PHOTO FINISH
The bizarre reason Prince Charles always looked taller than Princess Diana in pictures – when they were the SAME height
In nearly all of their professional shots, it looks like the Prince of Wales stands tall above his bride
MOST of us have seen numerous pictures of Princess Diana and Prince Charles – but there is something very odd about a large number of their iconic shots.
In nearly all of their professional shots, it looks like the Prince of Wales stands tall above his bride, who reaches his shoulder height… but this wasn’t the case.
However, it turns out that the royal couple were the same height – both 5ft8 – and many shots were tactically staged so Prince Charles looked taller than he was.
And once you’ve noticed it in the shots, it’s hard to un-see it.
So why did they do it?
According to an article on , the efforts taken to make sure Charles looked as though he towered over Diana were apparently in order to conform to the idea that men should be taller than their wives.
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Professor Lisa Wade at the Occidental College in LA wrote: "This effort to make Charles appear taller is a social commitment to the idea that men are taller and women shorter.
"When our own bodies, and our chosen mates, don’t follow this rule, sometimes we’ll go to great lengths to preserve the illusion.
"When Charles and Diana were posed together formally, however, they were typically arranged so as to suggest that he was significantly taller than her, or at least to disguise the fact that he was not."
Eagle-eyed fans have noticed the height difference on Twitter, and aren’t happy about the manipulation, with some calling it “sexist”.
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One wrote: “One may/may not recall the lengths to which the couple (the crown?) went to disguise #LadyDiana's height. #Conformity #Sexism.”
Another added: “It's not about him wearing heels, it's about him making her squat in the photo.”
And one user stated: “you could tell the minute she gave no f***s was when she started wearing heels.”
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Meanwhile knowledgeable @chaedria said: “He's actually standing on a box. She spoke about it I believe in the Andrew Morton biography.”
However some said that for the stamps shots, they had deliberately moved her down so the stamp cost in the top right corner wasn’t covering Princess Diana’s face.
One thing is for sure, we won’t be able to look at the images in the same way again.
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