King Charles’ separation from Princess Diana remains one of the most closely examined episodes in modern royal history. Their troubled marriage became the subject of intense public speculation before the couple officially announced their split in December 1992.
Although the couple announced their separation in December 1992, rumors that their marriage was in trouble had circulated for years. Veteran royal photographer Arthur Edwards has now recalled how one famously uncomfortable photograph appeared to reveal the painful reality behind the failing relationship.
In his autobiography, Cup of Tea, Arthur? My Extraordinary 50 Years Photographing the Royal Family, Edwards described an awkward moment during Charles and Diana’s 1992 tour of India. To him, the encounter suggested that the royal marriage was barely holding together.
The image captured then-Prince Charles leaning in to kiss Diana as she turned her head away.
Edwards also revealed that he once asked the late Princess Diana why she had been making more public appearances without her husband. In an excerpt published by The Sun, the royal photographer wrote, “I became so concerned about the amount of time she and Charles were spending apart that, at a cocktail party in Madrid, I asked her to explain.”
Edwards recalled asking Diana, “What’s this all about you leading separate lives?” Rather than appear unsettled, she responded with a joke about the rumors surrounding the royal couple’s marriage.
Diana attributed their separate engagements to the growing number of invitations they were receiving. She explained, “We couldn’t possibly get through many if we did them all together. So, we’ve decided to accept as many as we can separately. That means we can get to twice as many places and meet twice as many people.”
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Princess Diana said she and King Charles cried together on the sofa after the divorce. The lies told in the press were at complete odds with the two very hurt people with two young children. To this day I still believe that King Charles and Prince William were the only two people Diana truly trusted. That is what really drives the venom from those on the ‘periphery’ of her story.
— FAN of the Prince & Princess of Wales (@TribesBritannia) September 25, 2026
Arthur Edwards said he almost accepted Diana’s light-hearted explanation—until a now-infamous photograph taken during the couple’s February 1992 visit to India appeared to tell a very different story.
The veteran royal photographer explained, “When I am with the Royal Family, I am looking for a picture that tells you the story without a caption, a picture that screams out what it is.”
Edwards recalled photographing Charles and Diana at the Rajasthan Polo Club. The resulting image, he said, “was screaming at the reader, ‘Our marriage is in trouble.’”
In the excerpt, Edwards wrote, “Prince Charles probably didn’t think it was a great shot when he went to kiss Diana at the polo match in Jaipur and she turned her head to produce ‘the kiss’ that missed.”
Diana, dressed in a yellow-and-pink outfit, turned away awkwardly as then-Prince Charles attempted to kiss the side of her head.
Describing the effort required to transmit the image, Edwards said, “I recall being in a room with my satphone, trying to find the satellite to send that picture, which I knew would be on page one because it definitely did not need a caption.”
The photograph offered a stark preview of the collapse of Charles and Diana’s marriage. Following his separation from Diana, Charles married Camilla, now Queen Camilla, on Apr. 9, 2005. Diana died in a car crash in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997.