If Diana had been older

LouisFerdinand · July 06, 2019, 01:37:26 AM

Princess Diana was a young twenty when she wed Prince Charles in 1981. Do you think that if she had been older, perhaps 25, would she and Charles have gotten along better?

TLLK · July 06, 2019, 01:41:46 AM

No, I believe that Diana would have likely had another romantic relationship by then and more experience with dating. Also I believe that she would have quickly realized that she and Charles were simply not compatible in the long term. As a couple, they both had very different interests and little in common so they would have probably not dated for long.

Curryong · July 06, 2019, 04:56:25 AM

Quote from: LouisFerdinand on July 06, 2019, 01:37:26 AM
Princess Diana was a young twenty when she wed Prince Charles in 1981. Do you think that if she had been older, perhaps 25, would she and Charles have gotten along better?

No I don't. They were practically different generations in outlook anyway, and a Charles who married in his late thirties would have been even more fixed in his ways. Diana might have had a boyfriend or three by twenty five and I think she would have been married anyway by that age. The Spencer women had a tendency to marry young.

And even if she wasn't I think Diana would have had the life experience by then to know that she and Charles had nothing in common and that Charles had a long term mistress anyway, hardly pointers to a happy union.

Mike · July 06, 2019, 05:16:50 AM

If a slightly older Diana had a few boyfriends in her past, wouldn't the Queen have eliminated her as Princess material?

Curryong · July 06, 2019, 05:36:56 AM

^ Not if Diana hadn't lived with them and they had kept their mouths shut. After all Diana's sister Sarah had had boyfriends, so had Anna Wallace and others. It was only considered desirable that Charles's bride not have a past after Davina's ex spilled the beans.

amabel · July 06, 2019, 12:57:46 PM

Quote from: Curryong on July 06, 2019, 05:36:56 AM
^ Not if Diana hadn't lived with them and they had kept their mouths shut. After all Diana's sister Sarah had had boyfriends, so had Anna Wallace and others. It was only considered desirable that Charles's bride not have a past after Davina's ex spilled the beans.

I don't think so. I think it was expected that any of Charles' girlfirends who were serious contenders for marriage should be virgins or at least had ultra discreet love lives.. and if they had had a boyfriend or 2 whom they had had a sexual relationship with, that these men should NOT TALK. But times were changing in the 70s and people were more tempted by "talking to the press". So in going for a young girl who had had no serious boyfriends, Charles was playing safe...
I don't think Di would have been single all that long.. she would have married earlry as she had no career interests and longed for the security of marriage and a family...but I think she would have "kept herself tidy"..

sandy · July 06, 2019, 03:00:04 PM

Charles' prospects prior to DIana turned him down. Amanda turned Charles down when he proposed. Anna would not tolerate Camilla and walked away from the relationship.

amabel · July 07, 2019, 09:47:44 AM

Quote from: sandy on July 06, 2019, 03:00:04 PM
Charles' prospects prior to DIana turned him down. Amanda turned Charles down when he proposed. Anna would not tolerate Camilla and walked away from the relationship.

Amanda wasn't interested in being Princess of Wales. Anna was never IMO proposed to by him. I think he was in love with her but it was just an affair. So, if Charles had no other prospects but Diana it seems odd that she wasn't aware of his affair with Camila and turend him down too

sandy · July 07, 2019, 02:03:36 PM

He was besotted with Anna according to all accounts. One writer said he wanted her back and tried to persuade her to start seeing him again. There was no proposal but he seemed serious about her. She ditched him. He did not sneak around with Anna, she was a contender and seen by the media as Charles' girlfriend not just an "affair."

He proposed to Amanda (some say twice) and she turned him down. Without her grandfather urging her to marry him, she had no use for a marriage with Charles.

Diana was much younger than Charles and not in his "set" until they started dating. He presented Camilla to her as a safe married friend a married woman with a husband and young children hosting Diana for weekends. Camilla showed her hand to Amanda by being very attentive to CHarles at that party where Amanda walked out on Charles.

amabel · July 07, 2019, 02:09:26 PM

I've never heard of "Amanda walking out on Charles". I thought that while he liked her and she liked him, she had no interest in a public life particularly after Mountbatten's death and she and Charles just were not very much attracted to each other.. but he was willing to consider marrying her because he had reached an age wehre he felt he ought to get married. He asked her, and she said no. No mention of Camilla, as far as I know.
As for Anna, I think that Charles was infatuated but he was not careful of her reputation.. as he was reputedly almost caught making out iwht her - so I think if he had considered proposing to her, he would have treated her carefully as he did with Diana.. and ensured that there was nothing "improper" that might become public...

sandy · July 07, 2019, 02:28:32 PM

I meant Anna not Amanda. Amanda quietly said no to his proposals and that was that. CHarles did say he was attracted to Amanda and in a letter that became public wrote to Mountbatten about how Amanda was "disturbingly beautiful." I think Charles would have gone through a marriage with Amanda but apparently she did not care enough for him to commit to a marriage.

Anna stormed out of the party and was heard saying nobody treats me like that not even you.

amabel · July 07, 2019, 03:03:20 PM

I tink he found her reasonably attractive or he would hardly have made a proposal.. but all the same I think he was pretty lukewarm. And Amanda wanted a private life.. not to be PRincess Of Wales.. so she said no.

TLLK · July 07, 2019, 03:56:08 PM

QuoteI don't think Di would have been single all that long.. she would have married earlry as she had no career interests and longed for the security of marriage and a family...but I think she would have "kept herself tidy"..

No I could see Diana being married before she was thirty to someone who would provide her with the security and family that she longed for in her life.

amabel · July 07, 2019, 04:03:40 PM

Quote from: TLLK on July 07, 2019, 03:56:08 PM
No I could see Diana being married before she was thirty to someone who would provide her with the security and family that she longed for in her life.

I woud say well before she was 30... I'd say early 20s

sandy · July 07, 2019, 05:15:04 PM

Quote from: amabel on July 07, 2019, 03:03:20 PM
I tink he found her reasonably attractive or he would hardly have made a proposal.. but all the same I think he was pretty lukewarm. And Amanda wanted a private life.. not to be PRincess Of Wales.. so she said no.

CHarles was grief stricken about his "honorary"grandfather and great uncle Probably emotions ruled and he wanted to posthumously follow his great Uncle's wishes by proposing to Amanda. Amanda loved her grandfather but certainly would not marry Charles even though her grandfather wanted her to. THat said. I think had Mountbatten lived, Amanda just might have been persuaded.

TLLK · July 07, 2019, 07:00:34 PM

Quote from: amabel on July 07, 2019, 04:03:40 PM
I woud say well before she was 30... I'd say early 20s

Yes early twenties makes more sense. Diana was unlikely to have a high paying job that would be taking up her time, so she'd likely want to marry early.

dianab · July 08, 2019, 10:14:31 PM

Quote from: LouisFerdinand on July 06, 2019, 01:37:26 AM
Princess Diana was a young twenty when she wed Prince Charles in 1981. Do you think that if she had been older, perhaps 25, would she and Charles have gotten along better?

No. from the men she got involved after charles says me she was attracted to a very different type of men than charles is. at 25, she will not anymore having fantasies about prince charles imo... i think men like charles will turn her off.

LouisFerdinand · July 09, 2019, 01:22:18 AM

Do you think that Diana would have married the heir to an aristocratic title?

Princess Cassandra · July 09, 2019, 03:48:51 AM

I don't think so. Her age was only one of the factors that caused the failure of their relationship and marriage.

sandy · July 09, 2019, 02:53:44 PM

Unfortunately, I think it was because Charles could not commit 100 percent to Diana and admitted later he preferred his mistress.

LouisFerdinand · July 10, 2019, 01:11:10 AM

Quote from: sandy on July 09, 2019, 02:53:44 PM
Unfortunately, I think it was because Charles could not commit 100 percent to Diana and admitted later he preferred his mistress.

If there had been no mistress, could the marriage of Charles and an older Diana have worked?

amabel · July 10, 2019, 12:52:22 PM

Quote from: Princess Cassandra on July 09, 2019, 03:48:51 AM
I don't think so. Her age was only one of the factors that caused the failure of their relationship and marriage.

why wold htat mean she woudnt marry the heir to a title? Those were the sort of men she was likely to meet.. chaps who were doing a spell "in the city" or the army.. and some of them would be expecting in a few years to go back to the family estate and help to run it. Why would diana not go for a man like that with wealth, a title and his own estate.... unless it was the issue of country living and her not liking it much.. and if she married a man who was heir to an estate he might want to live mainly in the country

sandy · July 10, 2019, 01:43:01 PM

Quote from: LouisFerdinand on July 10, 2019, 01:11:10 AM

If there had been no mistress, could the marriage of Charles and an older Diana have worked?

I think they could have worked things out. Camilla's presence IMO was poisonous more so than if Charles after a few years decided to have one night stands and cheat. Camilla was in the marriage from the get go and was going nowhere.

amabel · July 10, 2019, 03:45:25 PM

But if Diana was older, surely she would not have been na?ve enough to marry Charles.. or might have already married someone else if she had been out dating for a few years...

sandy · July 10, 2019, 11:19:25 PM

If she turned him down, Charles would have to look further on the list of eligible women, and they probably would get younger and younger as the years went by