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.

Diana, Charles, and Camilla: Love at first sight

Photo credit: Love at First Sight

Prince Charles, so the story goes, chose Lady Diana Spencer to be his wife because of her valuable qualities:  she was a young, pretty, virginal, and sweet tempered Protestant from one of Great Britain's most aristocratic families. However, did their subconscious attraction to each other's facial features and facial proportions help seal the deal?

This is the intriguing angle examined in Love at First Sight, by British portrait painter Suzi Malin. The book was sparked while painting a posthumous portrait of the Princess of Wales, when Malin noticed similar facial features between Charles and Diana. What followed was five years of research. According to the book, there are three types of visual attraction. In the case of Charles and Diana, their attraction was one of the most famous cases of  harmonism. They had similar facial proportions; although their features were different, the spacing between their features were the same.

Malin also states that "when brothers have similar facial proportions and each takes a harmonist partner their wives might well look alike." This may help to explain the striking resemblance between Diana and Sophie, Countess of Essex.

Malin argues that harmonists "like the way the other looks and feel comfortable with them, but because they fall in love with the outside appearance, if the inner beauty doesn't match up, the relationship starts to feel hollow. Such pairings have a high casualty rate." Little wonder, then, that Charles' and Diana's celebrated marriage fell apart in such an appalling manner.

Photo credit: Taman Kanak-Kanak Sanggawinaya Blog

Malin asserts that Camilla Parker-Bowles' resemblance to Charles' nanny Mabel Anderson is more than a coincidence. This is an example of another type of visual attraction, called prima copulism, where one romantic partner "is drawn to the other as they are subconsciously reminded of their first love - their mother or father." The first love can also be a nanny if she was an important figure in that person's life.
At the end of the day, we can't help who we're attracted to, and it seems that royals are no different.





Sources: (1) "Face facts about falling in love", Sunday Sun, February 8, 2004; (2) "Suzi Malin", New London News newsletter, September 2007.

Prince Charles and Camilla: My weird dream

I had an interesting dream last night about Prince Charles and Camilla. It started with me and Camilla in the back of a car, being driven to a rectory/church. She was wearing purple, and was upset, although I didn't quite know why. When we arrived, Camilla started crying inconsolably.
She walked down one path to the rectory/church; I took another path. I kept on looking for her and calling out her name. I was fiercely protective of her.

Next thing I knew, I was seated in the audience at a talk show. William and Harry were also in the audience somewhere. During the show, it was revealed that Charles had been cheating on Camilla with one of her closest confidants. There were videos and photos of him and his mistress cuddling, hugging, and playing footsie. I thought how ironic it was that Charles was cheating on Camilla with another woman, just as he had cheated on Diana with Camilla.

Then, when I looked down, I realized I was naked, and slouched forward as much as possible to hide my nakedness...

*End of dream*