When Carolyn Pride got married on September 3, 1982, Princess Diana went to great lengths to ensure she was there to support her former flatmate on her big day.
The Princess of Wales left ten-week-old William at Balmoral and flew with Prince Charles to the wedding in London.
Diana’s old school friend Carolyn married brewery heir William Bartholomew at Chelsea Old Church 42 years ago today.
The Princess wore a hot pink sailor-style dress boasting a white collar that she paired with a white hat trimmed with navy and matching kitten heels.
After the ceremony, Diana is said to have waved and warmly exclaimed, ‘have a lovely honeymoon’, as the couple drove away together.
+8
Princess Diana wearing a hot pink sailor-style dress with a white collar to Carolyn Pride’s wedding in 1982
+8
The princess standing with Carolyn and her husband William Bartholomew after their wedding ceremony
+8
Diana greeting a bridesmaid at her friends wedding at Chelsea Old Church 42 years ago today
The bride’s mother, Mrs Sally Pride, said at the time: ‘It was jolly nice of the Princess to come – it put the crowning touch on a lovely day.
‘She chatted to all the bridesmaids and was her usual gorgeous self.’
The Daily Mail reported how Charles ‘gave the bride a warm hug’ after the ceremony, while Diana admired her friend’s wedding gown and ‘giggled’.
The couple did not stay for the reception afterwards – held at the Duke of York’s barracks in Chelsea – but instead travelled back to Scotland to be with Prince William.
Before Diana married into the Royal Family she lived with Carolyn and two other flatmates – Virginia Pitman and Annie Bolton.
Diana and Annie had their own bedrooms while Carolyn and Virginia shared. The flat was bought for the princess by her mother Frances and Diana charged the girls £18 a week rent.
+8
A Daily Mail newspaper report from the wedding detailing how Diana said to the newly wed couple, ‘Have a lovely honeymoon’
+8
Before Diana married into the Royal Family she lived with Carolyn and two other flatmates – Virginia Pitman and Annie Bolton
+8
Diana with her son, Prince William, in New Zealand when he was less than a year old
The trio were some of the princess’s closest friends.
They shared many secrets and stories with one another inside the apartment on the corner of Old Brompton Road and The Little Boltons in south-west London – including the details of Diana’s early relationship with Charles.
One of the flatmates, Virginia Pitman, previously told how Diana burst into the three-bedroom flat and said: ‘Just as I would be saying, “Oh my God, I met this guy last night”, Diana was going, “Oh my God I met this guy at the weekend but I have to call him Your Highness.”
Diana also shared the news of her engagement with her flatmates three weeks before it was officially announced.
Carolyn supported Diana during her own wedding preparations and the trio would visit Diana at Buckingham Palace after she moved there.
Virginia recalled: ‘The sweetest thing I can remember is when she moved into Buckingham Palace.
‘She liked to invite us round there sometimes. We were there when her wedding veil arrived.
‘I think it was Carolyn and me and Diana and we were taking it in turns trying it on and imagining what was coming. It was surreal, wandering around her bedroom in the palace wearing the veil.’
+8
The newly wed couple Carolyn Pride and William Bartholomew in September 1982
+8
Diana smiling at her close friend as they walk by following their wedding ceremony
When Carolyn lived with Diana, she was studying singing and piano at the Royal College of Music.
An accomplished sportswoman as well as a musician, it was reported that she had too many rosettes and that they wouldn’t all fit in the flat.
During an auction in 2017, ‘intimate letters’ that Diana sent to Carolyn fetched more than £93,000.
Carolyn is one of Prince Harry’s godmothers and attended his 2018 wedding to Meghan Markle.
Her husband is now a party organiser and the couple have two children together.
