved and described Diana to friends as “a mouse.” In a letter to a friend, Charles wrote: “It is just a matter of taking an unusual plunge into some rather unknown circumstances that inevitably disturbs me, but I expect it will be the right thing in the end…. It all seems so ridiculous because I do very much want to do the right thing for this Country and for my family—but I’m terrified sometimes of making a promise and then perhaps living to regret it.” Years later he blamed his father for forcing him into a marriage that he was reluctant to embrace.

Yet despite his doubts, he proposed on February 6, 1981, in his third-floor quarters at Buckingham Palace over dinner for two. Diana accepted eagerly, and he apologized for not having a ring to give her. A few days later he contacted Garrard’s, the Crown jewelers, who arrived with several black velvet trays filled with rings. Diana chose a six-carat sapphire surrounded by eighteen diamonds. Price: $50,000. “The Queen’s eyes popped when I picked out the largest one,” she said, giggling, “but I love it.”

The engagement of the Prince of Wales to Lady Diana Spencer was officially announced on February 24, 1981. “I couldn’t have married anyone the British people wouldn’t have liked,” said Charles. Most of the country joined the royal family in rejoicing. But Diana’s mother, Frances Shand Kydd, was afraid for her daughter.

“I cried for six weeks after that,” she admitted to a relative. “I had a terrible feeling about what was going to happen to Diana when she married into that family.”

THIRTEEN

The prize for best performance in a supporting role should go to Lady Diana Spencer’s gown—bold, black, and strapless.

When Diana wore it—barely—to London’s Goldsmith Hall in 1981, she—and the gown—drew gasps. It was her first public appearance with Prince Charles since they’d become engaged, and the press pounced on them like condors on carrion. Flashbulbs popped and hydra-headed microphones closed in.

As the couple swept into the Royal Opera benefit, the BBC commentator stuttered as he tried to describe the eye-popping dress. He stumbled on the word “décolletage” and struggled not to look at Diana’s cleavage. Spilling out of her low-cut gown, she smiled shyly. Off-camera, the BBC man whispered, “Now there’s a bosom built to burp a nation.” An American reporter whistled softly and quoted Raymond Chandler in Farewell, My Lovely: “It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window.”

Diana had carefully selected her dress for the evening. The black taffeta confection, which sold for $1,000, was given to her by the designers David and Elizabeth Emanuel, who were making her wedding dress. She told them she needed to look “drop dead gorgeous” because she was meeting her movie star idol, Grace Kelly, at the benefit and dining with her later at Buckingham Palace. Diana did not realize that Her Serene Highness had probably been invited to the Palace only because she was performing for charity.

The Queen of England still considered the Princess of Monaco a bit of Hollywood fluff, who had married a poseur from a tiny principality. Her Majesty was not moved by the enthusiasm of her husband, Prince Philip, for the beautiful blond American, who also had been a favorite of Lord Mountbatten’s. When Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier in 1956, the Queen declined to attend their wedding. “Too many film stars,” she had said. As far as she was concerned, the Rainiers did not count as royalty, although Prince Rainier had reigned longer* than any crowned head in Europe.

“Her Majesty can be stuffy about that sort of thing,” admitted one of her ladies-in-waiting. “Too many jewels, fur coats, and fast cars. Jet-setters, you know. Prince Philip, on the other hand, does not feel that way, particularly if the wife is pretty.”

Diana, too, was fascinated by the former film star and sat spellbound through her poetry reading at the benefit. After the hour-long recital, Diana walked into the press reception rubbing her side.