Princess Diana’s 15-year marriage to Prince Charles was marked by numerous public displays of their contrasting personalities. One of the most memorable instances occurred during Charles’s 37th birthday celebration in 1985, when Diana surprised him with an unforgettable performance.
As a special gift, the princess took to the stage with ballet star Wayne Sleep, performing a three-minute dance to Billy Joel’s 80s hit Uptown Girl. The performance brought the 2,500 VIP audience to their feet, earning uproarious applause and eight curtain calls.
However, Charles’s reaction was far from enthusiastic. When the 25-year-old Diana left the stage, brimming with excitement and seeking his approval, Charles simply responded with, “Well done, darling,” before turning his attention elsewhere.
No video footage exists of this legendary moment, and only a few photographs were taken by the in-house photographer, who initially vowed not to release them. Eventually, these photos were sold in 1995 for around $250,000.
The performance has since become iconic, even being recreated in The Crown, where Charles is portrayed as furious over what he viewed as a “grotesque, mortifying display.”
This bold act by Diana, celebrated by the public but met with indifference by Charles, offered a revealing glimpse into the stark differences between the couple’s personalities and their tumultuous relationship.
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Princess Diana and Wayne Sleep performed a three-minute dance to Billy Joel’s 80s hit Uptown Girl to uproarious applause from the audience in 1985
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The dance number was perhaps the most high-profile example of Diana and Charles’s different personalities. Pictured: The during their Australia tour in 1985
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No video footage exists of the now stuff-of-legend moment, and only a few pictures were taken by the in-house photographer who swore to never release them, although he did eventually sell them in 1995 for around $250,000
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The duo’s iconic 1985 dance was recreated in Season four of The Crown (above) with Jay Webb playing the flamboyant star accompanying the Princess, portrayed by Emma Corrin
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It was Diana’s decision to do the secret performance with Sleep at the annual VIP show for Friends of Covent Garden at London‘s Royal Opera House in December 1985.
Sleep at the time was a well-known British dancer who performed for some years with the Royal Ballet, but when he was approached by Diana he expressed scepticism that they could perform together due to his small 5ft 2in frame.
But they quickly became friends with Sleep saying they bonded over ‘schoolboy humour’ after Diana, who became a lifelong friend, called him a ‘naughty boy’ after he confessed to having a ‘very late night’ during their first early morning meeting.
Diana had studied classical ballet as a child but grew too tall at 5ft 10in to dance at the highest level but she still loved dancing throughout her life and was a supporter of the English National Ballet.
Years after the famous performance, Sleep wrote in The Guardian: ‘She loved the freedom dancing gave her.’
The duo practised in various locations such as Sleep’s personal studio in Kensington or in the drawing room of Kensington Palace to keep the Press in the dark about her movements.
The only people who were in on the secret plan were a detective and one of Diana’s ladies-in-waiting Anne Beckwith-Smith – although neither knew what the actual dance was.
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Diana and Wayne Sleep at the ‘Bits and Pieces’ show at the Royalty Theatre in London in 1989
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Sleep said when the princess walked on stage: ‘Everyone’s mouths gaped open. There was an intake of breath like they couldn’t believe it’
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One the performance itself Sleep said ‘it wasn’t a serious dance by any means’ but it ‘brought the house down with humor because the audience didn’t know what was coming next’
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During the dance they did double pirouettes and a lift, and there was also a combination of jazz hip rolls
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Although there was just the two of them, they ran the diagonals and really covered the whole stage
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Wayne Sleep after dancing with Princess Diana at the Royal Opera House in 1985
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Prince Charles and Princess Diana on their last official trip together – a visit to South Korea in 1992
When it came time to perform, Sleep raised his hand on stage to give the signal and Diana slipped out of the royal box to change and join him.
As soon as the princess stepped out on the stage, the whole audience was in shock, and it took a moment for them to realise who it really was.
Sleep told Vulture in 2020: ‘Everyone’s mouths gaped open. There was an intake of breath like they couldn’t believe it.’
One the performance itself he said, ‘it wasn’t a serious dance by any means’ but it ‘brought the house down with humor because the audience didn’t know what was coming next’.
He said they did double pirouettes and a lift, and there was also a combination of jazz hip rolls.
It was very dynamic but ‘nothing too difficult’ with steps, lounges and transfers of weight. Sleep also said they had a few innuendos in the performance.
Although there was just the two of them, they ran the diagonals and really covered the whole stage.
Sleep later said ‘she couldn’t have danced it better’ and that he was the nervous one, not Diana, out of fear he would drop the future Queen of England.
What’s more, the dancer claims he even gave Diana a gentle push to bow to her husband – who was seated in the Royal Box.
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Diana speaking to Wayne Sleep in November 1991. They stayed friends until Diana died in 1997
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Wayne Sleep, pictured in 2021, later said his dance with Diana is what most people will remember him by
Diana said to Sleep: ‘No, I’m not bowing to him, he’s my hubby. You won’t get your OBE with those comments!’
She enjoyed the dance so much she wanted to perform an encore, but Sleep refused – saying his motto was to ‘leave them wanting more’.
A few days after the performance, he got a letter from Diana which read: ‘Now I understand the buzz you get from performing.’
But although the audience and press seemed to love Diana’s performance, Charles strongly disapproved.
He had watched it completely oblivious to his wife’s plan and in public confessed himself as ‘absolutely amazed’ by the display.
But according to Andrew Morton’s famous book on Diana, Her True Story – In Her Own Words, in private he thought it was ‘undignified’ as she was ‘too thin and too showy’.
He wrote: ‘No matter how hard she tried or what she did, every time she struggled to express something of herself, he crushed her spirit. It wore her down.’
Diana’s private dance tutor Anne Allan wrote in her new memoir: ‘After repeated curtain calls, an elated Diana left the stage and enthused, “Beats the wedding!”
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A few days after the performance, Sleep got a letter from Diana which read: ‘Now I understand the buzz you get from performing’
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Charles had watched the performance completely oblivious to his wife’s plan
‘She made her way to Charles, and as she stood before him, I could sense she desperately wanted his approval.
‘He said, “Well done, darling”, and turned to talk to someone else.’
Meanwhile royal expert Richard Kay claimed the ‘Uptown Girl’ routine was a ‘present that backfired’ on Diana.
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He said: ‘She did it as a tribute to Charles. Charles wasn’t terribly impressed.
‘He thought she was showing off. In fact, it was incredibly courageous of her to go on stage at the home of English ballet at Covent Garden and to do a routine with the great Wayne Sleep.’
According to royal biographer Tina Brown, Charles’s reaction was interpreted, as ‘frigid disapproval of Diana’s lapse in royal etiquette’.
The iconic dance was also documented in the fourth season of The Crown in 2020, where Jay Webb (playing Sleep) and Emma Corrin (playing Diana) re-created the moment.
During the scene, Charles appears sullen and deeply focused on the music. But as soon as Diana makes her surprise appearance on stage, Charles tenses.
Afterwards, he becomes cold, asking his wife ‘What were you thinking?’ and calling the surprise a ‘grotesque, mortifying display’.
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Princess Diana and Prince Charles at on the British Royal Tour of Australia in 1983
Reflecting on the night of the performance itself, Wayne said it was drastically different to how it was portrayed in the TV show.
He said The Crown made it ‘so shoulder-y’ when in ‘reality it was a little more elegant’.
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Despite the uproar from the performance, Anne Allan revealed in the controversial documentary Diana: In Her Own Words that dancing helped Diana cope with the stress of her rocky marriage to Charles.
She remarked, ‘When I first met her, I could see she was really shy. But as we progressed through our dancing lesson, we saw how important dance was to her.
She had dance in her soul. I realised how much delight it caused her. She enjoyed the freedom of being able to move and dance. She adored it. I could see how it helped her emotional life. That was difficult for her at the time.’
Although the Uptown Girl dance took place almost 39 years ago, it remains an iconic Diana event in the memories of the British public.
As Charles, now King, reflects on his birthday presents over the past 76 years, he may recall the dance and appreciate the lack of surprises today.