戴安娜王妃的故事-第二章童话般的婚礼

Chapter 2 A Fairytale Wedding
Prince Charles was taking a long time to choose a wife. He was already 32. He always had plenty of girlfriends - Diana's sister, Sarah, was once his girlfriend. But he couldn't decide who to marry. Charles was the future king of Britain, so he had to choose well.

Not every beautiful woman makes a good queen. Life in the Royal Family can be very hard - 'the royals' spend a lot of time in public. She must also be a girl from a good family, and Charles must be her first lover.

In February 1981, the news finally came out that Prince Charles was getting married - to Lady Diana Spencer. The photos in the newspapers showed a pretty, quiet girl with a sweet smile, and the reporters soon began to call her 'Shy Di'.

Diana was the first English girl to marry a Prince of Wales for 500 years.  And in private, Prince Charles said that the Spencers were 'more royal than the royals'!  It seemed that Diana and Charles were perfect together. People in Britain began to look forward to a fairytale wedding.

Diana grew up with the Royal Family, but for a long time she didn't really know Charles. There are a lot of families in the royal circle, and also Charles was 12 years older than her. He was already a young man when she was still a child. But when Diana was 16, they met at a country house party. She was only a schoolgirl, and Charles was more interested in his dog and his sport than in her. But from that time, Diana put a photo of Charles by her bed.

They met at a few more parties, but it was only in July 1980 that Charles began to look at Diana with new eyes. They were both staying with friends in the country. In the evening, Diana sat next to Charles outside in the garden.

She was telling him that she saw him at a funeral a year earlier. 'You looked so sad,' she said. 'I thought, "it's wrong that you're alone - you need someone to look after you. "'

Charles's heart opened to her, and from then on he was seriously interested in her. He asked her out for an evening of music, with supper later at Buckingham Palace. But he didn't give Diana much time - she only had 20 minutes to wash her hair and get ready!

'Maybe you'll be the next Queen of England!' a friend told her. Diana only laughed.

Then Charles asked her to go to Balmoral for the Braemar Games, the Scottish sports which happen every September. Diana's sister Jane was now married to Robert Fellows, the Queen's personal secretary.

They had a small house in the Royal Park at Balmoral, and Diana stayed there with her sister and husband. Prince Charles phoned her every day, and they went for walks together. Until then, no one guessed that the prince had a new girlfriend. But, one day, Charles and Diana were fishing down by the River Dee. Suddenly they noticed someone on the other side of the river.

It was a reporter from a newspaper looking for royal news. Diana quickly ran to hide behind some trees, and used a mirror from her handbag to watch him. Two other photographers hurried to the same place by the river. They were all very excited, trying to see this new woman in Charles's life. Diana escaped from them that day. But soon the reporters knew her name, and it was in all the newspapers.

Now her life began to change. The public wanted to know all about her, and paparazzi followed her everywhere. They followed her in her little red Mini-Metro car. They phoned her in the middle of the night and waited for her outside the Young England School. Even when she agreed to a photograph, they still made trouble. The light was shining behind her skirt and showed all of her long beautiful legs!

It was a very difficult time for a shy young girl, and the royal family didn't help her. Even Charles was not amused by the photograph. Diana began to understand that even famous and popular people can be very much alone.

When Prince Charles finally asked her to marry him in February 1981, she agreed. She arrived back at her flat very happy that night. Her friends were waiting for her. They knew that it was something special!

Diana said, "I've got news for you - but I must go to the toilet first!"

So they all knocked on the toilet door until she told them!

"I'm going to marry Prince Charles!" she called out, half laughing and half crying.

He gave her a beautiful blue ring, and they were ready now for the photographs, the television recordings and the public appearances. Several times they had to answer the question, 'Are you in love?'

'Of course!' answered Diana.

But Charles was not so sure. His answer always seemed to be, 'Yes - but what does that mean?'

To the public, it was real love. It was exciting news for Britain.

Here was a fairytale prince and princess, bringing new color and life into the Royal Family. Diana now moved into Clarence House, the Queen Mother's home, and was safer there from the reporters.

Everyone was getting ready for the wedding - over 10,000 presents arrived for Charles and Diana! She chose a young husband and wife, David and Elizabeth Emanuel, to make her wedding dress.

'She made coffee for us,' they remembered. 'Here was the future Princess of Wales, and we were students not so long ago. It was quite a surprise.' But not everything was perfect. At the center of the fairytale, there was a black shadow.

when Charles asked Diana to marry him, something strange happened. She suddenly felt deep inside that she would never be Queen. She also knew that she would have a difficult job as Charles's wife. This did not stop her. But, just before the wedding, she became seriously worried. She suddenly understood that Charles's old girlfriend Camilla Parker-Bowles, was still very important to him. Diana found a present from Charles to Camilla, and he often telephoned her.

Did Charles really love her, or was he still in love with Camilla?

And Diana was no longer free. The happy days in her flat with her friends, and at work with the little children, were all gone. The 'royal machine' frightened her.

There were so many royal rules, and Buckingham Palace was a 'dead' place to her. No one welcomed her when she arrived at Clarence House, and no one told her how to do things. She still tried to enjoy herself. She escaped to Australia for a quiet holiday with her mother where none of the paparazzi could find them.

Back at Clarence House, she wanted to go on with her dancing, and so she asked her old teacher to come and work with her. But she knew that soon nothing would be the same. During one of her last lessons she said, 'In 12 days' time, I shall no longer be me.'

She got thinner, and she even wanted to stop the wedding. Her sisters told her to go on.

'Bad luck - you've got to do it! Your face is on the tea-towels now!' they said.

So on 29 July 1981, Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer in St Paul's Cathedral, London. It was a great day for England. More than 1 million people were out on the streets in the morning to wave as she went by.

In Britain, everything stopped as people switched on the television. In many houses there were little parties as families, friends and neighbors all sat down together to enjoy themselves.

Diana arrived at St Paul's with her father. The church was full of important people from all over the world. Not only was the British Royal Family there, but there were other kings and Queens from Europe. There was beautiful music, and the church was full of flowers. Diana looked wonderful in her long wedding dress, which was almost white, with the skirt very long at the back. With flowers in her hands, and her heart full of hope, she agreed to marry Charles.

'I will,' she said.

Charles put the wedding ring on her finger. It was made of Welsh gold. This gold was a present to the Royal Family about 50 years earlier, and Diana's ring was made of the very last piece.

Charles and Diana were now husband and wife. They promised to stay together all their lives. The crowds who were shouting 'Lady Di! Lady Di!' now change the words to 'Princess Di! Princess Di!'

They went back to Buckingham Palace, where Charles kissed his new wife in public. Then they left for their wedding holiday, first at a house called Broadlands, then on the royal ship, Britannia.

Diana was suddenly the world's favorite woman. Her face really was on the tea-towels and on cups, glasses, spoons, and all kinds of things that people bought at the time of the Royal Wedding.

They wanted something to record and remember that special day, the most important royal day since Elizabeth became queen in June 1953.

In some ways, Queen Elizabeth was still part of a picture which was painted by the famous Queen Victoria over 100 years before. In this picture, the Royal Family is a good Christian family.

They show a polite face in public, and keep all their problems secret. Royal children must learn that their country comes first, and their personal life second. Sadly, this can also give us a Royal Family which seems cold and far away.

Queen Elizabeth did try to make the Royal Family more modern. Once, most royal children studied at home, but her son Prince Charles went away to school and university. In the 1960s television cameras recorded her home and her family life for the first time, so that people began to know the Royal Family a little bit better. But in the end, it was not enough for modern times.

So could the fairytale marriage possibly have a happy ending? Did Charles really love Diana when he married her? He probably tried to do his best at the time, but it was difficult for him, too.

In the past, kings and princes married to make the Royal Family stronger and to have children. Now Charles had to find the right wife for the royal family, and marry for love. Could Diana be the perfect royal wife, when she was also a modern girl?

In 1981, we didn't ask ourselves these questions. We all wanted to enjoy the fairy tale while we could.