The wedding of Princess Diana, who died at the age of 36, and Prince Charles, 69, was watched by 750 million people worldwide.
While their marriage ultimately ended in divorce in 1996, no one was to know it would not be a success.
In fact, Diana and Charles’ wedding was the most “romantic” in generations, according to a body language expert.
Judi James told Express.co.uk Diana and Charles’ wedding was “by far the most romantic” in generations.
According to her analysis, the 1981 wedding was more romantic than both the 2011 wedding of Kate Middleton, 36, and Prince William, 46, as well as the 2018 wedding of Meghan Markle. 36, and Prince Harry, 33.
She said: “We look at this marriage in retrospect and we get a very clear view of the disaster it always threatened to become.
“But in the context of the time the wedding happened it was by far the most romantic event of that and the following generations of royals.
“Two factors created that sense of romance and neither would apply to any modern royal marriage: firstly there was the belief that their marriage would have to be for keeps.
“During the build-up to the wedding the mantra was that Charles could never ever divorce.
“Like the Queen and Prince Philip these two would make old bones together whatever, so the public assumed he had chosen a woman he knew he could love forever.
“Then there was the archaic but ‘perfect’ romantic storyline that had been a feature of romantic fiction from the Brontes to DuMaurier to Bridget Jones’s Diary.
“Charles was the rather crusty older bachelor with inherited power and wealth and Diana was the innocent and rather naive young girl who won his heart.
“Every face-softening expression or tender hand-strokes from Charles were cooed over as a sign that he’d succumbed to love.
“And of course Diana transformed in front of our eyes from gauche, shy kindergarden assistant to a beautiful princess, just like every princess in every fairy tale.”
Earlier this year, Judi analysed the body language at the wedding of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.
She revealed that, while Meghan maintained extreme “poise” throughout the service, Harry’s “happy anxiety” appeared to overcome him.
“It was hugely significant that Meghan arrived and walked in alone as her body language signals throughout defined her as confident, poised, and supremely happy.
“There were no suppressed signals of regret over her missing father and it was Harry who looked stricken over his absent mother when her sister read at the lectern.”
Meghan and Harry contrasted in their body language, with Meghan showing an undeniable “poise”, and Harry betraying a “happy anxiety”.
“Even for an actress, Meghan’s poise was formidable. Her back was upright and her hands – the usual giveaway of masked nerves – were still, even when her free hand was hanging at her side.
“She may have been the first royal bride to bathe her groom in beautiful, undiluted eye contact throughout his vows. Harry on the other hand, showed signals that suggested the highest levels of happy anxiety.