Princess Diana 'tried to cut her wrists’ just weeks after wedding to Charles, secret tapes reveal
Princess Diana tried to cut her wrists just weeks after her wedding to Charles, newly-released tapes have revealed.
In secret recordings made in 1991 but only just released, Diana said she was desperate in the aftermath of her marriage as she struggled with bulimia.
She and Prince Charles were married on July 29, 1981, before spending three months at Balmoral.
She recalled: ‘We stayed up there from August to October. I got terribly, terribly thin.
‘People started commenting: “Your bones are showing.” By October, I was in a very bad way.
‘I was so depressed, and I was trying to cut my wrists with razor blades. It rained and rained and rained.
‘I came down early (to London) to seek treatment, not because I hated Balmoral, but because I was in such a bad way.
‘Anyway, I came down here. All the analysts and psychiatrists you could ever dream of came plodding in trying to sort me out. Put me on high doses of Valium and everything else.’
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The recordings, serialised in the Daily Mail, were made for author Andrew Morton’s 1992 book, Diana: Her True Story. Diana gave interviews to the author on the condition she wasn’t identified as his main source.
A revised 25th anniversary edition is being released this month.
In the tapes, Diana revealed how she felt like ‘a lamb to the slaughter’ on her wedding day, and that she couldn’t stop thinking about Charles’ relationship with the future Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla Parker Bowles.
She also spoke about her struggle with bulimia.
‘I had a very bad fit of bulimia the night before. I was sick as a parrot that night. It was such an indication of what was going on.
‘I was very calm the next morning when we were getting up at Clarence House. Must have been awake about 5am.
‘I was very, very calm, deathly calm. I felt I was a lamb to the slaughter. I knew it and couldn’t do anything about it.
‘As I walked up the aisle, I was looking for her (Camilla). I knew she was in there, of course. I looked for her.
‘I thought the whole thing was hysterical, getting married, in the sense that it was just so grown-up, and here was Diana — a kindergarten teacher. The whole thing was ridiculous!
‘I remember being so in love with my husband that I couldn’t take my eyes off him. I just absolutely thought I was the luckiest girl in the world. He was going to look after me. Well, was I wrong on that assumption!
‘So walking back down the aisle, I spotted Camilla — pale grey, veiled pillbox hat, saw it all, her son Tom standing on a chair. To this day, you know — vivid memory.
‘I remember crying my eyes out on our honeymoon. I was so tired, for all the wrong reasons totally.
‘My dreams were appalling. At night, I dreamt of Camilla the whole time.
‘I was obsessed by Camilla totally. I didn’t trust (Charles) — thought every five minutes he was ringing her up, asking how to handle his marriage.’
Diana said getting pregnant with her first son, William, was ‘a godsend’.
She said: ‘I was told I was pregnant, fine, great excitement. Marvellous news, occupied my mind. In those days, my greatest pleasure was that I was lucky enough to have a baby on the way. However, she said she suffered with ‘appalling’ morning sickness.
