According to the new royal family tell-all, Prince Charles felt he would “learn to love” Princess Diana

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Prince Charles and Princess Diana certainly didn’t have a fairy tale ending, and now, it seems they never even had a fairy tale beginning.

In her new biography, “Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life” author Sally Bedell Smith claims that Prince Charles thought he would “learn to love” Diana.

According to Bedell Smith, Charles and Diana had approximately 12 dates between the summer of 1980 and their engagement in February 1981. Prince Charles was reportedly surprised Diana immediately accepted the proposal and thought the two could learn to make it work.

“He was obviously anguished, and he said, ‘She was someone I could learn to love,’” Bedell Smith told PEOPLE. “He looked to his grandparents, which wasn’t a love match at the outset and thought, ‘If they can do it and build a good marriage then I can do it too.’”

Bedell Smith believes that Diana didn’t have time to really get to know her future husband in that time.

“I was stunned when I combed over the chronology they had only been together 12 times [before their engagement],” Bedell Smith said. “After they got engaged, he went away for six weeks. He was dutifully plunging ahead with his schedule, and she wanted him to be around and available and support her.”