The day Charles and Diana announced their engagement to the world – and the prince ‘traumatized’ the young Lady Di with just one passing comment…

He had asked the question no fewer than three times when he finally met the woman he would marry.

After years of speculation about who would be his bride, Prince Charles announced his engagement on February 24, 1981.

His target, of course, was Lady Diana Spencer, and the pair’s romance was seen as a fairy tale – despite an awkward moment in their official interview that left his bride-to-be devastated and seen as a harbinger of their eventual breakup. .

The couple first met during the shooting weekend at Princess Diana’s home, Althorp House, Northamptonshire, in November 1977. They met again at a friend’s house in 1980.

The pair first met during the filming weekend at Lady Diana’s home at Althorp House, Northamptonshire, in November 1977, when Diana was just 16.

Prince Charles was dating her older sister Sarah at the time, but later recalled: ‘I remember thinking what a cheerful, funny and attractive 16-year-old she was. I mean, really fun, and bouncy and full of life and all that.”

It wasn’t until 1980 that Charles made his move, two years after he ended his relationship with Sarah.

In July 1980, Charles and Diana met again during a weekend at their friend Philip de Pass’s family home in Sussex. In September, Diana was spotted in Balmoral.

After a whirlwind romance, during which the couple had only a handful of dates, Prince Charles proposed to then-19-year-old Diana in 1981 at a private dinner at Buckingham Palace.

They managed to keep the news secret, but at 11am on 24 February it was revealed through a statement from the Lord Chancellor.

“It is with the greatest pleasure that The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh announce the engagement of their beloved son, The Prince of Wales, to Lady Diana Spencer, daughter of the Earl Spencer and the Honorable Mrs. Shand Kydd,” it said.

In their BBC engagement interview at the palace, Charles said he was ‘delighted and downright amazed’ that Diana was willing to take him on, while Diana, looking up shyly through her blonde bangs, described her husband-to-be as ‘handsome’. astonishing’.

When asked if they loved each other during the photo session at Buckingham Palace, Charles’ response to Diana’s “of course” was the unforgettable: “Whatever being in love means.”

At that point, Diana somewhat awkwardly laughed off the shocking comment, which Charles aggravated by adding, “‘In Love’ is open to your own interpretation.”

Years later, however, she told her voice coach in a personal recording that appeared in the documentary Diana: In Her Own Words: ‘I thought: what a big question. So I said, “Yes, of course we are,” and Charles turned around and said, “Whatever love means.”

‘And that really threw me off. I thought: what a strange answer. It traumatized me.’

In the BBC interview, the Prince of Wales explained how, after popping the question, he wanted to give Diana time to consider his offer, but she immediately accepted and moved out of her Kensington apartment to move into Clarence House live until the big day.

That day in February was the first time Diana, wearing a cobalt blue skirt suit from Harrods, showed her engagement ring to the world.

Garrard’s stunning piece was a 12-carat oval blue sapphire from Sri Lanka, surrounded by a halo of diamonds and set in 18-carat white gold.

The ring was not a custom piece, but was inspired by the iconic brooch that Prince Albert commissioned for Queen Victoria for their wedding day.

Today, Diana’s ring is owned by Catherine, Princess of Wales, after Prince William used it for a proposal in Kenya in 2010, almost thirty years after his parents’ engagement.

On July 29, 1981, five months after announcing their engagement, Charles and Diana were married at St Paul’s Cathedral in front of a worldwide television audience of as many as 750 million people.

Billed as the wedding of the century, it was a completely different story behind the scenes. According to biographer Penny Junor, Camilla’s true meaning had dawned on Diana in the run-up to the day.

“Rather than immediately explain to Diana that Camilla was an old friend, he had presented her as nothing more than a friend,” she wrote in her book The Duchess: Camilla Parker Bowles and the Love Affair That Rocked The Crown. ‘He came clean after the engagement, admitting that Camilla had been one of his closest friends, but reassured Diana that from now on there would be no other women.’

Nevertheless, Diana felt so uncomfortable about Camilla’s presence in her future husband’s life, and about life in the palace, which she realized was suffocating, that she tried to call off the wedding two days before it took place.

As Andrew Morton revealed in his great 1992 book Diana – Her True Story, her sisters, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Jane, Baroness Fellowes, stopped her from fleeing.

“Tough luck,’ they said, using their nickname for their younger sister,” Morton wrote. “Your face is on the tea towels, so it’s too late to keep quiet now.”

In a joint interview with the BBC at Buckingham Palace, they were asked whether they were in love or not. Charles’ answer was unforgettable: ‘Whatever falling in love means’

The Prince of Wales and his fiancée Lady Diana Spencer arrive for their first official engagement together – a charity event at the Goldsmith’s Hall in March 1981

After months of speculation, the Prince of Wales’s engagement to Lady Diana Spencer was finally announced in February 1981

Charles and Diana had two children, William and Harry, and remained officially married until 1996, when their divorce was finalized.

Their marriage was hit by infidelity on both sides, with Diana saying in her famous 1995 Panorama interview about Charles’ relationship with Camilla: “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.”

In August 1997, just a year after their divorce, Diana died in a car accident in Paris.