Royal flashback: Charles and Diana at the 1985 Melbourne Cup

Princess Diana and Prince Charles at the 1985 Melbourne Cup with Australian businessman John Elliott (left).

Prince Charles' and Camilla Parker-Bowles' appearance at this year's Melbourne Cup during their Australian tour has invoked memories of a prior royal visit to the Cup. According to TV NZ:

"The last time Prince Charles was at the Melbourne Cup 27 years ago, so the story goes, he left his wife by herself so he could join the boys at the bar.

And one chivalrous trainer thought it was unbecoming of the Prince of Wales to leave Princess Diana on her own.

John Meagher had just collected the loving cup from Prince Charles and joined the dignitaries upstairs in the VRC committee room after What A Nuisance had saluted in the 1985 race, but rather than join the blokes at the bar, the Queensland trainer played the proper gentleman when he spotted the lonely Princess of Wales.

'Charles went up to the committee room with the men to the bar, he was surrounded by all the committee men,' Meagher says.

'Diana was on her own with her lady in waiting, standing at a table about 20 feet away from the men. All alone.

'So I just went over to her and knew I had to do the right thing, so approached the lady in waiting and asked to be introduced. I had a good long talk to Diana for about 20 minutes.

'She was very friendly and very relaxed.'

The pair shared some champagne and small talk, while the tensions between Charles and Diana soon became apparent."

Reading between the lines, three things immediately stand out: (1) the intense and severe isolation that Diana was already experiencing from her husband and his circle of staff and friends; (2) the beginning of Charles and Diana drifting into two separate courts; and (3) how the public facade (per the above photo) convincingly hid the devastating truth of a royal marriage coming apart at the seams.