In 1995, Princess Diana put the British royal family in check after giving an interview to the BBC in which she spoke about the breakup of her marriage to Charles, then Prince of Wales.
Among them, his extramarital relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles, for which the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II decided to grant his own interview in which he ended up accepting that he was unfaithful to the mother of his two children.
Despite the fact that his friends, family and even his lover Camila advised him not to speak, he decided to do so. This is how the television documentary “The private man, the public role” was conceived.
The documentary was broadcast on June 29, 1994 and the excuse was to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his investiture. The production lasted 18 months, 180 hours of recording were made for a broadcast that lasted two and a half hours.
The documentary was seen by 13 million people and the moment “everyone was waiting for” came when the journalist asked the prince if he had tried to be “faithful and honorable” in his marriage.
“Yes… Until the marriage irretrievably broke down, we both tried,” was his reply, adding: “I have always tried to do well and to do what is right for everyone.”
The reactions to the documentary
The day after the broadcast of the program, the repercussions were not what the prince expected. A poll commissioned by The Sun newspaper showed that two out of three Britons felt he was “unfit to be king”.
The Washington Post said the documentary followed “the tone of a wartime propaganda film: obsequious and elaborately flattering.” The Times assured that it had only been “a public relations exercise to restore the image of the prince” and The Independent wrote a lapidary “he was seen as a privileged and self-indulgent prince although he made an effort to minimize it”.
The admission of adultery before the cameras shocked everyone, but perhaps not Diana. The same night the documentary was broadcast, she participated in a benefit gala where she wore the iconic outfit that became known as “the dress of revenge.” Black, low-cut, and short, it was a perfect statement of the freedom, confidence, and sensuality that she wanted to project.
ABC