Slice Of Prince Charles & Princess Diana’s Wedding Cake Sells For Over $2,000, Was 'Very Unexpected,' Auctioneer Says
Aug. 12 2021, Published 10:58 a.m. ET
The lucky person who got to take home a slice of Prince Charles and Princess Diana's wedding cake from 1981 paid a substantial amount of money!
The sweet treat — which weighs about 28 ounces — was originally supposed to go for anywhere between £300-£500 ($416-$693), but on Wednesday, August 11, it went for much more!
"It really seemed to capture a lot of people's imaginations, and wallets," auctioneer Chris Albury told CNN. "£1,850 ($2,565) was very unexpected."
Royal fan Gerry Layton of Leeds, took home the slice, which is 8 inches by 7 inches and has been stored in a decorative tin for 40 years.
Moyra Smith — a member of the Queen Mother's household at Clarence House — kept the cake preserved it for all of these years.
Smith even had a label on the lid, which reads: "Handle with Care - Prince Charles & Princess Diane's [sic] Wedding Cake."
Smith's family then sold the slice to Dominic Winter Auctioneers in 2008.
"It's a good sales pitch for clingfilm," Albury said. "It's an object that's going to last. I've not seen anyone else trying to sell anything like this. It's quite a lump."
"It appears to be in exactly the same good condition, but we advise against eating it," Albury added.
The auction also included printed Ceremonial and Order of Service programs for the wedding, in addition to a memorial Royal Wedding Breakfast menu and table seating program.
Diana and Charles got married on July 29, 1981, but they later split in 1992 and finalized their divorce in 1996.
"The astonishing thing was that they were so incompatible, just so incompatible," her former vocal coach Stewart Pearce — who wrote Diana: The Voice of Change, which was released on June 15 — exclusively told The Royal Observer. "Was she in love with Charles? Absolutely. Was he in love with her? No. I mean, completely incompatible."
"So, the machinery of royalty led him to choose the virgin aristocratic bride, which he did. But then, Diana was so different from anything that Charles had ever experienced before – her emotional vulnerability, the absolute belief in emotional transparency, this was something that he found really irksome, because at that time he was so emotionally withdrawn," he continued. "He was trying to find a way of really living the fullness of his own capacity within the construct of being the heir to the British throne."
