Princess Diana was a talented dancer, as shown on an episode of The Crown when she surprised King Charles by dancing to “Uptown Girl” on stage. The moment really did happen, almost exactly as portrayed on the Netflix show. Here’s what we know about the former Princess of Wales’ performance and what her dance teachers knew about her marriage.
Princess Diana surprised King Charles by dancing to ‘Uptown Girl’ in ‘The Crown’
Season 4, episode 9 of The Crown, titled “Avalanche,” shows a revealing moment in Princess Diana and King Charles’ marriage.
At the start of the episode, Charles and Diana attended a show at the Royal Opera House. The princess slipped out of her seat only to emerge on stage with Royal Ballet dancer Wayne Sleep. The duo performed a choreographed dance to Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl” with Diana wearing a white silk dress.
A YouTube video of the scene showed Diana, played by Emma Corrin, beaming on stage into the crowd as Charles, played by Josh O’Connor, watched uncomfortably.
After the show, O’Connor’s Charles asked Corrin’s Diana what she was thinking, calling the surprise a “grotesque, mortifying display.”
Princess Diana really did surprise King Charles with her ‘Uptown Girl’ dance as shown on ‘The Crown’
The opening scene in The Crown season 4, episode 9 really happened: the real-life Princess Diana surprised King Charles by dancing to “Uptown Girl” on stage.
The former Princess of Wales was a skilled dancer and a huge supporter of the English National Ballet. She approached Wayne Sleep with the idea of performing the Billy Joel song for her husband.
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“She approached me again when she wanted to perform at the Royal Opera House – it was a private show for supporters and friends of the Royal Ballet,” Sleep told The Guardian in 2017. “Charles was going to be in the audience and she wanted to surprise him; it was all top secret.”
The dancer described his nerves throughout the December 1985 performance. “I remember thinking, ‘Don’t drop the future Queen of England,’” Sleep said. “She loved it, but was most thrilled we’d kept it secret from Charles, and our rehearsals away from the paparazzi.”
He added, “She loved the freedom dancing gave her. A few days later, I got a letter. She wrote: ‘Now I understand the buzz you get from performing.’”
1 of the Princess of Wales’ dance teachers said she shared secrets about her marriage
Wayne Sleep wasn’t the only dancer Princess Diana worked with. In 1981, she approached Anne Allan, an instructor at the English National Ballet, to hire her as a private tutor. It was the same year as the princess’ 20th birthday and her wedding to Prince Charles.
During their time together, Diana confided in her dance teacher, sharing intimate details of her turbulent marriage to Charles. Allan shared some details she heard from the former Princess of Wales in the Channel 4 documentary Diana: In Her Own Words.
“She loved Charles, yes. But Charles loved another woman,” the instructor said (per The Sun). “It’s very hard for any woman when you love someone and you realize that perhaps they don’t love you. I think it made her very sad – devastated. She felt she wasn’t enough.”
Allan said Diana desperately wanted to make her relationship with Charles work. “She told me that she was pregnant and she wanted to give her marriage absolutely everything that she could,” she shared. “She really wanted everybody to feel proud, but particularly Charles.”
