The Heart-Wrenching Utterance That Shattered Princess Diana's World: Prince Charles' Remark Following Harry's Birth

The union between Prince Charles and Diana, the Princess of Wales, remained a tumultuous journey, but a particular incident marked the point of no return.

"It would be lovely if we had a girl this time," Prince Charles whispered to a well-wisher amidst the bustling streets of London, as reported by the Daily Mail. The year was 2014, and the occasion was the anticipation of Kate Middleton's pregnancy. However, for those intimately connected with the late Princess Diana, this seemingly innocuous comment resurrected poignant memories of the moment when the adored "People's Princess" realized the inevitable demise of her already troubled marriage to Prince Charles.

Over the 23 years following Princess Diana's tragic demise, numerous concealed facets of her marriage to Prince Charles have come to light. One such revelation had been confided by Diana to her biographer, Andrew Morton, who unveiled it in his 1992 book, "Diana: Her True Story." However, it remained largely obscured from public scrutiny until the birth of Princess Charlotte in 2015.

This long-buried secret resurfaced with the advent of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's family life, and gained even more prominence following Prince Harry's recent revelations regarding his father's refusal to answer his calls after his and Meghan's decision to step back from their senior royal roles.

The secret in question pertains to the time when Diana was pregnant with Prince Harry. At that pivotal moment, Prince Charles harbored a fervent desire for a baby girl. Yet, upon Prince Harry's birth, his very first words pierced Princess Diana's heart: "Oh God, it's a boy," he reportedly exclaimed.

Though Charles brushed off this statement as a jest, Diana, the new mother, felt a profound pang of hurt for several reasons. In the weeks leading up to Prince Harry's birth, Diana and Charles had been diligently working on their marital bond and had grown incredibly close, as reported by The Mirror.

Knowing Charles's yearning for a daughter, Diana chose to withhold the news of carrying a baby boy, hoping that the birth of a healthy son would bring joy to Charles and help him overcome his preference. Unfortunately, reality diverged from her expectations.

Adding to the sting was Charles's subsequent comment: "And he's even got red hair." This additional "joke" struck at the core of Diana's emotions. To begin with, Diana's family history boasted a lineage of redheads, so the comment held a primal insult. Moreover, Diana may have perceived it as Charles needling her about her previous extramarital affair with the red-haired James Hewitt, even though that affair had ended two years prior to Prince Harry's conception.

Lastly, Diana had just endured nine grueling hours of natural childbirth, following a miscarriage prior to her pregnancy with Harry.

Despite Charles's awareness of Diana's sensitivity on this subject, he revisited it during Prince Harry's christening, this time in conversation with Diana's own mother, Frances Kydd. "We were so disappointed – we thought it would be a girl," he purportedly remarked to Frances, who bristled at the comment and promptly relayed it to Diana.

With that remark, Diana confided to Morton, "something inside me closed off." As she described it, "Our marriage, our entire relationship, came crashing down as abruptly as Harry entered the world." The official divorce would only come to pass in 1996, a full 12 years later.