Prince Charles Almost Got Engaged To Another Woman, Not Diana? Formal Announcement 'Made'

Prince Charles almost got engaged to another woman shortly before he asked for Princess Diana’s hand in marriage.

On June 17, 1977, Daily Express published a front-page story about Prince Charles and Princess Marie Astrid of Luxembourg. Reporter John Warden claimed that Prince Charles was set to marry Princess Marie and a formal engagement will be announced by Buckingham Palace a few days later.

“The couple’s difference of religion – she is a Roman Catholic – will be overcome by a novel constitutional arrangement: any sons of the marriage will be brought up according to the Church of England while daughters will be raised in the Catholic faith. The Queen and Prince Philip have assented to this procedure, which also has the approval of Church leaders,” Warden wrote.

Prince Charles and Princess Marie first met each other in 1976 when the latter was just 23 years old. She is the daughter of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg and her mother was Princess Josephine Charlotte. Princess Marie was regarded as one of the few eligible princesses from Europe at that time and matchmakers regarded her as Prince Charles’ future wife.

Warden claimed that Prince Charles and Princess Marie fell for each other shortly after their first meeting, but their association has been kept a secret. However, at the end of his article, Warden said that Buckingham Palace denied that there will be an engagement announcement. And true enough, there wasn’t one.

“It has since been suggested that the marriage rumors were a result of efforts to detect a leaker in the Privy Council as a marriage between the pair was extremely unlikely, considering the Prince of Wales would be the next Head of the Church of England and because Princess Marie-Astrid is a devout Catholic,” Royal Central reported.

Prince Charles went on to marry Princess Diana four years later, but they separated in 1992. The Prince and Princess of Wales’ divorce were finalized in 1996.