Princess Diana kept 'important detail' from King Charles when pregnant with Harry, royal author claims
A royal author has alleged that the late Princess of Wales kept one detail about her unborn baby a secret from her then-husband, Prince Charles, during her pregnancy with Prince Harry.
The surprising claim appears in Ingrid Seward's biography Catherine & Diana, which explores the lives of two women who held the same royal title.
According to Seward, Princess Diana knew the gender of her second child, but reportedly chose not to tell Charles, who she knew had hoped their second child would be a girl.
"Oddly, despite the closeness she had felt with Charles before Harry's birth, she never told him she was expecting another boy," Seward writes, according to excerpts seen by Woman & Home.
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The author suggests Diana's decision was connected to the emotional vulnerability she was experiencing at the time, writing that she knew her husband had 'longed for a daughter'.
As we now know, Prince Harry was born on 15 September 1984 at St Mary's Hospital in London.
At the time, the future King appeared delighted by the arrival of his second son, describing the birth as 'absolutely marvellous', according to reports.
But the circumstances surrounding Harry's arrival came during a particularly complicated period in Charles and Diana's marriage.
The Princess later reflected on the months surrounding her youngest son's birth in recordings made for Andrew Morton's biography Diana: In Her Own Words.
She described the six weeks before Harry was born as the 'closest' she and Charles, who were already parents to Prince William, had ever been.
That period of apparent closeness, however, did not last.
Speaking in the recordings, Diana said: "And then as suddenly as Harry was born, it just went bang, our marriage. The whole thing went down the drain."
She also claimed Charles had wanted two children and had hoped the second would be a daughter.
The birth of Harry therefore marked a complicated moment in the couple’s relationship - publicly, the arrival of a second son was a major royal occasion, while Diana later described the period as the point when their relationship began to deteriorate.
Seward's claim about Diana knowing Harry's sex in advance also offers an interesting detail about Charles' long-standing wish for a daughter.
Decades later, that wish finally came true within the next generation of the Royal Family.
When Charles' first granddaughter, Princess Charlotte, was born in 2015, he reportedly revealed that he had been hoping for a girl.
He described the newborn princess as 'beautiful' and joked that he hoped she would look after him when he was very old.
Charlotte's arrival was particularly significant given Charles’ earlier desire for a daughter. Her name is also a feminine form of Charles, while her full name - Charlotte Elizabeth Diana - pays tribute to several members of the Royal Family.
Topics: Prince Harry, Princess Diana, Royal Family, UK News
Rhianna Benson