Scandals That Rocked The World
by Scandals involving obscure and plain individuals might not be disturbing and nerve rocking as we might think, but when famous personalities are involved, it will surely generate headlines and attract media attentions and gossipers for ages.
The prince finally yanked the loose thread of the monarchy, when he agreed to a television interview hosted by his biographer, Jonathan Dimbleby, where he admitted his adultery which, for many royalists, deemed inappropriate to discuss by the future King of England. One writer commented that the Prince, surely, was not the first heir to the throne who committed adultery but he was the first to admit before millions of people worldwide, the Queen was incensed with her son’s total indiscretion, while his father, Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh commented something on his son’s brain being sucked dry. Most of his future subjects were disappointed with Charles’ unreasonable behavior. Many of those subjects called the Queen to scrap him from the line of succession and passed the throne directly to his son Prince William.
The royal scandal climax came when Diana’s former lover Major James Hewitt sold his detailed story about his torrid affair with the Princess. The kiss-and-tell story of Major Hewitt was followed by a secret wiretapping of the passionate telephone conversation between Diana and her supposed lover James Gilby who called the Princess of Wales through out their conversation as Squidgy, this eventually dubbed by the media as Sgquidgygate scandal. In 1995, another secret telephone conversation was tapped involving Prince Charles having a “dirty talk” with his mistress Camilla Parker Bowles, the transcript of their explicit conversations were distributed among tabloids making the Prince of Wales a laughing stock among his subjects, this was later named as Camillagate scandal.
None in British history did the monarchy experience such outrageous misconduct among royal members, not even during King Henry VIII’s dumping and changing of wives, nor at the height of King Charles II’s shopping and hopping of mistresses. The British monarchy looked like a three ring circus, deeply shook with terrible controversies of adultery, misconduct, immorality and divorces, that many feared it would dissolve soon, the magic of the throne slowly eroding and the subjects felt they were being cheated. People began questioning themselves if they really need a monarchy. But Prince Charles was unrepentant, defending his actions as reasonable and appropriate.
The Prince and Princess of Wales struggled to put their names back to dignified positions by doing charitable campaigns, it was highly effective to the Princess of Wales, but not to Prince Charles who was largely criticized by the media as boring and uninspiring King-in-waiting. Diana was partly forgiven, sighting the sad plight of her loveless marriage and the callous behavior of Charles as the ultimate reason behind her adultery. The Princess, who captured the world’s imagination with her unique charm, kindness, compassion and humility, was even more loved and praised with her effort to redeem herself. She was also regarded as the most attentive parent to William and Harry. Tired and defeated with public competition against his wife, Prince Charles retired to the comforting arms of his mistress.
Great Britain now is reeling with international humiliation so the Queen finally moved forward to end the debacles. She urged the couple to divorce to spare their children from further emotional trauma. Diana at first hesitated, but Prince Charles was determined to end the misery. Finally, after seven months of stressful negotiations, the royal marriage disbanded on August 1996. The Princess of Wales retained her residence at Kensington Palace and as a mother of a future King, she remained a member of the British royal family.
But she did not live long to enjoy her life as a free woman, on August 31,1997, she died tragically in Paris, France when the car, she and her companion Dodi Al-fayed, was riding slammed on the 13th pillar of the Ponte d’ Alma tunnel. Her body was taken by Charles to England and was buried on her family estate at Althorp. Prince Charles made his relationship to Camilla public even before Diana’s death and on April 2005, he finally married her. As a divorce woman, Camilla will not be crowned as Queen when Charles someday ascended the throne, she would only style as Princess Consort.
This royal scandal almost cost the highest throne on earth, worst than the crisis created by Charles’ great uncle Edward VIII in 1936, the adultery and public disclosures of both Charles and Diana were disgraceful that people started analyzing if royalty is still worthy to be worshipped and praised. Nevertheless, many royalists predicted the monarchy’s survival, the only precautions they would take is to avoid the same scandals Edward VIII and Prince Charles gone through.
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