Here is the stuff of which fairy tales are made," intoned the Archbishop of Canterbury, perhaps forgetting how scary and dark your average fairy tale can be. No matter, three-quarters of a billion people in 74 countries were right there with him as they tuned in to share the magnificent moment with the 2,650 guests in St. Paul's Cathedral. Those who set alarm clocks very early that July day also made a kind of commitment to the marriage and invested emotionally in its future. Never has a union been so examined and publicized. But there never was a heroine and a villain. Only two people too far apart in years, interests, temperaments and expectations. She came from a hot-tempered and fragmented family, he from a coldly dutiful one. He carried on with his airy intellectual interests and aristocratic pursuits. She, dumped in the Windsors' gilded fish-bowl without a guide, grew in leaps, gaining poise, finding her own way. "We both made mistakes," Diana has said, but how could they not? They were trapped—by his stubborn devotion to an old flame; by his fear of losing the crown he calls "a destiny, not an ambition"; by her terror of losing her children; by her passion for her blossoming vocation among the poor and the sick. Even the outside world's fascination played a part. "We didn't want to disappoint the public," Diana has said. For all their wealth and privilege, they were undone, like most failed couples, by that iceberg of a term, irreconcilable differences. Ridden into the ground, even the most ornate carriage will turn into a pumpkin. In the end, she was left with a "deep, deep, profound sadness. The fairy tale," she said, "had ended." It's striking to see that Diana's fans were not the only ones who believed in happily ever after. Once upon a time, she did too.

The cameras love her, but the feeling is not always mutual

MIXED BLESSING
Diana enjoyed the press in March 1981 at Romsey, England (left). But in late 1980, before she adapted to the relentless attention, she felt hounded and wept after the shot below was taken. The paparazzi later slipped an apology into her sunroof, launching a long love-hate relationship.

Here was a fairy story that everybody wanted to work,' Di told the BBC. 'At the age of 19, you think you're prepared for everything, and you think you have the knowledge of what's coming ahead'

THE SMOOCH
This postnuptial kiss was the first prompted by popular demand in recorded royal history. Lip-readers in the crowd saw Diana turn to Charles and say, "Why ever not?"

HIS 'N' HERS
The bride said she chose the $42,000 diamond-and-sapphire engagement ring from a proffered tray because "it was the biggest." Later, Charles sent her a Prince of Wales signet like his.

BACKSTAGE
Di barely knew attendants India Hicks and Sarah Jane Gaselee (left and center), but little Clementine Hamfaro had been her pupil.

STAMP ACT
At the photo session, Charles—like Di, 5'10"—stood on a box to make him seem taller. For 10 years, she wore low heels.

OH, BROTHERS!
Using a lipstick borrowed from a lady-in-waiting, Princes Andrew and Edward graced the honeymoon carriage with a superfluous sign and tri-plumed Prince of Wales balloons, echoed in Diana's John Boyd hat.

FREUDIAN SLIP?
Di gave her first official speech (in Welsh) in Cardiff in October 1981. She was so well received that Charles quipped, "Sorry, there's only one of her. I haven't got enough wives to go around."

FALLOUT
Charles griped about the "mourning" color and overspill of the dress Diana wore to her first evening out as his fiancée (in London in 1981). She shelved it.

TUG OF WILLS
For a week between his birth and his August 1982 christening, Prince William went unnamed while Charles lobbied for the appellation "Arthur." Di won. The Queen expressed relief that "he hasn't got ears like his father."

Unable to connect, both Di and Charles reached out to others

LOVING CUP
Di and James Hewitt had been conducting their affair for three years when she (with Wills) giddily handed him this polo trophy in 1989.

LUNCH MEET
Last summer Diana had rugby star Will Carling to lunch several times. When his wife cried foul, Di said, "I've done nothing wrong."

CALLER I.D.?
Art dealer Oliver Hoare wrongly suspected Di of ringing him more than 300 times. A schoolboy was the culprit.

GIN FIZZ
In their '89 phone chats, Di was "Squidgy" and "Darling" to James Gilbey, of the distillery clan (with a 1994 date). She called her marriage "torture."

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE
Newly affianced Di was taken under wing by Camilla Parker Bowles (at one of the prince's polo matches in 1981) in an unsuccessful attempt to befriend her. Diana was correctly suspicious.

From the outset, both partners inhabited separated emotional realms and were more stressed by the demands and sacrifices of their new roles than the world could guess

BACK TALK
Diana was seven months pregnant and, according to author Andrew Morton, had already hurled herself down the stairs once in a fit of despair when she hotly drove Charles away from a 1982 polo match.

SINKING IN
Exhausted and bulimic in Australia in 1983, Diana was overwhelmed by an adoring public. At tour's end, she later said, "I was a different person [because] I realized the demanding role I now found myself in."

Not all the pain and trouble could be laid at Charles's feet

IN MOURNING
Diana found one of her few early allies in bodyguard Graham Smith, who died of cancer in 1993. She skipped public duties to attend his funeral.

DARLING DADDY
In Austria when her father, the earl, died of a heart attack in 1992, Diana flew home for the service and pinned a note to a wreath.

STITCHED
Di brought Wills home in 1991 after surgery on his forehead following an accidental beaning with a golf club. She had stayed with him in the hospital. Charles visited en route to the opera.

THE FUGITIVE
Scotland Yard kept Di (code-named Pink Panther) under secret surveillance in 1994, but that didn't discourage the press (left, as she shopped in London). "It's abusive," she told the BBC.

OVERLOAD
After Andrew Morton's excerpted book exposed her unhappy private life, in June 1992, Diana visited a hospice in Merseyside. She broke down after spotting a handmade sign that said, "We Love You, Di."

DI SPIED
Gym owner Bryce Taylor sold surreptitious snaps of Diana (like this one, from a ceiling camera) for $187,000 in 1993. Feeling "utterly betrayed," Di sued him and settled out of court. "I'm a product that sells well," she has said.

END OF THE LINE
All the jewels and pomp could not hide Diana's misery during her last overseas trip with Charles to Korea, in November 1992. They fought, stood back-to-back and could barely disguise their rancor. In December, they separated.