Diana Spencer’s tragedy was to fall in love with Prince Charles. It is still difficult at this distance, and even with all the books, memoirs and documentaries that have chronicled the doomed marriage of the pair, to understand precisely how things went so badly wrong – and how they can evidently still get complicated for those who marry a Windsor.
Was the marriage doomed? It’s hard to conclude otherwise, because the House of Windsor is a tough gig for any prospective spouse. It is almost incompatible with romantic love as conventionally understood by the rest of the population. The divorce rate is extremely high. Of the Queen’s four children, only one – Edward – has never had a failed marriage. Charles, Andrew and Anne were all separated or divorced long before they got near to a significant wedding anniversary.
