Princess Diana revealed husband-to-be Charles ruined their first official date by mocking her dress in newly released tapes
PRINCESS Diana told in newly released tapes how Charles ruined their first official date when he criticised her dress.
The pair stepped out before the cameras in March 1981 for a bash in aid of the Royal Opera House but Di was soon close to tears.
She said: “I remember walking into my husband-to-be’s study and him saying, ‘You’re not going in that dress, are you?’
“I replied, ‘Yes I am.’ And he said, ‘It’s black! Only people in mourning wear black!’ And I said, ‘Yes, but I’m not part of your family yet.’
“Black, to me, was the smartest colour you could possibly have at the age of 19. It was a real grown-up dress.
“I was quite big-chested then, and they (the press) all got frightfully excited. I learned a lesson that night.”
Desperate Diana said she “shrunk to nothing” in the months leading up to her fairytale wedding to the prince as she battled bulimia.
Di’s struggle with the eating disorder began just days after Charles proposed to her in February 1981 — five months before they wed at St Paul’s Cathedral.
In newly revealed tape recordings in which she poured her heartbreak out to biographer Andrew Morton, she said: “I remember the first time I made myself sick. I was so thrilled because I thought this was the release of tension.
“The first time I was measured for my wedding dress, I was 29 inches around the waist.
“The day I got married, I was 23½ inches. I had shrunk into nothing from February to July.”
The princess, who was Lady Diana Spencer when she was a royal-in-waiting, described feeling isolated and intimidated in the run-up to her wedding day.
She said: “The bulimia started the week after we got engaged.
“My husband put his hand on my waistline and said, ‘Oh, a bit chubby here, aren’t we?’ and that triggered off something in me.”
Diana recalled meeting Charles for the first time in November 1977 when he was going out with her then 22-year-old sister Sarah.
He came to stay at the Spencer family home in Althorp, Northants. Di said her first impression was: “God, what a sad man.”
She recalled how shocked she was when Charles made a pass at her a few years later.
Di said: “The next minute, he leapt on me practically, and I thought this was very strange.
“I wasn’t quite sure how to cope. Frigid was the word.”
Amazingly, Di revealed she had to call Charles “Sir” and was only allowed to use his first name after they married.
She also spoke of her agony at Charles’s lies after discovering he had sent flowers to Camilla Parker Bowles using their nicknames Gladys and Fred.
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She admitted: “I never dealt with that side of things. I just said to him, ‘You must always be honest with me.’”
Di told how Camilla called Charles before he left for a royal tour of Australia and New Zealand.
She said: “I was in his study talking to him when the telephone rang. It was Camilla.
“I thought, ‘Shall I be nice and leave him alone so he can talk to her in private, or shall I sit here?’"
“I thought I’d be nice, so I left them to it. It just broke my heart.
“We always had discussions about Camilla, though. I once heard him on the telephone in his bath on his hand-held set saying, ‘Whatever happens, I will always love you.’
“I told him afterwards that I had listened at the door, and we had a filthy row.”
Di discussed how angry she was at discovering Charles had given Camilla a bracelet with the letters G and F entwined just two weeks before the wedding.
She said: “I walked into this man’s office and said, ‘What’s in that parcel?’
“He said, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t look at that.’ I said, ‘Well, I’m going to look at it.’
“I opened it and there was the bracelet, and I said, ‘I know where this is going.’"
“I was devastated. This was about two weeks before we got married.
“He said, ‘Well, he’s going to give it to her tonight.’
“So rage, rage, rage! ‘Why can’t you be honest with me?’ But no — Charles cut me absolutely dead."
“It’s as if he had made his decision. If it wasn’t going to work, it wasn’t going to work. He’d found the virgin, the sacrificial lamb, and in a way he was obsessed with me.
“He took the bracelet lunchtime on Monday. We got married on the Wednesday.”
Diana reportedly recorded the account in 1991 as her marriage began to disintegrate.
Twenty years on from their mother’s death, the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry have now spoken publicly about their experience of mental health issues.
As part of their Heads Together campaign, Harry told how he sought counselling to deal with his grief.
William said it took him “almost 20 years” to be able to speak “more honestly” about his mother.