A Different Royal Visit

Prince Charles, His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, future king of England and a few other places, is visiting the U.S. this week, along with his second wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. There's some press coverage of the visit and the royal couple will be meeting with the president, but overall it's a low-key visit by a stately sixty-something couple that most Americans apparently aren't very interested in.

It's quite a contrast to the hysteria that took over the colonies 30 years ago when Charles and his first wife, Princess Diana, made their first, and as far as I can remember, only official visit to America as a couple in November, 1985. It was front-page news across the media spectrum and an invitation to one of the events in their honor was the hottest ticket in town. From the Oct 28, 1985 issue of Newsweek, shown above:

Socialites are offering big political contributions-and past GOP donors are reminding the White House of theirs. Senators are calling in old favors. And everyone is checking the mail for an invitation to meet the Prince and Princess of Wales during their three-day visit to Washington next month. Those who aren't invited lose more than a chance to see the future king and queen; in Washington - where the only side that matters is the inside - they will be left out. "The royal visit is going to separate the social chic from the social goats," purrs gossip columnist Diana McClellan. "People are absolutely frantic for this one." 

It was at the White House dinner in their honor that Diana danced her famous dance with John Travolta.



It all seems like ancient history now. Charles was 36, Diana was 24 and Prince William was just 3 years old. At the time the tragic future to come would have been considered unthinkable, much less the notion that Charles would someday be married to Camilla. There were a few hints that all was not well in the fairy tale marriage, but at that point nobody took them seriously. From Newsweek again:

...[L]ately there's been talk that Diana's fairy tale has turned into a soap opera. The image now is of trouble in paradise, of stormy rows and sullen sulks, of what one British gossip columnist calls "'Dallas' at the palace." Suddenly it's fashionable to wonder "how happy" she and Prince Charles really are. The rumors are alternately ludicrous, spiteful and unseemly - in short they make for the most delicious gossip imaginable. 

At the time everyone was confident that nothing could interfere with the future that was meant to be. The article ends with this: 

The more pessimistic of the gossips hint darkly that such trials will eventually prove to be more than the Princess of Wales can take - and that one day she will simply say "The hell with it" and bolt. To say that such a prospect is not likely is to put it mildly, indeed. Diana's devotion to her children aside, the Waleses certainly don't act like a couple in trouble. Not too long ago Diana earned a stern glance from the queen for giggling in public when "God Save the Queen" was being played. Actually it was Prince Charles's fault. Right after the band started playing, he leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Darling, they're playing our song." 

If only.