Nearly three decades after Princess Diana’s death, photographs of the late royal continue to fascinate fans – but one famous image with King Charles has left some doing a double take over a detail that doesn’t seem to add up.
Diana was just 36 when she died following a car crash in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997, almost one year after her divorce from Charles was finalized on Aug. 28, 1996, bringing a devastating end to a life that had only recently entered a new chapter.
Now, 30 years later, interest in the Princess of Wales remains just as strong, with old photographs offering glimpses into everything from her public life to her complicated 15-year marriage to Charles, who was then the Prince of Wales.
Charles and Diana at Balmoral
Among them is a familiar image taken at Balmoral in 1981, the year the couple married. Diana, wearing a tan jacket, is pictured beside Charles in a green sweater as he places an arm around her, with the Scottish landscape stretching behind them.
Yet there is something curious about the photograph.
Charles appears to tower over his new wife, with the top of Diana’s head barely reaching his eye level – an apparently significant height difference between two people widely reported to have stood around 5 feet 10 inches tall
And that impression isn’t limited to one photograph.
Images from throughout their marriage sometimes show Charles noticeably taller than Diana, while others put the couple almost eye-to-eye, prompting royal watchers to question how the difference could seemingly change from one photograph to another
Fiana looks much shorter
One fan highlighted the discrepancy in a Facebook video featuring photographs of the couple taken over the years.
“Why did Princess Diana look shorter than Prince Charles even though they were the same height? Diana and Charles were both 178cm tall, but they were often photographed as if Diana were much shorter than Charles,” the caption reads.
The fan suggested the way the couple was positioned reflected expectations of the era, when a future king appearing taller than his wife could reinforce traditional ideas surrounding status and masculinity.
“These photos were taken in the 1980s, when the royal family still adhered to the old standards. The photographers were trying to portray the power and status of the future king by making him look taller than his wife. Diana, on the other hand, is in a more modest position,” they wrote.
Why Charles appeared taller than Diana
The idea that something deeper may have been at play has also been explored by sociologist Lisa Wade, who examined photographs of Charles and Diana through the lens of traditional expectations surrounding gender and height.
“They were typically arranged so as to suggest that he was significantly taller than her, or at least to disguise the fact that he was not,” Wade, associate professor of sociology and gender at Tulane University, wrote in an essay titled “Prince Charles and the Manufacture of Men’s Superior Height.”
For Wade, the photographs reflected a much broader social convention rather than simply an unusual quirk of royal portraiture.
“One of the most unbreakable rules of mating involves height. He must be taller than her, preferably significantly taller,” Wade explained.
This effort to make Charles appear taller is a social commitment to the idea that men are taller and women shorter. When our own bodies, and our chosen mates, don’t follow this rule, sometimes we’ll go to great lengths to preserve the illusion,” she continued.
Mystery solved
The contrast becomes particularly interesting when compared with photographs of the next generation
Prince William stands around 6 feet 3 inches tall, while Catherine, Princess of Wales, is approximately 5 feet 9 inches, giving the couple a genuine height difference. Yet depending on their shoes, positioning and pose, photographs can sometimes make that gap appear considerably smaller.
It’s a reminder of just how deceptive a photograph can be, which brings the mystery surrounding Charles and Diana’s apparent height difference back to where it started – that famous image from Balmoral.
Other photographs from the same setting provide the missing piece, revealing that Diana was actually sitting on a bench, an easily overlooked detail that made Charles appear considerably taller than his new wife.
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