EXCLUSIVE: Why Princess Diana 'Thought King Charles' Marriage Proposal Was a Joke'
Princess Diana didn't exactly take then-Prince Charles' proposal seriously.
Aug. 17 2026, Published 5:20 p.m. ET
Princess Diana thought King Charles was joking when he asked her to marry him – laughing at the future monarch before realizing he was "deadly serious" about making her his wife.
As RadarOnline.com readers know, Diana was just 19 when Charles, then 32, proposed at Windsor in February 1981 after a remarkably brief courtship in which the pair had spent time together on only a handful of occasions.
'I Couldn't Handle It Emotionally'
King Charles proposed marriage to Princess Diana at Windsor in February 1981.
Diana later gave an extraordinary account of the proposal to biographer Andrew Morton for his 1992 book Diana: Her True Story, revealing her uncertainty about their relationship before their July 29, 1981 wedding.
Diana said: "An instinct in a female tells you what it is."
Charles had telephoned Diana before the proposal and told her: "I've got something very important to ask you."
Diana recalled sitting up all night with girlfriends, wondering what she would do before arriving at Windsor at around 5 pm the following day.
Charles had recently returned from Klosters, Switzerland, and told her: "I've missed you so much."
But Diana recalled there had been little physical affection between them.
"But there was never anything tactile about him," the beloved royal noted. "It was extraordinary, but I didn't have anything to go by because I had never had a boyfriend. I'd always kept them away, thought they were all trouble – and I couldn't handle it emotionally."
King Charles to Princess Diana: 'Whatever Love Means'
Princess Diana originally thought his proposal was a 'joke.'
Charles then asked: "Will you marry me?" Diana laughed and said, "This is a joke."
Her initial response to Charles was simply: "Yeah, okay."
Diana added: "He was deadly serious. He said, 'You do realize that one day you will be Queen?' And a voice said to me inside, 'You won't be Queen, but you'll have a tough role.'"
She told Charles repeatedly she loved him, only for him to respond: "Whatever love means."
The phrase would become one of the defining remarks surrounding their relationship after Charles repeated it during their televised engagement interview.
Diana later said the comment "traumatized" her, although she interpreted it very differently when he originally used it.
The royal recalled: "I thought that was great! I thought he meant that! And so he ran upstairs and rang his mother."
Charles Spencer Reacts to Sister Princess Diana's Proposal
Princess Diana admitted her immaturity shaped her initial understanding of the relationship.
Diana admitted her youth and inexperience shaped her understanding of the relationship.
"In my immaturity, which was enormous, I thought that he was very much in love with me, which he was, but he always had a sort of besotted look about him, looking back at it, but it wasn't the genuine sort," she noted.
Afterward, Diana returned to her apartment and broke the news to her girlfriends.
She recalled they "screamed and howled and we went for a drive around London with our secret."
Her father was "thrilled," as was her mother.
But her brother, Charles Spencer, then 16, apparently knew so little about the romance that when Diana announced she was engaged, he responded: "Who to?"
Briefcase Rings And A Tragic End
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Princess Diana selected her famous sapphire engagement ring from a presented assortment.
Diana later traveled to Australia before returning to London, where someone from Charles' office delivered flowers without a personal note from him.
She said of their romance: "We fell in love gradually. It wasn't really dramatic. One blink and it would have gone." Diana eventually selected her famous sapphire engagement ring from an assortment presented in a briefcase.
"I suppose I chose it; we all chipped in. The Queen paid for it," Diana gushed.
Diana and Charles' relationship famously fell apart amid infidelities, with the princess ending up dead in a Paris car accident, aged 36, in 1997.
She would have turned 65 this year.
