Prince Charles’ Cold Response to Diana’s Confession of Love Threw Her in Fits: "Whatever 'in Love' Means"

Princess Diana was left heartbroken when Prince Charles once retaliated to her confession of love with a cold-hearted response. The infamous interview when the royal couple announced their engagement left Lady Di "traumatized" for a very long time. It dates back to the year 1981 when the future royal bride and groom appeared together with Diana flaunting the blue sapphire engagement ring on her finger. According to Harper's Bazaar when a journalist asked the pair if they were in love, Diana said, "Of course."

Meanwhile, the Prince of Wales' response to it shattered the young Diana. Quipping immediately after Diana Spencer's response he said, "Whatever 'in love' means." While Diana laughed it off to ward off any embarrassment her disappointment was evident. Prince Charles didn't stop here as he went on to add that the phrase "in love" is open to "your own interpretation." Moments later when the journalist shared that the pair looked like "two very happy people," Diana clapped back responding, "As you can see," right when Charles affirmed and said, "Yes." Later in her documentary, Diana: In Her Own Words she shared in her personal audio recording that she was "traumatized" with the unhinged response by her fiancé. 

"Charles turned around and said, ‘Whatever in love means,’ and that threw me completely," the "Princess of People" said with a heavy heart. "I thought, ‘What a strange question — uh, answer.’ God, absolutely traumatized me," she added. The other parts of the interview were equally tormenting to dissect with Charles doing most of the talking and commenting on his future wife. In one statement he exclaimed that his fiancée would be "a very good housewife," as reported by The Times. Clarifying the intent the biographer Sally Bedell Smith, of the book Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbably Life, shared that the statement had a subtle expression of love. 

According to People, Bedell Smith said, "It was a totally inappropriate thing for him to say, but understandable given the way his mind worked and the kind of things he had said in prior years." Explaining further the author shared that King Charles was seeking answers to the meaning of life and discussed philosophical ideas in his previous interviews, hence the response made sense. "You should look at those words in the context of the series of interviews he gave in the 1970s about what he wanted in a wife and what being in love was all about," the writer said. 

"He can overthink things and be thinking out loud. I don’t see it as a cynical, cruel statement. She giggled and you don’t get any sense of her raising her eyebrows," she continued. Adding on she said that the awkward interview was blown out of proportion when the royal couple were heading towards a split in the 1990s. "It was only later when it came up — and it was misquoted to be, ‘Whatever love means,’" Bedell Smith concluded.