Charles reportedly told Diana he ‘might be gay’ in sarcastic reply, claims book

Charles made a surprising comment to his then-wife Diana when they stopped having sex as their marriage began to crumble, a new book claims.

Charles and Diana’s unhappy marriage was so “highly combustible” that royal protection officers were worried someone would get hurt, a new book claims.

In upcoming biography, The King: The Life of Charles III, author Christopher Andersen writes that one of Charles’ valets remembers seeing Diana “hurling epithets and mocking her husband’s obsession with the dreary-looking Camilla”, New York Post reports.

The valet reportedly watched on as Diana “literally pursued” her husband “down hallways, up staircases and from room to room” at Charles’ Highgrove House country retreat, Andersen writes.

“Why won’t you sleep with me?” Diana is said to have asked her husband, who “had for all intents and purposes unilaterally called a halt to their sexual relationship,” since Prince Harry’s birth in 1984, according to the book.

Charles’ sarcastic alleged response: “I don’t know, dear. I think I might be gay.”

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Charles and Diana pictured in Melbourne during their 1988 Australian tour.

Diana and Charles with a then-toddler, Prince William. Picture: Tim Graham

During one heated argument, Charles apparently demanded that he be given the respect “that he felt his position warranted,” according to the book.

“Do you know who I am?” he allegedly asked his wife.

“Diana answered that he was a ‘f***ing animal,’” writes Andersen. “You will never be king!” she reportedly shouted. “William will succeed your mother. I will see to that.”

The book says that tension in the royal household only increased as time passed.

“The clashes between Diana and Charles were now so raw that ‘violence seemed inevitable,’” one bodyguard notes in the book, with royal security staff reportedly on high alert during this time, according to Andersen.

Before their 1981 fairytale wedding, Charles reportedly felt pressure from his father, Prince Philip, to marry and was irked that Diana giggled during the proposal, later calling her reaction “juvenile and unnerving”, according to the biography.

Diana, who was 12 years younger than Charles, soon realised that her fiance was in love with his mistress, Camilla Parker-Bowles.

Charles was having an affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles, who he went on to marry years later. Picture: AFP

“Consumed by anger and frustration, both bride and groom separately cried themselves to sleep the night before the wedding,” alleges Andersen in the book.

The couple separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996. Just a year later, Diana tragically died in a car accident, aged 36.

The King: The Life of Charles III will hit shelves on November 8.

This story originally appeared on New York Post and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as Charles reportedly told Diana he ‘might be gay’ in sarcastic reply, claims book