The entire world watched the marriage of Prince Charles and Princess Diana disintegrate right in front of us. It was downright heartbreaking to watch Diana left out to dry as Charles pursued another woman, and while she eventually achieved her independence, her life was ultimately taken way too early.
Frankly, we didn’t think there was anything that could make us feel worse about how things went down. That’s when we discovered the most surprising secret that Diana kept from her husband, one that somehow makes their marriage even sadder. What was the secret, and how did it impact their marriage?
Keep reading to find out!
Diana’s secret dance lessons
The secret that Diana kept from Charles is the last one that you might expect: she was taking secret dance lessons! From 1981 to 1989, Diana took secret lessons from the ballet teacher Anne Allan. This was, of course, the period of time when her marriage was unraveling, so it seems reasonable that the princess saw this as a form of escape from her ongoing marital stress.
All of this time together meant that Allan got to know Diana quite intimately. Eventually, that meant hearing some of Diana’s royal secrets. In that way, Allan was privy to things that wouldn’t go public for a great many years.
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Sharing royal secrets
Princess Diana always had an open heart, and she eventually saw Anne Allan as someone she could confide in. During those tumultuous years, she couldn’t openly express her concerns to other members of the Royal Family. Such isolation made her friendship with Allan very important, and she eventually shared some very hot gossip with her dance teacher.
Allan, for example, heard all about how Prince Charles had fallen in love with an older woman. Diana didn’t name names, so it took the instructor time to realize that the older woman in question was Camilla Parker Bowles. Unfortunately, Diana’s teacher was never in a place to help her pupil in this family affair, something that grew frustrating over time.
A dance instructor left feeling helpless
Those nine years of secret dance lessons allowed Anne Allan an opportunity to develop quite a friendship with Princess Diana. While she cherished their time together, she also couldn’t help but feel bad about Diana’s ongoing marital issues. Specifically, she felt bad that there was nothing she could actually do to help the other woman out.
As Allen told People, she also felt bad because Diana’s issues weren’t just a run-of-the-mill problem. “It’s not just a friend who’s going through something—there was much more at stake for her,” she said. “And she truly loved Charles.”
Sadly, Allen was never able to help the People’s Princess with these issues. But she did get to help in another way: by giving Diana some killer dance moves that she eventually got to unleash on the world.
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When Diana got to show off her secret skills
One of the reasons that Diana’s secret dance lessons are such a surprise is that very few people ever got to see the princess cutting a rug. However, she got to do so in real style on a couple of different occasions. In 1985, she danced with a young John Travolta during a White House dinner. While everyone present was very impressed, her worldwide dance debut came just a bit later.
That same year, she danced with pro dancer Wayne Sleep at a charity event. They danced to Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl,” and their passionate dancing lit up an event meant to honor Charles’ birthday. Unfortunately, the birthday boy was not too impressed with what he was seeing!
Prince Charles was unimpressed with her skills
According to Anne Allan, Prince Charles seemed chilly about the sight of his wife dancing with a celebrity stranger. This was doubly sad to Diana, who had secretly arranged the event with Wayne Sleep as a way of surprising Charles. And if the future king was annoyed at seeing his wife dance like this, he was even more steamed when the world got to see it.
Eventually, footage of Diana’s dance moves leaked out. Royal biographer Tina Brown claimed that Charles was very disappointed by the leak. Arguably, though, nobody was more disappointed by everything that happened than Diana herself.
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Why Diana’s hidden talent was so heartbreaking
The idea of Diana working so hard to impress Charles and then getting the cold shoulder was already pretty depressing. But what takes things to the next level is that Diana was motivated to surprise her husband like this because she desperately wanted to make him happy and never really felt any affection from him.
The dance with Wayne Sleep, then, made everything worse because Charles was even frostier to her than usual. Just like that, all of Diana’s hard work and planning was for naught as she tried to impress a husband who was already falling in love with another woman.