Princess Diana's Mother Wept at Wedding as Fractured Relationship Resurfaced On the day of Princess Diana’s wedding to Prince Charles on July 29, 1981, her mother, Frances Shand Kydd, was overcome with emotion, her tears reopening wounds from a decades-long estrangement. The ceremony at St Paul’s Cathedral, a global spectacle that would become one of the defining royal events of the 20th century, was marked by private turmoil for Diana, who struggled with the emotional weight of her mother’s visible distress. According to revelations in Andrew Morton’s biography Diana: Her True Story, Kydd, who died in 2004 at age 68, was deeply anxious and emotionally overwhelmed in the days leading up to the wedding. She felt excluded from the preparations for her daughter’s royal future, a sentiment Diana later described as a source of personal anguish. “She kept crying and being all valiant and saying that she couldn’t cope with the pressure – I tended to think I was the one under pressure because I was the bride,” Diana told Morton. The mother-daughter rift, rooted in childhood trauma, cast a shadow over the wedding, which Diana hoped would signal a new beginning. The relationship between Diana and Kydd had long been strained, dating back to 1969 when Kydd left Diana’s father, John Spencer, following a bitter divorce. At the time, Diana was seven years old, and custody of the children was awarded to their father. Diana’s younger brother, Charles Spencer, later described the heartbreak of the separation, recalling how Diana would wait on the doorstep for their mother, who never returned. “Our mother wasn’t cut out for maternity – she couldn’t do it,” Spencer said, highlighting the emotional toll of the split.#princess_diana #frances_shand_kydd #john_spencer #charles_spencer #peter_shand_kydd
What Princess Diana’s Mother Reportedly Said Before Wedding to Prince Charles The wedding of Princess Diana to Prince Charles on July 29, 1981, at St. Paul’s Cathedral was a global spectacle, yet private tensions between Diana and her mother, Frances Shand Kydd, cast a shadow over the event. According to accounts from Diana’s memoir Diana: Her True Story, Frances struggled with emotional distress in the days leading up to the ceremony, grappling with the pressures of her daughter’s transition into royal life. Diana reportedly described her mother’s state as one of melancholy, with Frances expressing difficulty coping with the weight of the moment. “She kept crying and being all valiant and saying that she couldn’t cope with the pressure,” Diana told the book’s author, Morton. “I tended to think I was the one under pressure because I was the bride.” The strain in their relationship dated back to Diana’s childhood. Frances left the Spencer family following a contentious divorce from John Spencer, the family patriarch, and custody of the children was awarded to her husband. This separation, which family members later described as deeply impactful, left Diana longing for her mother’s presence. Her brother, Charles Spencer, recalled how Diana would often wait for her mother’s return after the split. Royal insiders suggested that Diana viewed her wedding as an opportunity for a fresh start, seeking stability after years of personal upheaval. However, the ceremony became a source of anxiety for her, as she became increasingly aware of her mother’s visible distress. The relationship between Diana and Frances remained fraught in the years that followed.#princess_diana #frances_shand_kydd #st_pauls_cathedral #john_spencer #charles_spencer
