TL;DR:
- Princess Diana and King Charles III had one of their “most ‘together’ pictures” at the Queen Mother’s birthday in 1987.
- According to a body language expert, it offered a rare glimpse of them “both doing the same thing.”
- However, their body language wasn’t without “negative” aspects.
King Charles III and Princess Diana had a famously tumultuous marriage prior to their 1996 divorce. However, the pair did have their moments. Among them, a 1987 photo where, according to a body language expert, they looked like a “unit.”
Charles and Diana looked ‘focused in one energy and one emotion’ with identical body language
Examining a 1987 photo of the then-Prince and Princess of Wales, body language expert Traci Brown noticed an unusual sight. Rather the absence of the king and Diana’s more common inharmonious body language.
It was August 4, 1987, and the pair had been married for a little more than six years. They stood outside Clarence House with other members of the royal family.
The reason? A birthday in the royal family.
The Queen Mother, who had a close relationship with the king, turned 87 that day. And, according to the Persuasion Point author, the photo from her birthday featured body language not often associated with Diana and the king.
“This is one of the most ‘together’ pictures we’ve seen from them because they’re both doing the same thing,” Brown said (via Today).
“They’re not tight and close, but they’re both looking at each other. Their hands are both behind their backs,” she continued. “This is one of those moments where they’re a unit. We see them focused in one energy and one emotion.”
Princess Diana’s body language hinted at ‘power’ by ‘mirroring’ King Charles in the 1987 photo
Not only did King Charles and Diana look like a “unit” but other things were going on too. Take the way the king, now 74, stands in the photo.
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According to body language expert Patti Wood, Diana doing the same pose as her then-husband suggested “power.”
“Charles always has his arms behind the back,” she said. “The royal resting position for the prince is to stand that way, but Diana’s doing it, so her hands are not in front of her, protecting.”
“She’s mirroring him, which shows a lot more power on her part,” the SNAP: Making the Most of First Impressions author continued, noting Diana “didn’t do this in the beginning of the marriage.”
Despite “mirroring” each other and looking “together,’” King Charles and Diana’s body language still hinted at negativity. “They’re making eye contact, but they’re communicating a negative message to each other with that eye contact,” Wood said.
Photographers noticed signs of trouble in photos from Charles and Diana’s last royal tour together
The end of King Charles and Diana’s marriage became obvious to photographers in 1992. As Arthur Edwards, who photographed the royal family for over 44 years, recalled on Yahoo UK’s The Royal Box, their Korea tour became known as “The Glums’ tour.”
“It was only when we went to Korea, the last tour, when you knew it was all over then because they couldn’t bear to be in each other’s company,” Edwards said, calling it “so miserable.”
When the announcement of King Charles and Diana’s separation came in December 1992, “no one was surprised,” Edwards said. “There were the signs earlier when we were in India [February 1992], when he went to kiss her at the polo match and she turned her head.”
Showbiz Cheat Sheet acknowledges conditions and cultures can impact body language and is sensitive to all backgrounds.
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