(uplifting music) - [Narrator] Four ordinary young people are about to marry future heads of states, and the whole world is watching.

(crowd cheering) - Royal weddings are one of the most important rituals and ceremonials of the monarchy.

- Everybody cheering, wanting to celebrate this royal couple, and in doing so, of course, celebrate the future and the continuation of the monarchy.

(crowd cheering) (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] When love triumphs over tradition, a Cinderella fairytale comes true.

- Once upon a time, the young man was perhaps not a frog, but he was certainly not a prince.

(suspenseful music) (crowd cheering) - Royals marrying non-royals is the modern version of a truly old institution.

(speaker speaking in foreign language) (suspenseful music) (crowd cheering) - [Narrator] Can communists really modernise Europe's older royal houses and strike the difficult balance between innovation and tradition?

(suspenseful music) - All of that tradition gives them legitimacy that they're building on the centuries of their predecessors, which is the foundation of their kind of authority and their whole position in society.

- But the problem is this, is that those of us who fail to evolve, who fail to change with the times, get left behind by the times.

(suspenseful music) (crowd cheering) (dramatic music) (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] When Mette-Marit first got together with the heir to the throne, Prince Haakon, some Norwegians saw her as a real-life Cinderella.

(couple speaking in foreign language) (Mette-Marit laughing) (Prince Haakon speaking in foreign language) But, in the months following the announcement of their engagement, the fairy tale lurched towards nightmare.

(dramatic music) (suspenseful music) It seemed the more Norwegians read and heard about Mette-Marit, the less they approved.

(reporter speaking in foreign language) - Then, the witch media kind of acted like welchers.

It's a huge difference between a gossip magazine and a newspaper.

But, the pressure of those, combined with the paparazzis following them, with all of the speculations, with the gossip press, making contact with Mette-Marit's friends and family to push them to tell stuff about her, and this young couple was super pressured in the middle.

(dramatic music) (machinery whirring) - And I think the press just loved the opportunity to rake someone over the coals and ask if they're good enough to be royals.

They're an easy target, and the press absolutely loved that.

And when it's a commoner marrying into the Royal Family who has some baggage, they're an easy villain and an easy target.

(jaunty music) - [Narrator] Royals have always had to navigate the ups and downs of press coverage, which became more difficult as the reporting became less controlled.

- From its very earliest beginnings, the rise of the paparazzi has been a disruptive force in terms of the image of the Royal Family and how they are seen by the public.

If we go back to the 1920s and 1930s, where this nascent paparazzi and tabloid culture emerged in Western Europe, we can see this disruptive force of work because for the first time, members of the Royal Family were not being judged simply by their public actions and their behaviour, but by what they were doing in private.

(jaunty music) - Royal figures have always been scrutinised.

I think there's much more intensive interest in these individuals who are marrying into the Royal Family because of that age-old trope thing, this idea of Cinderella or commoners marrying princes, et cetera.

So while we would be interested in anyone that was marrying into the Royal Family, the fact that it's a regular individual, I think there's a heightened interest because of that idea of this is the fairytale in real life.

(car engine humming) - [Narrator] In Norway, support for a republic had never tracked above 10% in opinion polls.

During the engagement of Prince Haakon and Mette-Marit, it doubled to over 20%.

(dramatic music) - Of course, every time a royal does something wrong, the Republicans try to draw the line between: Could a monarch or a royal do this and, still, could the country have a monarchy?

(dramatic music) So, several commentators and also a newspaper tried to call it the end of the monarchy.

- I mean ultimately, a monarchy is there by popular consent.

So a monarch will always worry about times when they feel like they are not liked by their people.

- [Protesters] Not my king!

Not my king!

Not my king!

- And so whenever there's kind of negative press about members of the Royal Family, although it can feel quite superficial, there is always this danger that what if this triggers the bigger conversation, which is like, what on earth are we doing with a monarchy and these kind of principles being celebrated by their very presence, really?

(dramatic music) - [Narrator] In an effort to avert a wedding catastrophe, Mette-Marit fronted the media only three days before the big day.

- The negative press coverage had reached such a point that I think both Mette-Marit and Haakon decided that they would have to address it head on.

- I think that she decided, probably with the Prince, that the best thing to do to stop gossip is to give people information.

Because in our heads, we make a lot of bad stuff if we don't have information.

(Mette-Marit speaking in foreign language) - In a sense, she, without going too much into the details of what she'd done, she acknowledged that this wasn't the ideal background, but she said, "That's it, it's happened, it's the past.

Now, let's all move on.

We're gonna get married."

- [Photographer] Look here, please?

Would you look here?

Would you look here, please?

- They got some gossip, but also they got to see a really vulnerable woman, and mother, and girlfriend, and fiance telling the people to, "Please, accept me as I am."

(mellow music) - [Narrator] Sitting beside his future bride, Prince Haakon acknowledged that whilst he would never sacrifice a life with Mette-Marit for the throne, he was grateful that he was not forced to make the choice.

(uplifting music) On the eve of their wedding, Mette-Marit and Haakon's love story and the Norwegian monarchy itself stood at the brink.

Would Norwegians accept her apology and his support for her?

(mellow music) Public reaction to the wedding would be the first sign either way.

(pensive music) For Catherine Middleton, it had been a long road from the start of her relationship with Prince William, to their engagement, so long the press had dubbed her Waity Katie.

(camera shutter clicking) (pensive music) Once the engagement was finally announced in November 2010, things moved quickly and the wedding was scheduled for five months later.

- This was a long courtship, this was nine years of dating, and Kate knew all the family, she'd been to all the palaces.

She, gosh, I'm well with William's father, Prince Charles, she knew the Queen.

(camera shutter clicking) I suppose all of those, and frankly, nerve-wracking firsts, had already been gotten out the way, but I don't think anything can quite prepare you for that media frenzy.

(dramatic music) And it was a media frenzy, and they embarked on a sort of mini tour of the UK.

(crowd chattering) That was a really exciting time.

I remember being on all of those engagements and the crowds that turned up to meet them.

- [Narrator] This series of small-scale events was designed to prepare her for a life devoted to the perpetual spotlight with William by her side.

(dramatic music) - And I think certainly for those early years, he was her mentor, helping her to learn the ropes.

(dramatic music) (audience applauding) There is no manual to being a princess.

There is a no, "Here's how you do it, step by step, to being a member of the Royal Family."

You are learning as you do it, and I think he was very much by her side as she learned those ropes.

(mellow music) - Well, it's not something that you can get a degree in kind of how to be a queen or a princess.

There just isn't any kind of preparation that you can do effectively for that role in today's kind of society.

Particularly, again, if you're outside the Royal Family, that's not something you would've expected to do.

(jaunty music) - [Narrator] Of all she learned throughout her engagement, Catherine seemed to have taken to heart her soon-to-be in-laws mantra of, "Never complain, never explain."

Some commentators said Kate was boring, but her picture-perfect appearances were setting the scene for a much-anticipated royal wedding.

(suspenseful music) - There was huge excitement because this was the era of getting married.

It marked a new chapter for the Royal Family, and this was probably the biggest royal wedding since Charles and Diana in the '80s.

So there was huge, huge excitement surrounding this royal wedding.

(camera shutter clicking) - From this Middleton, the middle-class striver, to Waity Katie, to Boring Catherine.

(dramatic music) (crowd cheering) Would a royal title put an end to these media nicknames?

(pensive music) (crowd cheering) (dramatic music) Like Kate, small-town personal trainer Daniel Westling had a lengthy courtship with his new fiance, heir to Sweden's throne, Crown Princess Victoria.

(suspenseful music) To help overcome media snobbery and criticism of his common background, Daniel received a royal makeover.

(crowd cheering) - Of course, being married to the future queen of Sweden, you need to know history connected to monarchy, traditions, ceremonial etiquette of the royal court because if you don't know, you get very insecure.

It's better to know what's expected from you.

(suspenseful music) - Brigadier General Jan-Eric Warren, he became a mentor of Daniel Westling, and he taught him a lot about the ceremonial traditions at the castle and in the Royal Family.

And he also became a mentor when it came to Daniel's studies, (uplifting music) and I think it was a really good idea to choose someone senior from the Royal Court who knew how it is to move in these situations and what kind of people Daniel was supposed to meet in the future.

(camera shutter clicking) - [Narrator] Things appeared to be going smoothly for the royal couple, but three months after the announcement of their engagement, the seemingly fit and healthy Daniel became dangerously ill.

(camera shutter clicking) (dramatic music) - No one knew about this, but Daniel, he had a really serious condition, and he had this illness that made his kidney not function anymore.

And it came as a surprise for everyone.

Of course, the Royal Family knew about this, but for the people it was a bit scary because it's quite serious.

(dramatic music) - [Narrator] Daniel needed a transplant.

Who would give one of their own kidneys to save the life of the future prince consort?

(camera shutter clicking) (mellow music) - His father, has donated one of his kidneys to his son, and so the operation was done in Sweden.

(reporter speaking in foreign language) I think here, this makes him even closer to his father than he was before, because it must be fantastic experience to know that you can help your son in this way.

(mellow music) (camera shutter clicking) - [Narrator] The palace reported that Daniel's operation had been successful and that his illness was not hereditary, allaying any fears for the future of succession in Sweden.

(mellow music) And they also saw, in the warmth and love of Daniel's dad, some of the common but powerful qualities Daniel might offer the royals.

(mellow music) (camera shutter clicking) (dramatic music) - I think one thing that's really important in terms of commoners or ordinary individuals is I think they infuse the royal family with more approachability.

And I think one thing that we can really see with monarchy, monarchy is one of our oldest institutions.

The reason why it survives is because it can evolve and change, but it has to strike a balance between keeping the tradition, which actually is the hallmark of monarchy itself.

And if you get that balance right, then you have that legitimacy that comes from tradition, but you are still connected and part of modern society.

(mellow music) - [Narrator] With Daniel back to robust health, Stockholm prepared for its biggest wedding in decades.

(sombre music) (dramatic music) Like Daniel, Mary Donaldson, recently engaged to Denmark's Crown Prince Frederik, took a series of crash courses in how to be royal.

But Mary had barely a word of Danish, and she had left her family behind in Australia on the remote island state of Tasmania.

- Mary gave a lot up to be with the love of her life.

I mean, this was an Australian girl who had lived a little bit overseas for work, but she hadn't immersed herself in a completely new culture.

- [Narrator] Before relocating to Denmark, Mary had taken a personal development course, learning skills like how to pose for a photograph and what to say when being interviewed by journalists.

In the lead up to her wedding, Denmark's royal bureaucrats took over.

(dramatic music) - Of course, there is no such thing as a princess school.

There is no building you go to and you learn to become a princess.

But of course, she was being educated.

The cultural history of Denmark, the politics, the way our society is made up.

So, she did receive some education with the scholars prior to her being presented to the Danes.

(crowd cheering) - [Narrator] While Mary was becoming more Danish, she had to also become less Australian.

(crowd cheering) (mellow music) She had to renounce her Australian and UK citizenships.

(mellow music) But becoming a Danish citizen in time for the wedding required Parliament to pass a special law.

The only votes against the provision came from the far left Unity Party.

(mellow music) Mary also had to change her religion.

She left the Presbyterian Church in which she was raised to join the Church of Denmark, an evangelical Lutheran faith.

(mellow music) (camera shutter clicking) Mary also immersed herself in the politics of Frederik's family.

(camera shutter clicking) And just a few days before the wedding, Mary was confident enough to voice an opinion on the monarchy.

(mellow music) (crowd cheering) - She also said something that was quite interesting that a monarchy has to evolve, it has to roll with the times.

We all changed, I mean, society changes.

A royal house has to change with it in a conservative way, and she understood that because a royal house, a monarchy that's not relevant to people is not worth having.

(crowd cheering) So, I think right to begin with, she understood that she could also play a factor and should play a factor in modernising, slowly but surely, the monarchy.

- [Narrator] In terms of distance, culture and class, Mary represented European monarchies' biggest break with traditional brides for future kings.

But, she was working extremely hard to succeed in her new role before her new nation.

The wedding would be her greatest test so far.

(dramatic music) (suspenseful music) Three days out from the wedding, Mette-Marit's explosive press conference had drawn a line in the sand.

Prince Haakon and his family stood with her.

(dramatic music) (Prince Haakon speaking in foreign language) Despite her controversial past, press criticism, and public doubts about her suitability, on August 25th, 2001, Mette-Marit Tjessem Hoiby approached Oslo Cathedral to marry Prince Haakon.

Whether she was about to be celebrated or judged, Norway turned out to watch.

- I think you could just look at the numbers of how many people watched the wedding between the Mette-Marit and Haakon.

That was 1.7 millions.

(crowd cheering) (mellow music) We're only 5 million people in this country.

Even though there is just 1.7, probably a lot of people will gather around every single TV.

(crowd cheering) (uplifting music) - [Narrator] Mette-Marit's white silk, crepe, and chill wedding dress was inspired by Crown Prince Haakon's great-grandmother, Queen Maud's, Coronation dress.

(uplifting music) Prince Haakon's best man was Denmark's Prince Frederik, soon to be marrying his own commoner-turned-Royal-Bride.

(uplifting music) Marius, Mette-Marit's son, was also included in the ceremony as a page boy.

(uplifting music) - The fact that Mette-Marit had a small son by a previous relationship and who was actually present at the wedding was obviously a huge issue that had to be tackled in some way, and it was tackled very effectively by the Archbishop of Oslo who played tribute to Mette-Marit as a mother for the role she played.

(Archbishop speaking in foreign language) - Because the bishop kind of put a, "It's okay," mark on both being a single mom and having a past, you could think about having a past as a strength, not just a weakness or a flaw.

So, it was super important moment, and it turned a lot of minds around the whole union.

(uplifting music) (Archbishop speaking in foreign language) - Yeah.

- [Narrator] The Cinderella of Kristiansand was now the Crown Princess of Norway.

(uplifting music) - I think that it's cosy, as we say, the Cinderella of Kristiansand.

But it was not a fairytale history.

Reality was that she was bad-mouthed, stepped down on, she had responsibility for a child, and still people wouldn't leave them alone.

(uplifting music) (crowd cheering) - The problem with traditional organisations is that they've often succeeded by remaining traditional.

So it might be seen by many of the palace or around the palace so that it's not essential to change in order to actually remain what they are.

But the problem is this, is that those of us who fail to evolve, who failed to change with the times get left behind by the times.

(crowd cheering) (uplifting music) - [Narrator] As the newlyweds stood on the balcony to greet the crowd, Mette-Marit made a gesture that was both completely natural and quietly revolutionary.

(uplifting music) (crowd cheering) In an unplanned moment, Mette-Marit held her son from a previous relationship in front of the assembled crowd.

(uplifting music) (crowd cheering) It seemed at least some Norwegians could identify with the modern blended family the newlyweds represented.

- Royals marrying non-royals is kind of the modern version of a truly old institution.

I would probably say that they are the ones keeping the monarchy alive because they keep it modern.

They kind of push society and their own little bubble forward, instead of being stuck in the past.

(uplifting music) (crowd cheering) - I think their story of being that blended family is hugely relatable because they are up and down every country and all over the world there's blended families everywhere.

It makes them more relatable, makes them more modern.

(crowd cheering) (mellow music) - [Narrator] At the reception, King Harold reflected on the idea that Mette-Marit was an ordinary person joining the Royal Family.

(King Harold speaking in foreign language) (guests laughing and applauding) - And royal weddings then have become moments of national celebration.

It's all about coming together, an alliance of foreign countries, but actually a monarch and their people, everybody cheering, wanting to celebrate this royal couple.

And in doing so, of course, celebrate the future and the continuation of the monarchy because in celebrating a royal wedding, you are investing in those individuals, you are investing in the future of the monarchy.

(uplifting music) (pensive music) - [Narrator] As much as Mette-Marit staggered towards her wedding, Mary Donaldson seemed to be striding towards the altar.

At the gala dinner the night before her wedding, Mary looked every inch the princess.

(uplifting music) - The Danes loved that Mary was different, that she was a commoner.

I think a lot of women in particular could identify with her story of being just an ordinary girl who met a prince.

It's that fairytale so many of us dream about.

And for Mary, it came true.

(interviewee speaking in foreign language) (crowd chattering) (mellow music) (crowd cheering) - When Crown Prince Frederik married Mary Donaldson in the Cathedral of Copenhagen, I think about 100,000 people went the street.

I was one of them.

(crowd cheering) And of course, it was a day of great happiness and joy, and who doesn't like a romantic wedding?

(uplifting music) (crowd cheering) These manifestations are important for a Royal Family because they sort of reflect our own lives.

Death, marriage, childbirth.

We sort of read our own lives into them, our own family lives.

(mellow music) (crowd cheering) (uplifting music) (crowd cheering) - [Narrator] Mary's clothes were designed to honour both her Australian heritage and her new home.

(crowd cheering) - This was very elegant, very simple, and in a way, very Lutheran-Scandinavian, which signal all kinds of modesty, I think, which suited her personality as well.

It wasn't a big, frivolous dress.

She looked very Scandinavian.

(crowd cheering) - [Narrator] Her bouquet with a trail of Australian eucalyptus was later laid on her mother's grave in Scotland.

It was also reported that her mother's wedding ring was stitched into the waist of her dress.

- Tradition is something that's important.

I think in all weddings, we all have kind of something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.

(uplifting music) All of that tradition gives them legitimacy that they're building on the centuries of their predecessors, which is the foundation of their kind of authority and their whole position in society.

(crowd cheering) - [Narrator] Royals often display a permanent smile, but Prince Frederik's joy at his first glimpse of his bride as she walked down the aisle accompanied by her father was unmistakable.

- We love these moments because we loved to see the royals break the mould, we love to see them break out of their shells, and we love to see those expressions of emotions because we have to identify with them.

It's a difficult balance.

By showing emotions like that in public, it's a win-win situation, I think.

Everybody loved Crown Prince Frederik in that moment because he was very human.

(uplifting music) (interviewee speaking in foreign language) (uplifting music) - Mary.

(Queen Margrethe speaking in foreign language) She has shown the courage to place her future life in Denmark.

May we always be worthy of her trust.

(uplifting music) - And this was also the conclusion of a great romance that ended well.

We like those stories, of course, and it's important that we think at least that the Royals have wonderful relationship, that they all love each other.

It may be true, it may be not, but we like the idea of it.

(uplifting music) (guests applauding and cheering) (suspenseful music) - Royal weddings are one of the most important rituals and ceremonials of the monarchies.

So there are a lot of what we call the major kind of set piece events, the major kind of rituals.

(suspenseful music) - Weddings for royal families are a time for joy and celebration and showing off the best bits of themselves, but it's also about the continuity.

Continuity is so very important in monarchies and in royal families, and they like to show us that, "Look, we're doing continuity.

We're here to stay."

(crowd cheering) (pensive music) - [Narrator] In fairytales, it's women who get to marry the prince.

Male characters are more likely to become rich or even turn into a prince themselves.

As his wedding approached, Daniel Westling seemed to be playing both roles, a Cinderfella kissed by a princess and elevated from his country town, and a resourceful sporty entrepreneur, a people's prince.

(uplifting music) Sweden's response to the wedding would determine whether his story was a great modern fairytale or a flop.

To mark his daughter's wedding, the king put on the biggest party Stockholm had seen in decades.

(upbeat music) (camera shutter clicking) - A couple of weeks before the wedding, we had this Love Stockholm event, and people could eat good food, they could have good drinks, there was a kind of dancing festival.

(crowd cheering) (upbeat music) - So I think the wedding was a way of getting Swedes to celebrate together.

We love celebrations, I would say, and traditions, and especially at that time of the year when Sweden opens up again after a long winter.

(pensive music) - [Narrator] At last, the wedding.

(ceremonial music) Princess Victoria broke with the Swedish tradition of bride and groom walking down the aisle together.

(ceremonial music) Instead, she had her father, King Carl XVI Gustaf, walk with her halfway to meet Daniel, and the couple continued to the altar together.

(ceremonial music) - I was sitting in the church just behind the best friends of Daniel and Victoria.

I was very touched by her friends because I could see that they started to cry right away because they knew exactly how long she and Daniel had to wait for this day.

(uplifting music) - I must say, the happiness of the Crown Princess and Prince Daniel, it was like they were in a bubble.

(mellow music) (Daniel speaking in foreign language) (priest speaking in foreign language) - [Bishop] Victoria Ingrid Alice Desiree.

(Daniel speaking in foreign language) - Victoria Ingrid Alice Desiree.

- Especially in the Cathedral during the ceremony, I don't think they... They noticed only themselves, that they didn't really feel there were hundreds of people around them.

(uplifting music) (pensive music) - So up until 100 or so years ago, royal weddings were private affairs.

They were weddings generally of people from other countries, perhaps, or certainly aristocratic weddings.

And they would take place in the Chapel Royal, so the private chapel in royal residences, and it really would be the sort of higher echelons of the court, families, ambassadors, and so on.

So, it wasn't a public occasion in that way at all.

(dramatic music) And it was really the beginning of the 20th century, really, after the first World War.

And there was a kind of rebranding of monarchy overall.

- So these have always been of interest.

They've always been significant and always been important.

What's really different now is that they're televised, so that everybody can see them.

So you don't necessarily have to line Pall Mall to watch the royal carriages go by and to see, catch a glimpse of the bride, et cetera.

You can watch it all from the comfort of your home in whatever time zone you're in, and you can observe the whole event in a way that people were never able to do previously.

(jaunty music) (crowd cheering) (mellow music) (crowd cheering) - [Narrator] Following the ceremony, the couple's carriage procession travelled nearly seven kilometres in front of 500,000 onlookers.

5 million watched on TV, half the country's population.

(crowd cheering) (mellow music) - The wedding was also, since it was televised, and photographed, and written about, it was good PR for Sweden.

We are a small nation that is very dependent on our exports, and exports is not just goods and wares.

It's also the impressions and us getting tourists to come here.

(crowd cheering) - [Narrator] Prince Daniel's emotional speech at the wedding reception demonstrated how far he had come, as he delivered it in both Swedish and English, one of the languages he had studied in order to be a better prince.

(crowd cheering) - Crown Princess Victoria, Princess of Sweden, princess on my heart.

- And clearly referencing fairytales in which young maidens go out kissing frogs on the off chance that they might turn into a prince.

He kind of made a joking illusion to this himself, saying... - Once upon a time, the young man was perhaps not a frog, but he was certainly not a prince.

(mellow music) - And I think he wanted to approach all those years of criticism from the media and from the people and just make it a positive thing.

And he wanted to show that, "I acknowledge this.

I know that this was the situation.

But today, it is different."

(Daniel speaking in foreign language) (guests cheering) (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] Victoria was the second generation of Swedish monarchs to marry a commoner.

Her sister Madeleine and brother Carl Philip would both marry non-royals.

In 2009, Prince Carl Philip's then-girlfriend, Sofia Hellqvist, raised some eyebrows.

(camera shutter clicking) (dramatic music) - When Princess Sofia was quite young, I think she was in her early 20s, she decided to be a part of this reality show, "Paradise Hotel."

It is a show that shows a lot of bare skin.

- [Narrator] Along with appearing in the reality show, Sofia had posed provocatively for a men's magazine.

- That is, of course, not very easy to bring into the Royal Family.

It is a hard situation for her in the beginning.

- [Narrator] But the Swedes, their government, and the Royal Family quickly came to accept Sofia.

(King Carl speaking in foreign language) (pensive music) She and Carl Philip married in 2014.

(pensive music) - I have never seen Prince Carl Philip that happy.

I think that he had actually longing for having a companion in his royal role.

I know the first interview I did with him, he was very careful and reserved.

And together with Sofia, who is outgoing and charismatic, they are the perfect couple.

(uplifting music) - [Narrator] Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia's relationship cemented the idea, in Sweden at least, that in modern royal relationships, love was the deciding factor.

(suspenseful music) As Kate and William's wedding day approached, Britain's became excited in ways they hadn't since the wedding of Charles and Diana 30 years before.

(suspenseful music) The Royal Family and the country were determined to create an event that would unite the people and strengthen the bonds with the Royal Family.

(dramatic music) If it was an important national occasion for Britain, it was must-see TV for at least 200 million others.

- In America, people were getting up in the middle of the night putting on their fascinators, setting up tea parties, drinking champagne to celebrate this wedding, which was of course the beginning of the next chapter for Prince William.

He'd finally found his bride.

(uplifting music) - It was a reminder for the British, I think, that the marriage of of Charles and Diana, which was probably one of the last real arranged or semi-arranged marriages that we've had, was a disaster from the start.

(mellow music) - [Narrator] In 1981, William's mother, Lady Diana, was painted as the virginal blushing bride whom Prince Charles had seemingly swept off her feet.

But Diana and Charles barely knew one another and certainly had never lived together as William and Kate were permitted to do.

(mellow music) Pressure from Charles' father, Prince Philip, resulted in the quick announcement of their engagement.

(uplifting music) (pensive music) - Yes, Diana was perfect on paper, she ticked all the right boxes, she was a blue-blooded aristocracy, which we traditionally associate with marrying into royalty.

But in fact, she wasn't suited to that life at all.

(sombre music) - [Narrator] Their wedding was as spectacular as it was successful.

(sombre music) It had a staggering worldwide audience of over 700 million.

(crowd cheering) Though a glorious ceremony, the marriage was disastrous, slowly descending into misery and separation.

The couple officially divorced in 1996.

(camera shutter clicking) Diana died tragically the following year in a car crash.

(sombre music) During that time, Diana changed the monarchy forever.

(sombre music) - She held up a mirror to the Royal Family and she did it in a very, very public way.

She was a person that really crossed divides.

She embraced AIDS patients, she walked through minefields.

These were things that nobody in the Royal Family was doing.

(sombre music) (crowd cheering) - [Narrator] In all ways, Diana's ghost inhabited William and Kate.

- It was Diana who'd always said to William and Harry, "When you marry, make sure you marry for love.

(suspenseful music) Don't marry who you think you ought to marry or follow in tradition.

Marry because you've fallen in love with someone."

And that's what William did.

(pensive music) (crowd cheering) She may not have been from royal blue-blooded background or aristocracy, but I don't think we've ever seen her look more regal.

(crowd cheering) And I think that moment that she stepped out, to me, that was the moment that I saw our future queen.

(crowd cheering) (uplifting music) - [Narrator] As part of Catherine's wedding attire was the Cartier halo tiara, featuring 736 brilliant cut diamonds.

Originally commissioned by George VI for his wife, and then gifted to Queen Elizabeth on her 18th birthday, Catherine was loaned the piece for the day.

(uplifting music) Catherine and William recited the traditional marriage vows.

However, as Diana had done 30 years earlier, she did not promise to obey, opting to omit the word as a sign of equality in the relationship.

- [John] For better, for worse.

- For better, for worse.

- [John] For richer, for poorer.

- For richer, for poorer.

- [John] In sickness and in health.

- [Kate] In sickness and in health.

- [John] Till death us do part.

- [Kate] Till death us do part.

(uplifting music) (crowd cheering) - When you look back at that wedding and you watch back on them exchanging their vows, everything felt very authentic.

You could really see that this was a couple in love for all the right reasons.

(uplifting music) (crowd cheering) And it felt modern and it felt like a very promising chapter for the Royal Family.

(uplifting music) (crowd cheering) - Finally, the people had a new princess.

(crowd cheering) (mellow music) The couple drove away in the same carriage Charles and Diana had used 30 years earlier.

(uplifting music) (crowd cheering) - And when they came out and kissed not once but twice for the cameras, (crowd cheering) the roar of the crowds was just incredible.

And I remember feeling this vibration under my feet as people were stamping, and clapping, and cheering, and just really thinking, "This is an amazing moment."

(uplifting music) (crowd cheering) - [Narrator] Catherine's journey from commoner to a royalty was complete.

(uplifting music) (crowd cheering) (pensive music) Most fairytales finish with the wedding and everyone lived happily ever after.

But, for the four commoners, the real work of being a royal had only begun at the altar.

- It sounds really tough, but that's one of the rules of royal families.

They are to breed, they are to have children.

That's the purpose of it, that a generation shall follow in the course of generations.

- [Narrator] Mary Donaldson, so far from the waves of Bondi, would become a consummate royal insider.

But, at what price?

(uplifting music) (crowd cheering) Daniel would kick against traditional roles for husbands and fathers and change the way royal children are raised.

Mette-Marit would find her own way into Norwegians' hearts, but scandal would never leave her entirely.

And striving to be the perfect princess and mother, Kate would wrestle with her husband's family dramas and her own mortality.

(dramatic music) ("I Want You In My Dreams") ♪ Hold me close, I need you so ♪ I want you in my dreams ♪ Hold me close, I need you so ♪ I want you in my dreams ("I Want You In My Dreams")