The timeline of Prince Charles and Princess Diana‘s relationship has a tragic end. Their marriage was painfully complicated, full of infidelity and two souls who were never meant to be matched.

Their divorce, 15 years after their wedding, was messy. The couple decided to start official proceedings shortly after Diana’s infamous interview with Martin Bashir after the late Queen Elizabeth II wrote them both a letter asking them to end their relationship.

But the most heartbreaking parts of their relationship played out in the press and was captured in photographs – so where did it all go wrong for Prince Charles and Princess Diana?

How did Prince Charles and Princess Diana meet?

The couple actually meet while Charles is dating Diana’s sister Sarah – they were in a relationship between 1977 and 1978. He had traveled up for a shooting weekend at their 1,500 acre family estate, Althorp.

They’d spend more time together in group settings, even after Charles and Sarah break up.

In 1980, Diana and Charles have a heart to heart as he grieves the death of his great-uncle and mentor, Lord Mountbatten, who died the year before. She says this was the moment that Charles saw her romantically.

She said: “The next minute, he leapt on me, practically. But then it sort of built up from there.”

Over the next few months, they continue meeting, which the princess later said was mostly in group settings and not alone. Their relationship is made public September of that year.

Read more: Moment Charles and Diana’s marriage started to ‘deteriorate’ as ‘other woman’ claims shut down

How old was Diana when she married Charles?

Prince Charles took his relationship with Princess Diana to the next level when he proposed at Windsor Castle in February 1981.

However, when a reporter asks the future king if they are in love, he replied “whatever in love” means.

750 million people across 74 countries watch their wedding at Westminster Abbey on July 29, 1981. The woman who was about to become a royal revealed she had doubts before walking down the aisle.

But her sisters said it was too late to call it off and she went through with it.

They kiss on Buckingham Palace balcony, believed to be because Charles didn’t kiss his bride at the end of the ceremony. It sparked a tradition royals have continued ever since.

Diana was 20 years old at the time, and Charles was 32.

Why did Diana cry when Charles left for a royal tour?

In 1981, shortly before they married, Diana was seen appearing heartbroken and emotional as Charles left to embark on a five-week royal tour. Many headlines paired it with his parting, claiming the tears was because they wouldn’t be together.

But that was not the case – Diana explained it was because she discovered Charles’ affair with Camilla.

In the interview, shared via archive recordings from National Geographic, Diana explains her thought process back in March 1981.

“You may recall seeing a picture of me sobbing in a red coat when he went off on his aeroplane,” she says.

“That had nothing to do with him going. The most awful thing had happened before he went. I was in his study talking to him about his trip.

“The telephone rang, it was Camilla. Just before he was going for five weeks. So I thought, ‘Shall I be nice or shall I just sit here?’ So I thought I’d be nice, so I left them to it. And it just broke my heart, that.”

Diana finds Camilla’s bracelet

The princess also spoke about finding a bracelet Charles had made for Camilla. The jewellery was part of a task the Prince of Wales gave his aide to buy pieces for women in his life to thank them for companionship before his wedding.

Charles had one made up for Camilla that featured the initials G + F, in reference to the nicknames they had for each other.

Diana continued: “I was still too immature to understand all the messages coming my way.

“And then someone in his office told me that my husband has had a bracelet made for her. I walked into this man’s office one day and I said, ‘Ooh, what’s in that parcel?’

“And he said ‘Oh, you shouldn’t look at that’. So I opened it and there was the bracelet.”

Diana went on: “I was devastated, and I said ‘Well, he’s going to give it to her tonight’. So rage, rage, rage. You know, ‘Why can’t you be honest with me?’

“But no, absolutely cut me dead. It was as if he’d made his decision, and if it wasn’t going to work, it wasn’t going to work.

“He’d found the virgin, the sacrificial lamb – and in a way, he was obsessed with me, but it was hot and cold, hot and cold, you never knew what mood it was going to be, up and down, up and down.”

Why did Charles marry Diana and not Camilla?

Camilla and Charles fell in love in the 1970s – before the prince’s relationship with the future Princess Diana.

Despite their close bond, it went against social norms half a century ago. Firstly, in 1970, the future king was only 22 years old and likely not interested in settling down. He also had royal duties that kept him busy as well as completing his military service.

Charles served in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, and Camilla wasn’t seen as ‘queen material’ at the time.

The couple broke up when he went to the navy and Camilla stirred up a relationship with Andrew Parker-Bowles, and they planned to get married. A heartbroken Prince Charles reportedly wrote a letter to her urging her not to marry him. She did.

Camilla wasn’t seen as an ‘ideal royal’ bride, which due to social norms at the time, meant from an aristocratic family, no public past, and would be a virgin bride.

‘An heir and a spare’

The couple welcome their first child together less than a year after their wedding. Prince William is born in June 1982, and Diana suffers from postpartum depression.

She told the BBC during her Panorama interview in 1995: “You’d wake up in the morning feeling you didn’t want to get out of bed, you felt misunderstood, and just very, very low in yourself.”

Their second son, Prince Harry, is born in September 1984.

The Princess later claimed that Charles had made a hurtful comment about her providing him with an ‘heir and a spare’.

Affair exposed during Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s relationship

In 1994, Charles admits on television to Jonathan Dimbleby that he had an affair and it was with Camilla Parker Bowles.

He said he remained faithful until “it became clear that the marriage had irretrievably broken down.”

He had agreed to do an interview to mark the 25th anniversary of the Prince’s investiture, and the documentary was about his life.

Its also alleged that Diana started up an affair with army captain James Hewitt at this time.

A letter written by the Prince of Wales was later found, stating: “How awful incompatibility is, and how dreadfully destructive it can be for the players in this extraordinary drama. It has all the ingredients of a Greek tragedy… I never thought it would end up like this.”

Diana reportedly confronted Camilla about the affair, at a mutual friend’s party.

Walking up to the bash uninvited she asked to speak to her alone and reportedly said: “I obviously am in the way, and it must be hell for both of you, but I do know what is going on.

“Don’t treat me like an idiot.”

Divorce followed by another divorce

Charles and Diana’s relationship and marriage is on the rocks – and up until 1992 rumours of marital woes are in the price.

Andrew Morton’s bombshell tell-all memoir of the princess was published in 1992 – two years before Charles admitted the affair. The book, titled, Diana: Her True Story, was compiled through interviews with the royal, which she cooperated with secretly.

The memoir revealed Charles’ affair with Camilla, their marriage breaking down and Diana’s mental health struggles.

In December 1992, Prime Minister John Major announces they are separating to the House of Commons.

Three years later, Diana’s BBC interview airs, where she famously said there were ‘three’ people in her marriage and that her relationship with Charles was ‘crowded’. She was referring to Camilla.

The late Queen wrote to both of the royals asking them to officially end their marriage. Their divorce is finalised in 1996.

Camilla’s divorce from her husband Andrew came to an agreement the year before. The couple parted ways after Charles’ admitted his infidelity on national TV.

Did Charles ever apologise to Diana during their relationship?

While Charles did acknowledge the pain in their relationship through his own notes, we’ll never know if he apologised in person. However, the king has never formally said sorry in public for anything he may have done wrong.

Although, royal editor Rebecca English claimed the monarch does have ‘regrets’ over his ‘bad behaviour’.

“Both of them [Charles and Diana] behaved badly in that first marriage and made decisions that none of us could ever condone,” one close friend claimed. “But we can seek to try to understand them.”

Princess of Wales’ death

Diana received a significant financial settlement in the divorce, and was stripped of her Her Royal Highness title. However, she passed away a year later after finding her own freedom from the royal family.

The Princess of Wales was killed following a devastating car crash in Paris. Her boyfriend, Dodi Al-Fayed and their driver Henri Paul were also killed in the accident.

The vehicle, which was said to be driving at speeds of 120mph crashed into a pillar inside a tunnel while being chased by paparazzi. It was later found out that Paul was over the drink-drive limit.