The One Odd Detail In Pictures Of Princess Diana And Prince Charles

Jul 07, 2021

There is something about royal love that captures the imagination. However, although the relationship between Prince Charles and Princess Diana initially appeared to be a fairy tale, it turned out that the union was not quite as idyllic as it seemed. Nevertheless, the royal couple bore two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, who at the time became second and third in line to the British throne.

Despite the dissolution of their 15-year-marriage not long before Diana tragically passed away in 1997, there was still an incredible amount of photos of the couple taken during that time. After all, they were probably one of the most famous couples in the world.

But one aspect of these photos has come to light in recent years and it's a little bit odd. Brought to attention in March 2017 by sociologist Philip N. Cohen, it appears that in many official photos of Charles and Diana, she is considerably shorter than her husband. But in reality, the couple were almost the same height! Cohen tweeted a series of images that demonstrate this, pointing it out as an inaccuracy many people may have learned to accept over time. 

From candid photos and video footage, we can see that the couple is very close in height, but it doesn't answer why Charles is so much taller than Diana in many professional photos.

Another interesting and related bit of information is that it seems Diana mostly wore flat shoes when in the company of her husband, probably to ensure the height difference between them was at a maximum. Now that we've pointed this detail out, you probably won't be able to unsee it. 

Diana Frances Spencer was born into the noble Spencer family, which has been closely allied with the British Crown for generations. However, she rose even closer to the royal throne in 1981, when she got engaged to Queen Elizabeth's first son, Prince Charles. They got married in a lavish wedding later that year, and thus she became known as the Princess of Wales.

The two made an enchantingly beautiful couple and were a global sensation at the time, but over the years, rumors and gossip surrounding their relationship made them seem incompatible. However, one thing that stood out from the beginning was beyond Diana's control: her height.

According to many reliable sources, the Princess of Wales was 5 feet 10 inches (or 1.78 meters) tall, making her much taller than the average British woman, who is about 5 feet 3 inches. It also makes her arguably the same height as her husband, Charles, and explains part of why the couple's sons Prince William and Prince Harry, who stand at 6 feet 3 inches and 6 feet 1 inch, respectively, got their tall genes.

This fact was pointed out in March 2017 in two separate tweets by user Philip N. Cohen, who suggested that the Prince of Wales appeared about a foot taller in all their formal photographs. This is something that is widely known to be inaccurate since the two were virtually the same height. The tweets evoked retweets galore and comments from royal fans who speculated this was done deliberately, while many others were just as surprised. 

The story becomes stranger upon realizing that when the photos were not staged in many instances, the couple seemed to be of equal height. The first photo that Cohen posted was a post office stamp that depicted Prince Charles to be about a foot taller than his then-wife. In the instance of this photo, it's been proposed that Prince Charles stood on a box to conceal their height difference. This was also clear from their engagement photo, taken outside Windsor Castle, in which the prince stood a step higher than his fiancée.

Cohen followed up his first tweet with a second one that put together more of their staged photos, proving something really was going on. In other examples, Diana can be seen leaning or tilting her head in a way that made her look smaller than her husband, while other times, she slumped or slouched so that her husband would tower above her. Furthermore, according to Marie Claire, Diana rarely wore high heels to further disguise that the two were almost of equal height.

Despite the nearly indisputable fact that the former couple was of equal height, it is apparent that some efforts were made to hide this detail. The Society Pages reports that these efforts were geared towards conforming to the old tradition that men are supposed to be taller than their spouses. 

There are many things that royal fans will never really figure out, and this just might be one of those things. While it is better as water under the bridge, this is a realization you will never unsee. For some unknown reason, it is among the few things that Diana did not openly express her dissatisfaction with despite calling out many royal protocols and subjective rules.

Did you ever notice this from Prince Charles and Princess Diana's formal photos together? If you learned something from this article, be sure to pass it on to those you know!