This Gift From Princess Diana Angered Prince Charles

Before things went downhill between Princess Diana and Prince Charles, Princess Diana was the sweet and thoughtful kind. In fact, in 1985, the Princess of Wales excitedly prepared a surprise Christmas gift for her husband. Unfortunately, the surprise got everyone thrilled but Prince Charles.

Princess Diana had always had a soft spot for ballet dancing. When she was a kid, she took up ballet and continued to take lessons even after her marriage into the royal family. According to the documentary “Diana: The Woman Inside,” she even participated in the English National Ballet rehearsals but had to give up her dream of performing because of her height.

“I actually wanted to be a dancer, but I overshot the height by a long way,” said Princess Diana. “I couldn’t imagine some man trying to lift me up over his arms, but I do dance once a week if I can,” she added.

Although Princess Diana failed to pursue ballet, she did not spend years of her life learning ballet for nothing. In 1985, as she prepared for the royal family’s Christmas gala at Covent Garden, she decided to come up with a special ballet performance for her husband as a means of surprising him. Asking English dancer Wayne Sleep to dance with her, Princess Diana and the renowned dancer prepared a three-minute routine and rehearsed for days for their “Uptown Girl” presentation.

According to the documentary, Princess Diana didn’t intend to tell Prince Charles about the performance as her plan was to do the dance as a tribute to him. However, things did not turn out as planned. When the gala came, Prince Charles was surprised when his wife quietly slipped out of her seat next to him. After Sleep danced solo on stage for the intro, Princess Diana made her way onto the stage, dancing. Sleep danced and carried the princess from one side of the stage to the other, until both of them ended the performance showing off some big kicks.

While Princess Diana and Sleep’s performance was a hit among the audience, Prince Charles was not impressed. He reportedly hated the fact that Princess Diana performed in front of 2,000 people without telling him. “Charles wasn’t terribly impressed, because he thought she was showing off,” Richard Kay, a friend of Princess Diana, revealed in the documentary.