Video: 'Announcement of Separation of Prince & Princess of Wales - December 1992'

(Wednesday, December 9, 1992, 3:30 p.m. GMT) — Buckingham Palace wrote the unhappy ending today to a storybook marriage gone badly wrong: a seven-sentence-long announcement that Charles, the Prince of Wales and heir to the British throne, and Diana, the Princess of Wales, had agreed to separate after 11 years as husband and wife.

Prime Minister John Major, who broke the news in a nationally televised appearance before a hushed House of Commons, sought to cushion the blow by emphasizing that the royal couple did not intend to divorce and would continue to carry on their royal and constitutional duties separately as the future King and Queen of England.

“This decision has been reached amicably and they will both continue to participate fully in the upbringing of their children,” Major said, reading from the text.

But the sudden announcement seemed to stun many Britons, despite months of intense speculation in British newspapers that the marriage that began in 1981 as a fairy tale come true had devolved into a loveless affair, with the Prince and the Princess living all but separate lives.

When the Prince wed the former Lady Diana Spencer in July 1981, their marriage was breathlessly described as “the wedding of the century,” a spectacle of pomp and pageantry broadcast to millions of viewers around the world. The Princess, in particular, went on to become a beloved icon of the British monarchy, widely admired in Britain and beyond for her coolness and style.

Today, even as the announcement was being read in Parliament, Prince Charles, who is 44, and the Princess, 31, were in different parts of Britain. He was visiting an old people’s home and addressing a business luncheon north of London; she was visiting a clinic in northeast England. Neither made any remarks referring to the separation.

Major and the palace insisted that the line of succession to the throne was unaffected, and the Prime Minister even told Parliament there was nothing in the decision to prevent the Princess of Wales from someday being crowned as Queen Consort.

He said the Prince and Princess only intended to live separately while jointly rearing their two sons, Princes William, 10, and Harry, 8.

At the same time, the Church of England issued a statement saying the Prince, as the future King, could preside as head of the church despite the breakup of his marriage.

There is no modern precedent for a divorced or separated monarch. George IV was the last British King whose marriage broke up; he left his wife, Caroline of Brunswick, in 1796, a year after they were married.

Harold Brooks-Baker, the publishing director of Burke’s Peerage, said he believed today’s announcement was only the precursor to the couple’s eventual divorce (which would happen in August 1996), which he said could pose more difficult questions about Prince Charles’s ascension to the throne.

While there is no constitutional bar to a divorced prince ascending to the throne, Brooks-Baker said it would complicate matters by effectively barring Prince Charles from remarrying.

“In such a situation, I wouldn’t be surprised if Charles might decide to renounce the throne himself, in favor of his elder son, William,” he said.

On street corners, in pubs, and in the corridors of Parliament tonight, there were heartfelt expressions of sympathy for Queen Elizabeth II, after a year she herself last month described as her “annus horribilis.”

The announcement today means that all three marriages of her children have broken down. Andrew, the Prince of York, separated from the Duchess of York this year amid a messy public scandal that involved the publication of photographs of the Duchess cavorting topless beside a swimming pool with another man.

Princess Anne, the Queen’s only daughter, divorced Mark Phillips in the summer. She is scheduled to embark on her second marriage this weekend when she will wed a naval commander at a private ceremony in the north of England.

The queen has a fourth child, Edward, who is not yet married.

Video: 'Channel Four News December 1992 Prince Charles Princess Diana Divorce Epsode in full Plus Continuity' (separation news at 10:30)

The news of the separation comes at a time when the credibility of the monarchy is at a modern low point as a result of persistent reports alluding to the marital scandals and wealthy lifestyle of some members of the royal family.

Two weeks ago, in what appeared to be a bid to defuse public resentment, the Queen took the extraordinary step of breaking with royal tradition, announcing not only that she would now pay tax on her personal income but that she would also absorb a larger share of the public expenses of some members of the royal family.

The reason for the timing of today’s announcement was not clear, since the palace said the matter of the separation had been under discussion privately for some time.

Aides at Downing Street said Major had been kept informed of discussions within the palace about the royal couple but was not directly involved in the decision to make a public announcement today. Major, who last saw the Queen a week ago, was first told about the planned announcement on Tuesday evening, a spokesman said.

In background remarks to reporters, the palace also took pains tonight to emphasize that what they called a “third party” was not involved in the couple’s decision to separate.

In recent months, unconfirmed press reports in Britain have suggested that both the Prince and Princess might have had other romantic interests. Prince Charles was said to be closer to Camilla Parker Bowles, an old girlfriend, than to his wife; the Princess, according to a reported transcript of an intercepted mobile telephone conversation, had had a long and intimate conversation with an unnamed man who called her “Squidgy” and said he loved her.

There have been recurrent reports over the years that the Prince and Princess were growing apart, their differences magnified over time. He likes solitary days on the moors, hunting, and fishing; she prefers family beach outings. He is fond of classical music; she adores pop. He immerses himself in books about history and architecture and organic gardening; she reads light romantic novels.

At the same time, the Princess emerged more and more as a person in her own right, plunging into charity causes and speaking out on AIDS.

But the first hint of deeper marital difficulties followed the publication this summer of a book that purported to describe the terrible personal toll the marriage had taken on the Princess. “Diana: Her True Story,” written by Andrew Morton, a former newspaper reporter who covered Buckingham Palace, not only said the Princess felt “trapped in a loveless marriage,” but suffered from bulemia and had tried to commit suicide on at least five occasions.

Morton said he based his reporting on friends of the Princess, and she herself never disavowed any of its details. Instead, by showing herself in public with some of the people Morton quoted, there were suggestions she was in fact endorsing their remarks.

More recently, Morton disclosed that Prince Philip, the Queen’s husband, had written his daughter-in-law a stern letter chastising her for her behavior.

Meanwhile, in public appearances, the couple often appeared uncomfortable in each other’s company. On a trip to Korea last month, their discomfort was so apparent that reporters took to calling them “the Glums.”

Both the Government and the palace appealed to Britain’s aggressive tabloid press today to give the Prince and Princess privacy in the coming days, although the news is almost certainly going to increase pressure on the couple from photographers.

In Parliament, Major’s announcement today brought widespread expressions of sympathy. Edward Heath, the former Prime Minister, rose in the Commons to describe Major’s announcement as “one of the saddest made by any Prime Minister in modern times.”

But Dennis Skinner, a militant member of the opposition Labor Party who favors the abolition of the monarchy, said the royal family had pushed its own “self-destruct button.”

“It is high time we stopped this charade of swearing allegiance to the Queen and her heirs and successors because we don’t know from time to time who they are,” he said.

To loud cheers, Major turned to Skinner and said, “You do not, I believe, speak for the nation or any significant part of it.