Princess Diana’s words about who ‘ruined’ her marriage to Charles just before she d.i.e.d ‘revealed’

Royal biographer Ingrid Seward has shared one of Princess Diana‘s final, private thoughts about her marriage to Prince Charles, just weeks before her untimely death in 1997.

Speaking on this week’s episode of A Right Royal Podcast, hosted by Andrea Caamano and HELLO! royal editor Emily Nash, Ingrid reflected on her long-standing relationship with Diana and a particularly poignant remark made by the princess during one of their final conversations.

Diana claimed that the people surrounding her and Charles led to the downfall of their marriage (Credit: SplashNews.com)

“She said to me just before she died, ‘It wasn’t Camilla that ruined our marriage. It was the people around Charles,’” Ingrid recalled.

Ingrid is the editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine and author of The Queen and Di. She admitted that the comment stayed with her, but it has been difficult to fully decipher.

“I could never unpick that comment and quite understand what it meant,” she said. “But I also remember Diana’s father saying how tricky the royal household was.”

Diana’s son Prince Harry recently appeared to hit out at the royal household.

Prince Harry admits court defeat is ‘establishment stitch up’

Harry lost his court battle after appealing a decision to downgrade his security when he’s in the UK.

Harry and wife Meghan Markle lost their taxpayer-funded security detail when they stepped back from royal duties. Instead, it’s now decided on a case-by-case basis.

During his BBC interview, Prince Harry described his court defeat as a “good old fashioned establishment stitch up”.

Buckingham Palace later issued a statement, which said: “All of these issues have been examined repeatedly and meticulously by the courts, with the same conclusion reached on each occasion.”

She said to me just before she died, ‘It wasn’t Camilla that ruined our marriage. It was the people around Charles.’

Ingrid has now shared her thoughts.

“What I’m trying to say is that Harry obviously has a point amid his morass of complaints. He does have some valid points, and I’m riveted,” Ingrid added.

In both his 2023 memoir Spare and his most recent interviews, Harry has made it clear that his struggles weren’t solely with family members, but with the advisors, courtiers and institutional handlers that surround and influence royal decision-making, a theme eerily aligned with his mother’s final reflections.

Ingrid posed the crucial question: “Are they just a load of overinflated egos in the royal household, or are they really trying to help?”

Did Charles ever apologise to Diana?

There is no public record of a formal apology from Charles to Princess Diana.

However, he did acknowledge his alleged affair with Camilla Parker Bowles in a 1994 television interview, saying the marriage had “irretrievably broken down”.

Diana famously responded in her 1995 Panorama interview, saying: “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.”

Earlier this year, Daily Mail‘s royal editor, Rebecca English, spoke with some of King Charles’ closest friends.

They reportedly provided some insight into Charles’ feelings surrounding the breakdown of his marriage.

“Both of them [Charles and Diana] behaved badly in that first marriage and made decisions that none of us could ever condone,” one source said. “But we can seek to try to understand them.”

Rebecca also wrote that Charles reportedly deeply “regrets” the pain and sadness he caused Diana.