Princess Diana was once romantically linked with an England captain (Image: Princess Diana Archive, Getty Images)
Will Carling, often dubbed the ‘bad boy’ of English , made headlines for years when he was romantically linked with During his time with the Red Roses from 1988 to 1996, Carling dazzled on the pitch and courted controversy off it.
He was either inspiring to many glorious moments in the 1990s or driving RFU officials up the wall with his antics – in one incident, he’s happy to admit, literally.
While he was used to being the centre of attention, the madness reached its pique when he was rumoured to be engaging in intimacy with the then-Princess of Wales – a claim which he still staunchly denies – while she was wed to the then-Prince Charles. These allegations presented a stark contrast to his upbringing as the son of a Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Regiment of Wales.
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Carling has addressed these claims over the years and denied any romantic involvement. Speaking to the Sunday Mirror in 2004, he categorically dismissed the rumours, stating: “No, no, no – how many times do I have to say it? We were friends…”
When asked about the impact those rumours had on his life during an interview with in March 2024, he said: “Front page is very different from back page. Yeah, it was not nice.”
However, he admitted that mistakes in his own doing caused some headlines. He added: “Hey, a lot of that is my own fault, you can’t complain. You have to learn. Relationships that I got wrong…so, that’s what they got fascinated by. You look back on it and you think it was all blown out of all proportion, but it made a good story.”
His switch from partner Ali Cockayne to Lisa Cooke – the then-spouse of Harlequins’ most enduring captain, Dave Cooke – continued to fuel scandal.
Will Carling insisted he was friends with Princess Diana and nothing more (Image: EXPRESS NEWSPAPERS)
Reflecting on those turbulent times in another interview in 2004, Carling said: “I have to admit that I didn’t handle things very well, not very well at all. But there are two sides to every story, and no one has heard mine. That’s my choice, and I live with it.”
Despite the rocky road, Carling and Cooke stayed together and had two children together. He also had a fathered a son, Henry, with Cockayne before their split when their child was just one. In 2004, he said: “It was just one of those things… but there are plenty of reasons that go into the breakdown of a relationship, none of which I am going to discuss in public.
“One person is more important than anyone else in all of this – and it’s Henry. The day will come when he will have to know what happened between me and his mum, and when the time is right I will sit down and explain things to him, father to son. That’s my responsibility. I wouldn’t want him hearing it second-hand from someone else.”
Despite the controversies, his tenure as England captain was marked by numerous highlights. When he assumed the role in 1988 at the age of 22, he became the youngest player ever to be bestowed with the honour. He inspired England to three Five Nations triumphs (1991, 1992 and 1995) as well as the run to the 1991 Rugby World Cup Final.