Princess Diana and Charles’s marriage was destined to fail from the start. In 1992, the two finally separated and later divorced. While many, including the Royal Family, wanted it to work, another person played a crucial role in trying to save their marriage—a person who hadn’t been known until now.

Then-Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage was complicated. They both had affairs while still married, and the fact that royal life meant adhering to traditions and doing things a certain way never appealed to Diana.

She wanted to do things her own way, and in the end, it was not well received by the royals, including Queen Elizabeth.

In the end, they decided to go their separate ways. Their separation occurred in December 1992, and the divorce was finalized some years later. Diana leaving Charles meant she was no longer a part of the royal family, even though her children were, and William was the future king.

Some reports have insisted that Diana feared the Queen and Charles were plotting to separate her from Harry and William. That, according to biographer Howard Hodgson, author of the 2007 book Charles: The Man Who Will Be King.

“She was well aware that the Queen had the constitutional right and authority under common law to take control of both boys’ care and education,” Hodgson wrote. “As such she could become the boys’ guardian or even appoint one: this would probably be their father and that might lead to Diana’s exclusion if she finally burned all her bridges with the Royal Family.”

The mystery man who tried saving Princess Diana and Prince Charles’ marriage

Charles and Diana tried their best to make things work, but in the end, it was pointless. But while their family tried to save the marriage, another figure was involved. One that wasn’t known until recently, but still the most powerful at the time: Prime Minister John Major.

In his new book. Power and the Palace, royal expert Valentine Low revealed that the prime minister played an essential role as an “honest broker” between the feuding Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Major was also a “sympathetic listener to Diana at a time when she felt her most alone,” the expert noted.

Per the Daily Mail, Low, citing Mr Major’s private secretary Alex Allan, stated that the now 82-year-old politician was “quite concerned” about Diana and gave her a “shoulder to cry on” during the breakdown of her marriage to the then-future king.

Moreover, Diana’s private secretary, Patrick Jephson, told Low that the “People’s Princess” and Prime Minister Major regularly met for tea.

“I got the very clear message that she enjoyed those meetings. He was an important, sympathetic, helpful mentoring figure. And he did it when he ceased to be prime minister as well,” it read in Power and the Palace.

John Major announced Princess Diana and Prince Charles’ separation

Sadly, as we all know, things didn’t turn out great. On December 9, 1992, John Major, who served as Prime Minister between 1992 and 1997, appeared before the House of Commons and made the historic announcement that spread around the world.

“It is announced from Buckingham Palace that, with regret, the Prince and Princess of Wales have decided to separate,’ Major said, marking the end of the “War of the Waleses,” a tumultuous period in the Royal Family’s history.