Diana, who descended from the royal Stuart kings and could count Mary Queen of Scots (who was executed by Queen Elizabeth I), Ann Boleyn (Henry VIII's beheaded wife and consort), Charles II, Monaco's Prince Ranier III and Winston Churchill as her distant relatives, was a tender, timid 19 when she wed Prince Charles at St Paul's Cathedral, London on July 29, 1981 in an enchanting ceremony.
Their wedding was watched by one billion people around the globe and was the first celebrity marriage ceremony to give so many television viewers a ringside seat.
Diana wowed the world that day, 26 years ago, in an ivory silk taffeta gown with a 25-foot train, 10,000 pearls and sequins and a 23-inch waist. And with her charming, shy smile.
She was the first English girl to marry a royal British heir in 300 years. Before that heirs had married women who hailed from far away places as varied as Denmark, Wurttemberg (in southern Germany), Mecklenburg-Strelitz (north Germany), Brunswick-Luneburg (central Germany) and Scotland.
A young woman of a British aristrocratic background, Diana was educated in England and Switzerland and loved swimming. She had plans to become a ballerina.
Her height nixed ambitions of reaching the stage and before her marriage Lady Di (as she was then known) tried her hand at cooking, teaching at a dance academy, being a waitress and then a cleaner, before she became a nursery school teacher.
Diana was a childhood friend of Charles's brothers, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, and when she renewed her acquaintance with Charles they began dating.
Photograph: Prince Charles and Lady Diana at their wedding. At Diana's left is her father, the Earl Spencer. Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images
Also read: The Queen: Diana's real story
Advertisement
