Prince Charles, Camilla Parker Bowles’ Affair Made Princess Diana Break Royal Protocol

The world may have been surprised by Princess Diana’s 1995 Panorama interview with Martin Bashir, but no one was more shocked than Queen Elizabeth. The monarch was not informed of the interview until it was broadcast on television.

During the conversation, Diana shared details about her and Prince Charles’ deteriorating marriage and exposed his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles. However, in order to get the interview done while living at Kensington Palace, the Princess of Wales took extreme measures and broke a few rules.

Following Diana’s introduction to Bashir, she began sneaking the journalist into the palace by having him hide in the boot of her butler’s car. In the documentary, “Scandals at the Palace,” royal commentator Daisy McAndrew revealed Diana managed to keep everyone in the dark about the interview.

“At the time for her press secretary and for the Queen not to know that this explosive interview was being planned and then filmed and then broadcast without her knowledge was an extraordinary breach of protocol,” she explained.

While Diana saw the interview as an opportunity to tell her side of the story, Queen Elizabeth lost her patience with her daughter-in-law and advised her to divorce Prince Charles.

In the book, “The Duchess: The Untold Story,” author Penny Junor claimed Queen Elizabeth was worried Diana and Charles’ bitter relationship would have a negative effect on Prince William and Prince Harry.

“After consulting with the Prime Minister and the Archbishop of Canterbury, she wrote formally and privately to her son and daughter-in-law asking them to put the country out of its uncertainty and to divorce as early as possible,” Junor wrote.

After a year of negotiations, Prince Charles and Princess Diana finalized their divorce in 1996. The Prince of Wales married Camilla in 2005.