It was the royal wedding of the year, but when Sarah Chatto got married 30 years ago all eyes were on the warring Prince Charles and Diana as they arrived 45 seconds apart (but the Princess got the louder cheer)
As the daughter of Princess Margaret and niece of the Queen, Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones might have expected all eyes to be on her when she got married 30 years ago today.
But as she and actor Daniel Chatto tied the knot in the modest surrounds of London’s St Stephen Walbrook church, much of the attention was on another royal couple: the warring Prince and Princess of Wales.
The ceremony came just over two weeks after 13 million people had tuned in to watch Charles confess his adultery with the then Camilla Parker Bowles to interviewer Jonathan Dimbleby on TV.
That same evening, Diana had scored a memorable PR victory by wearing her black Christina Stambolian ‘revenge dress’ for a defiant appearance in front of the cameras at a dinner in London‘s Serpentine Gallery.
The wedding would be the first time since then that the estranged couple had appeared at the same public event and journalists were keen to analyse their every move.
The Princess received the largest cheer of the day when she arrived, as she hurried from her chauffeur-driven limousine with just a quick backward glance at the waiting crowd.
Timing was crucial because she did not want to bump into Charles, who arrived just 45 seconds later.
The Prince then escorted his grandmother the Queen Mother into the church via a side entrance and the royal matriarch sat between him and his wife.
It was noticed that the frosty couple didn’t exchange a word during the ceremony.
Charles and Diana had wanted very much to attend the wedding since they were both close to the bride.
As a child, Sarah had spent many holidays with her Windsor cousins and, though sixteen years younger than Charles, the two had much in common – especially a love of music and painting.
Sarah was chief bridesmaid to Diana at her 1981 wedding in St Paul’s Cathedral and three years later she was asked to be a godmother to Prince Harry.
The two were neighbours at Kensington Palace and shared a mischievous sense of humour.
Both Charles and Diana had had stressful news on the day of the wedding.
Diana, always sensitive to press criticism, was embarrassed about reports in that morning’s newspapers that ten days earlier her chauffeur had used a blue flashing light to speed her through traffic as she strove to catch a flight to Geneva from Heathrow.
The incident earned her an official reprimand, because the light should only have been used if a police officer was with her (which wasn’t the case), or if she was on official duty, which again she wasn’t.
Charles was also subdued because, shortly before setting off for the nuptials, he received a phone call from Camilla to tell him that her mother, Rosalind Shand, had died earlier that morning aged 74 as a result of her osteoporosis.
Camilla and her sister Annabel were comforting their father Major Bruce Shand when Charles rang the family to offer his condolences.
