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Princess Diana and King Charles “practically” had an arranged marriage, a close friend of the late royal has said.
Jemima Khan, 49, commented that the couple’s turbulent relationship was “an appropriate match chosen by the parents”.
Speaking of her feature film directorial debut on Lorraine, the documentary filmmaker discussed her new film, What’s Love Got To Do With It?, which was inspired by her own marriage to former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, whom she is now divorcee.
The producer said she was inspired by the healthy and happy arranged marriages she saw while living in the South Asian country for ten years.
And he commented that the practice is not only very common around the world, but is often misunderstood.
Speaking of her feature film directorial debut on Lorraine, the documentarian opened up about her new film, What’s Love Got To Do With It?
“Arranged marriage is totally different from forced marriage,” Lorraine said. “But when we think about the arranged marriage, your friends Princess Diana, that was really arranged, wasn’t it?”
“Quite a bit,” Jemima replied. “I mean as close to arranged as you could get in the sense that it was an appropriate match chosen by the parents and sort of a committee of family members.”
“The royal family used to almost always have arranged marriages,” he added. ‘And it’s still the majority in the world…’
Charles and Diana first met at a shooting weekend at their home in Althorp House, Northamptonshire, in November 1977. At the time, Prince Charles was dating Princess Diana’s older sister, Sarah.
It wasn’t until 1980 that Charles made his move, two years after ending his relationship with Sarah.
Diana visited her friend Jemima and Imran in Lahore twice, in 1996 and 1997, and was photographed enjoying her tour of the nation with the couple.
When Princess Diana agreed to marry the now king, the royal bride’s sex life became a hot topic of conversation.
In the Diana Chronicles, written by Tina Brown, it was suggested that the late Queen wanted her eldest son to marry the innocent Mrs. Spencer.
At the age of 19, it was reported that she had never had a boyfriend before meeting the future king.
But before the wedding, in an explosive conversation, Lord Fermoy, Diana’s uncle, was quoted in the Washington Post assuring people that she had never “had a lover” before Charles.
In fact, the fact that Diana was a virgin played a big part in the two’s marriage, according to Ms. Brown.
Princess Diana and King Charles “practically” had an arranged marriage, a close friend of the late royal has said. The couple pictured after their engagement.
The Spencers had also been close friends with the British royal family for years, and the late princess’s grandmothers had served as bridesmaids to the Queen Mother.
The writer said that trying to find a candidate for Charles was like looking for the ‘Loch Ness Monster’.
Since Camila was not a virgin and did not meet the archaic requirement of virginity in a royal bride, she was said to be out of the question.
Diana visited her friends Jemima and Imran in Lahore twice, in 1996 and 1997, and was photographed enjoying their tour of the country with the couple.
What does love have to do with it? she follows documentary filmmaker Zoe (Lily James) as she navigates the modern dating scene with little success, much to the dismay of her mother Cath (Emma Thompson).
Meanwhile, Kazim (Shazad Latif), Zoe’s childhood friend and neighbor, decides to follow in his parents’ footsteps and pursue an arranged marriage with a brilliant and beautiful bride from Pakistan.
As Zoe documents Kazim’s journey from London to Lahore to marry a stranger, she begins to wonder if the traditional approach to finding love might have something to offer.
“We can decide to configure ourselves even through an algorithm,” Jemima told Lorraine. “Or, like arranged, or what’s known as an assisted marriage, which is essentially a presentation of the people who love you the most, know you best.”
“The film looks at different approaches to finding love,” he added.
It comes as a file of personal letters from the princess revealing her misery over her “hopeless and ugly” divorce and her hopes for 1997 sold for £161,000 last week.
The personal letters reveal how she sought the support and advice of her friends Susie and Tarek Kassem during her bitter and public split from then-Prince Charles in the mid-1990s.
There are 32 letters and message cards in which Diana described how the divorce settlement negotiations between her and Charles had left her ‘in [her] knees.’
Elsewhere, she has quietly criticized the royal family for isolating her, expressed fears that her phone was being tapped and thanked the couple for letting her spend a lonely Christmas and Easter with them.