In July of 1996, less than three weeks before the 15th wedding anniversary of the royal couple, Prince Charles and Princess Diana formally announced plans to end their troubled marriage.
By then, the "fairy tale" union had disintegrated into tabloid spectacle, with both prince and princess admitting adultery.
Some observers said the marriage was ill-fated from the beginning. The couple were often described as incompatible: Charles was aristocratic, an airy intellectual whose passions were horses, gardening and architecture. Diana loved pop music, fancy dresses and gossip.
It did not help that Charles maintained a close relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles, who he described in 1986 as "the love of my life." By the late 1980s, the couple's private troubles had become clear in their public appearances -- the strain barely concealed as they stood apart while attending to their royal duties.
In 1992, British "royal watcher" Andrew Morton published "Diana: Her True Story," which stated that Diana had suffered bouts of depression and bulimia and even attempted suicide while living a life of what one observer called "plush solitude."
The book -- which was authorized and some say co-authored by Diana -- outraged Charles, and just as importantly, his mother, Queen Elizabeth. More revelations of troubles from both sides followed and in December of 1992, the couple agreed to a formal separation.
Lonely and embattled and hounded by the ever-present tabloid press, Diana struggled to define herself in the aftermath of the separation.
In November of 1983, she stunned observers when she took the stage during a London charity event and made an unscheduled announcement. "Ladies and gentleman," she said, "I was supposed to have my head down the loo (toilet) for most of the day. I'm supposed to be dragged off the minute I leave here by men in white coats. (But) if it's all right with you. I thought I might postpone my nervous breakdown."
In 1995, Diana gave her extraordinary BBC television interview -- describing her bulimia, admitting adultery and accusing the royal family of being uncaring. For Queen Elizabeth, it was to be the last indignity. She demanded that her son end his marriage.
Under the July 1996 divorce agreement reached only after testy negotiations, Diana gave up the right to be Queen of England and to be called "Her Royal Highness." In return, she reportedly received a lump sum payment of more than $20 million in cash, another $600,000 a year to maintain her private office, and equal access to her children, Prince William and Prince Harry.
What the agreement did not give Diana was a private life to call her own -- far away from the telephoto lenses of a prying press.
