LONDON, Feb. 28 -- Princess Diana announced Wednesday that she has agreed to divorce Prince Charles, formally ending a stormy 15-year marriage that has seen both members of the royal couple admit in televised interviews they had extramarital affairs. The princess of Wales said through a spokeswoman that she would continue to be involved in rearing her two children, William, 13, and Henry, 11, would remain at Kensington Palace and would retain her royal title. 'The princess will continue to be involved in all decisions relating to the children, and will remain at Kensington Palace with offices at St. James's Palace,' the spokeswoman said in a statement. 'The princess of Wales will retain the title and will be known as Diana, princess of Wales.' Diana's lawyer said the agreement to a divorce was the first step in the process of ending the royal couple's marriage. 'The prince and princess of Wales met this afternoon in private at St. James's Palace, and the result of that meeting is that the princess of Wales with huge sadness and regret agreed to Prince Charles' request for a divorce,' said Anthony Julius, Diana's lawyer. 'What will happen now is that there will be discussions between lawyers and a timescale will be addressed,' he told Independent Television News. 'Nothing is going to happen immediately but the decision has been taken in principle.' Buckingham Palace said Queen Elizabeth II was interested to hear of Diana's announcement. The princess's decision came just two months after the queen sent letters to the couple urging them to seek a speedy divorce.
The queen sent the letters in mid-December, and Diana was stunned when the contents were leaked to the press before she had been able to speak to her children about the matter. The move toward divorce came four years after Charles and Diana formally separated on Dec. 9, 1992. The couple were married in a fairy- tale wedding in 1981, but their marriage soured in the late 1980s and they formally separated Dec. 9, 1992. Prince Charles went public with his feelings about their marriage in a televised interview nearly two years ago. Asked if he had remained faithful to the princess, he said he had been true to Diana until it became clear their marriage had become irretrievably broken down. The news media interpreted his remarks as confirmation that he had been engaged in an extramarital affair with his longtime friend, Camilla Parker Bowles. Diana responded Nov. 19 with a televised interview that she kept secret from Buckingham Palace until just hours before it was broadcast. She told an interviewer that she had also had an extramarital affair. Diana said she did not want a divorce, but added her marital situation needed 'clarity.' The queen responded a few weeks later with letters urging the two to end the marriage. The prospect of a divorce has raised some concern about whether Prince Charles should be allowed to follow his mother to the throne, but a constitutional expert, Lord St. John of Fawlsey, said Wednesday the end of the prince's marriage should have no effect. 'I think the result was inevitable,' he said. 'We are living in the '90s and the whole of society has changed. It would be unreasonable, I think, to expect the royal family to hold standards that have radically changed in the whole of society, where divorce is now accepted as a regrettable part of life.' 'I think what is important is the constitutional issue, and that is, Prince Charles will succeed to the throne,' he added. 'His status rests not on his marriage but on statute. And...the princess of Wales is being treated fairly and reasonably and is being honored as a continuing member of the royal family. That is very important, too.' Attitudes over divorce in the royal family have changed since Charles' great-uncle, King Edward VIII, gave up his throne in 1936 to marry an American divorcee, Wallis Simpson. Princess Margaret, the queen's sister, was obliged to give up on her first love, Group Capt. Peter Townsend, because he was divorced, but Margaret herself later divorced the earl of Snowdon. Princess Anne, Charles' sister, divorced Mark Phillips and subsequently remarried Tim Laurence. Nor, if he succeeds his mother, would Charles be the first divorced person to occupy the throne. Henry VIII, the first head of the Church of England, divorced two of his six wives and had two others beheaded. When George I came to the throne in 1714, he had already divorced his wife for adultery, and he kept her imprisoned in a German castle until her death. Since Victoria's day, the royal family has been upheld as an example of family values, but that image didn't always fit reality. King Edward VII -- great-grandfather of the present queen -- was infamous for his extramarital affairs, although his wife, Alexandra, suffered in silence.
