68
253). Nevertheless, the press made Prince Charles the scapegoat and used Diana’s failure to
mention him as proof that he was at fault (Smith, 2007, p. 254). In reality, there were many motives
why Diana had decided to announce her withdrawal from public life, but mostly she felt that she
needed time and space for herself (Bradford, 2007, p. 254). In addition, at the beginning of 1994,
Diana dispensed with her personal protection (Smith, 2007, p. 276), as she felt that she could no
longer bear the restrictions that having a protection officer always with her brought to her life
(Bradford, 2007, p. 252). Nonetheless, The Metropolitan Police, who guard the Royal Family, were
horrified at the idea of
leaving Diana, one of the world’s
most famous faces, on her own, and while
they agreed to withdraw her personal protection, they continued to monitor her movements from
a discreet distance (Morton, 2010, pp. 241-242).
Prince Charles’s camp had been planning a riposte to Morton’s book since the summer of 1992,
which was to be an interview and an authorized biography of Prince Charles by Jonathan Dimbleby
based on interviews with not only Prince Charles’s friends and staff but also himself, and with the
use of Prince Charles’s correspondence and diaries, officially to mark the 25
th
anniversary of
Prince
Charles’s investiture as Prince of Wales (Bradford, 2007, p. 260). Diana awaited the release of both
the interview and the book in trepidation, because she knew they would be Prince Charles’s
statements as much as Morton’s book had been hers (Brown, 2008, p. 380). The interview was
broadcast on 29 June 1994 (Bradford, 2007, p. 261). Per Smith (2007), however, two days before
the broadcast, the fact that Prince Charles would admit his adultery in the interview had been
revealed: by then, Prince Charles had already briefed Diana and other members of the Royal Family
on the points the programme would cover. Dimbleby’s interview with Prince Charles touched on
the Prince’s view of public service, child-rearing, the monarchy, the Church of England, architecture,
the armed services, and the press, to mention a few (pp. 264-265). Nevertheless, according to
Bradford (2007), the most memorable part of the interview was Prince Charles’s answer to
Dimbleby’s direct question as to whether he had been faithful in his marriage, to which Prince
Charles replied that he had until his marriage had irretrievably broken down. The general public
applauded Prince Charles for his honesty, but people close to the Royal Family, Prince Charles, Diana
and Camilla were unanimous in their condemnation. Because of the programme, Andrew Parker
Bowles decided to divorce Camilla: he had been perfectly willing to countenance his wife’s
relationship with Prince Charles as long as it remained discreet, or at the very least out of the public