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The heartbreaking reason you wouldn’t have seen Princess Diana in any Chanel shoes after her divorce

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Princess Diana (Photo: Getty Images)
Princess Diana (Photo: Getty Images)

Cape Town – This year marks what would've been the 38th wedding anniversary of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana. The people's princess tragically died in a car accident in 1997 – one year after her divorce from the Prince of Wales.

Princess Diana retained her double-storey apartment at Kensington Palace while continuing the work she was passionate about. But nothing would be the same after the divorce, and there's one particular thing she couldn't quite get herself to do again: wear Chanel.

Jayson Brundson, an Australian designer, spoke to Harper's BAZAAR about working with Princess Diana in 1996. He was helping style Diana, along with hairdresser Joh Bailey, for a hospital charity event. When it came to accessorising her outfit, she asked Jayson for help.

"She went back to her bedroom, and she came out holding like handfuls of shoes and bags and just dumped them all down on the couch. Then said, 'What do you think?'.

"So I went through them all, and I found a pair of Chanel shoes, and I said, 'Well these would look great with the Versace', and she said 'No, I can't wear linked Cs, the double C'."

"I asked why, and she said, 'It's Camilla and Charles'."

Jayson explained it wasn't about the brand, but the timing. "She would have seen linked Cs and they would have just reminded her of Charles and Camilla."

ALSO READ: A look back at the first ever royal wedding that melted hearts: Prince Charles and Princess Diana

In her 1995 interview with Martin Bashir, the British journalist asked if Diana was happy early on in her marriage to which she responded, "Very much so. But, the pressure on us both as a couple with the media was phenomenal, and misunderstood by a great many people."

Talking about battling with bulimia, she said, "The cause [of her bulimia] was the situation where my husband and I had to keep everything together because we didn't want to disappoint the public, and yet obviously there was a lot of anxiety going on within our four walls."

Princess Diana revealed that the "wedding of the century" and the marriage that followed, ended long before the couple's divorce. And while the public may not have necessarily known, the pain was way beyond what Diana could bare. 

READ NEXT: Kate completed her Wimbledon outfit with a pair of Aldo heels – and they’re available in SA stores!

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