>> No other woman in modern times has ever commanded so much attention as Diana, Princess of Wales. She’s seen by her adoring public as a fairy tale princess, a caring wife, a devoted mother, and fashion icon. But what happens after Cinderella gets the glass slipper, enters the glass carriage, and wins her prince? At 19, Diana was cast alone into the royal family firm, and she’s still fighting to overcome personal barriers of emotional and physical trauma.
After more than a decade of royal duties, intense media attention, and speculation about the state of her marriage, Diana has emerged as a woman under pressure. To the outside world, her life appears idyllic, but from the pyramids of Egypt to the Taj Mahal, to personal family moments with her children, pictures of Diana leave the lasting impression of a much-loved royal heroine facing up to conflicting pressures alone.
But what happens when the veil is lifted on the real Diana? Behind the public image of the caring princess with the heart of gold, is there a complex, sensitive personality desperately trying to keep up to other people’s expectations? Is she really the heroine her supporters claim, or a victim of the royal system? >>
>> A decade of royal walkabouts has made Diana, Princess of Wales, a significant public figure. She’s now a polished performer, a modern-day symbol of beauty and glamour, the photogenic centerpiece of British royalty. She’s seen as the open, accessible face of the royal family, a skillful communicator, a caring campaigner, who shows a sincere understanding of other people’s suffering.
But from beneath the professional exterior, serious problems have emerged amidst dramatic press reports about her married life with Prince Charles. In all that you do, you reflect so very sincerely. During a visit to a hospice, her unease became very evident when the chairman praised her personal involvement with cancer sufferers.
>> [applause and music] >> Such praise for her work with the sick and needy brought her close to tears. It was in sharp contrast to the confident, mature public image she’s cultivated so successfully over the years. Set against the background of conventional British royalty, Diana’s uncharacteristic behavior reveals a deep conflict within the royal marriage.
Already shaken by the recent departure of the Duchess of York, the British monarchy is now facing another marriage crisis with potentially far greater consequences. Separation in public duties is an inescapable part of being royal, but reports have revealed that this isolation is now part of their personal lives, too.
After 11 years of marriage, the cover’s blown. On an official visit to Egypt, Diana enjoys the spotlight while Charles prefers to be by himself on a trip to Turkey. They seem happiest apart. This separation has dramatic implications for the British monarchy. Just as the Duchess of York refused to tow the line, is Diana yet another example of an outsider having to fight the royal system? The royal family, it seems, have not made any allowances for this at all in the past.
If you don’t shape up, you have to ship out. That’s what happened to Edward the VIII. That’s what happened to the Duke Duchess of York. Now, they can’t go on existing like that. It’s It’s just not possible. Diana sees William and Harry as her emotional anchor. They’re her main reason for staying the royal course. She lavishes them with affection, cuddles, and love.
Charles is seldom seen in public with his children, but Diana is always there to support them at school events and take them on holidays. No matter what, their needs come first. Memories of her own disrupted childhood and parents’ divorce have influenced her determination to provide a secure family base for her sons.
Now, with her marriage under pressure, she needs her children even more, and William is there giving full support to his mother. William’s doing what we what we call within modern terms parenting. I mean sort of him and Diana and he’s sort of taken on the role of the the wife, the boyfriend, the lover. I mean, there’s this this little boy who who’s very proud to be with his mother, too. I think he really enjoys it.
But, I think um they’re sort of unit, those two. Despite her marital problems, she’s very aware of how important it is to prepare William for his future role as king. He’s already in training. William is more reserved now. It’s almost as if we’ve seen in the last few years the monarchy, the great burden of it falling on his little shoulders because he’s stopped being a sort of um uninhibited child and become very much more serious.
The brothers are close and people predict that Harry will be a valuable support to William in his future role. But, her younger son is definitely the family’s charismatic joker. That boy is going to be the next generation royal star. He is fearless when he sort of works a crowd and he he loves a joke and she tells us that he he’s always been like that.
She said right from the start he was the one with a great wit, loved a joke, great fun. The bond between mother and sons is strong. Even under the intense scrutiny of cameras, their relationship is natural and relaxed. Game, set, and match. >> [cheering] >> Miss Gore. In June 1991, William was injured in an accident at school.
Diana stayed by his hospital bed throughout. But, after his initial visit, Charles left to attend an official function. His decision to put duty before his son provoked sharp criticism. But I know he takes great trouble to make time for them in his busy life. Um at weekends especially. Now, you don’t see that.
The world doesn’t see that because he’s not the kind of person that tries to exploit his children and make himself look good by um allowing photographers to see all this. I mean, I think he appreciates that the children need to be spared this horrible spotlight that’s trained on them all the time as much as as possible. But Diana was again seen as the more caring parent.
This is Diana. How’s your son? After her son was out of danger, she fulfilled a long-standing promise to open a new clinic for the deaf. Protecting the children in any marriage breakdown is difficult. Being royal complicates the situation even further. The pressure has been on to maintain a united public front, but Diana has now decided to stop the charade.
Sadly, or not, but the reality is this, that a number of uncomfortable truths will emerge emerged. And one was that she just does not have any kind of relationship at all with her husband. Uh if her friends had said to me, “Yes, they’re very happy together. Everything’s fine. Everything’s wonderful.” I would have written that.
None of them did. With the sudden departure of the Duchess of York from the royal family, the world’s attention again focuses on Diana. Her visit to Egypt in May 1992 without Charles excited more than usual press coverage. Like the true professional, she never faltered. Sightseeing and public duties continued despite the massive attention.
Under the intense media spotlight, Diana retains her composure. That onslaught is is terrible, but then to see every eye on you, every eye examining your jewelry, your makeup, your hairdo, looking up and down at your the dress you’re wearing. It’s it’s frightening. I mean, maybe models on catwalks know how to cope with that, but the average girl wouldn’t.
And she hadn’t had anything that would prepare her for that. After more than a decade of public exposure, she is used to the ever-present cameras. But her first encounters with the press before her engagement to Prince Charles in 1981 were far less controlled. A baptism of fire, it was a case of having to think quickly on her feet.
The media whirlwind quickly gathered pace. Her photograph guaranteed a boost in any magazine sales. She was a world phenomenon, fair game for any photographer who could get her in their sights. Di-mania reached a peak during a tour of Japan in May 1986. >> >> No one had predicted such extreme adulation, hyped beyond even Hollywood.
Surreal and obsessive, the pressures were extraordinary. I think she enjoyed the attention. I think it terrified her to start with, and then she it it it became like a drug to her. Um and I think the attention that’s focused on her is the one the one thing that she really enjoys still. Being the Princess of Wales. Abroad, Charles and Diana are seen as Britain’s foremost ambassadors.
They’ve appeared as a smooth and professional double act. In this often stilted atmosphere of extreme formality, her more relaxed style shines through. She tackles international relations with her usual straightforward chat. Even the elderly Emperor Hirohito succumbed. Formal dinners are the orchestrated predictable parts of foreign tours.
At the other extreme, Diana has to cope with the un- expected, as on a building site full of Australian construction workers. But everyone gets the same treatment and attention, even a half-clad builder wearing his t-shirt on his head. Never at a loss for words, she shows an uncanny ability for just getting on with people from all walks of life.
Tomorrow you today. My wife won’t let me. Diana’s a patron and plays an active part in the charity Help the Aged. She’s particularly open and relaxed with the elderly. In contrast to the royal family’s more restrained hands-off approach, she’s tactile and spontaneous. She’s a communicator who intuitively creates an immediate rapport.
Diana’s also particularly at ease with dancers, as ballet is a passion of hers. She grew too tall to pursue her own ambition to dance, but now channels her enthusiasm into supporting the professionals. >> >> For ballet, Diana takes over where Princess Margaret left off. Both have added an arts dimension to the royal family’s more horse-loving and philistine image.
Her early desire to perform as a dancer has helped her become a leading player on the public stage. People also expect a performance from their royals. Like it or not, Diana has a stage and a waiting audience. The shy Di image was soon outdated. But things were far from easy to begin with. Once the press had scented a possible romance before her engagement was announced, her private life suddenly became public property.
This is the real acid test for all royals to be and the pressure on a 19-year-old was intense. The announcement of the engagement in 1981 meant an immediate move into Buckingham Palace. These protective walls suddenly isolated her. She was totally unprepared for the future. Within the royal system, she was getting no support at all.
In fact, she was given less training and the same as applies to the Duchess of York as well. Less training than the average supermarket checkout girl. She wasn’t told a thing what to do. She was terrified. She was nervous. She was lonely. She was lost. Their engagement didn’t get off to a good start.
Charles left for a 5-week official tour of Australia and New Zealand leaving Diana to cope alone. In Australia, her husband-to-be improved his polo game and basked in the glory of finally capturing a beautiful young bride. On his return at another polo match, Diana was there to watch him play just a few days before the wedding. But the strain was beginning to tell.
She burst into tears and had to be led away. Her first public show of anxiety. A natural shyness, childhood traumas, and the pressures of public life meant the young princess soon fell victim to a persistent eating disorder, bulimia nervosa. She was being sick four, five times a day. And this started on the honeymoon.
It just a chance [clears throat] remark by Prince Charles. He patted her tummy and said, “You’re You’re looking a bit tubby here.” And that somehow sparked something inside her. >> [cheering] >> This nervous sickness, a grueling schedule, and heavy rain dominated her first taste of an official tour of Wales. The pressure was on.
Huge crowds packed the streets to see their first Princess of Wales for almost a century. Diana reemerged looking very thin. Three days of walkabouts and functions were daunting for a novice princess. From the start, Charles expected her to follow his lead and take second place. >> [cheering] >> She seemed a natural at the complex technique of the walkabout, showing an intuitive feel for working the crowd.
It was an exhausting experience, but she was an instant success and her triumph earned her high praise from her husband. I could see him saying things that seemed to be praise, consolation, patting her on the hand when he sat beside her. And I remember one afternoon at the Braemar Games when I was there watching them, he spent the entire afternoon kissing her hand, romancing her, making eyes at her.
That was in September 1982, and William was must have been a few months old then. Now, he certainly looked like a man very much in love with his wife to me, and that was a public show of affection. On their engagement day in February 1981, they were billed as the romance of the century. They’d come through a bizarre courtship, hurried and distorted by a prying press.
Now she was finally able to say if all the attention had been a strain. Yes, it has, but I think anyone in the position we’ve been in would feel pressure and everything. But it’s been worthwhile, every bit of it. After a long search, Charles, the serious-minded heir to the throne, finally chose the well-born girl, Lady Diana Spencer, who’d once lived next door on the Sandringham estate.
As one observer noted, if she hadn’t come along, she’d have to have been invented. As for Diana, she’d captured her prince and the man of her dreams. >> [cheering] >> On July 29th, 1981, they were married in a media event watched by 700 million people worldwide. For a monarchy with a rather stayed, traditional image, the arrival of a young and beautiful royal consort was a valuable boost.
Born a commoner, she was a vital link with life outside the palace walls. The entire world stood still to see this young Cinderella marry her Prince Charming. >> [cheering] >> It was the fairy tale everyone had been looking for, but had Diana really won her prince? I don’t think that Charles was in love with her when he married her.
But I think he grew to love her in a very protective way. A sort of almost a Professor Higgins. I mean, out of this chrysalis came this which she was, came this sort of gorgeous butterfly. >> [applause] >> Charles seemed eager to show off his new wife. She was his dazzling future queen who added a new dimension of glamour to the royal cavalcade.
I remember on the first tour of Australia in 1983, I thought he looked so proud of her. And he used to touch her constantly, which I think is a good sign in any marriage. He used to pat her on the hand, and the whole look that he gave her said, “I’m so proud of you.” I think that was a very happy time then.
Perhaps it was an ordeal for her. It was almost 7 weeks on the road, you know, with very few breaks. It was a tough tour. But they seemed very together and a great team. In New Zealand, Charles paid public tribute to his young wife. Ladies and gentlemen, the last time I was here was 2 years ago uh in 1981 shortly before uh we were married.
And at that time, everybody was saying, “Good luck and I hope everything goes well and how lucky you are to be engaged to such a lovely lady.” And my goodness, I was lucky enough to marry her. And we had many many mess ups. >> [laughter] >> It’s amazing what ladies do when your back’s turned. One of her greatest tests was Diana’s first visit to the United States in 1985.
The visit included being guest of honor at a glittering White House ball hosted by the Reagans. Hollywood stars turned out in force to inspect the princess. She’d once waited in the rain for the ballet dancer Baryshnikov’s autograph. Now, she found herself sitting next to him as the focus for a celebrity audience.
As for Prince Charles, well, he was just the man who happened to accompany the Princess of Wales. John Travolta broke the ice for other partners. It was a triumph. As one headline summed it up, “Now the United States falls to Diana.” And America wasn’t slow to celebrate a royal visit in their own way. For $5, you can pose with two life-size cutouts.
>> Ready? You ready? >> doesn’t impress the folks back home in Tennessee, nothing will. Back home in Britain, the real Diana became known as the caring princess. Now involved with over 35 different charities, she’s drawn to people-related problems. Hers is always the human face with a good bedside manner.
But she will go in and she will talk about the problems. She won’t just say, “Gosh, what pretty flowers?” Or “And where do you come from?” And um you know, I’m sorry about your circumstances. She actually will sit down with them and have a proper conversation about the difficulties that they’re going through, about how they’ve how they’re coping with it.
Her personal experience helps her to relate and identify with others. She conveys the emotional depth to make a difference to those she tries to comfort. She clearly identifies at some level with people who are vulnerable, with people who have needs which they’re ready to express. And she’s very good at talking to them and talking about it.
She’s also gone for the cutting edge of charity work, most notably drug related and AIDS campaigns. >> >> Having finally mastered her nerves for public speaking, her speeches are surprisingly direct and hard-hitting. Publicity about HIV seems to veer between sex and death horror stories at one extreme to complacency at the other.
It would be reassuring to believe that the virus only picked on those whose lifestyle we didn’t approve of. People who one could feel smugly had only themselves to blame. Or that at least it would give us some kind of visible warning. But such comforting thoughts are not on the menu. The virus is now loose and most of the time those it ensnares remain outwardly unaffected.
HIV does not make people dangerous to know. So you can shake their hands and give them a hug. Heaven knows they need it. Pictures like this do more than a thousand reassuring words from doctors. If you’re dealing with something, as I say, which has been stigmatized and in which there’s an awful lot of prejudice, bringing it into the mainstream and using something like the enormous authority which the Princess of Wales has to make this seem as if it’s an issue which everybody should be looking at is terribly important.
Her visit to the Leprosy Mission Hospital in Calcutta in spring 1992 hit international headlines. The ancient untouchables were seen to be accepted. Diana seems totally at ease. By touching and caressing the diseased limbs, Diana is hailed as a saintly figure of hope against prejudice. On the same tour, she visits the first hospice for the dying founded by Mother Teresa.
Over a hundred critically ill people wait for her on camp beds suffering from the final stages of TB and malnutrition with little will to live. This is the hard edge of charity work. Diana’s high profile as a serious campaigner, together with her obvious charms of glamour and style, means she now dominates the center stage of royalty.
Charles is no longer the main crowd puller. It’s Diana they clamor to see. Suddenly, the heir to the throne is out of the limelight. And although he he put a good face on it for quite a while, he used to sort of say things like when crowds were calling out for her, “Oh, well, I’m sorry. There’s only me. So, you know, you better go and ask for your money back.
” Things like that, which weren’t exactly as jokey as he tried to make them sound. It very quickly became clear that he didn’t really like being the the second string. He liked being the main star. runs wide. Charles cultivates the image of the macho competitive action man, keeping up and sometimes outdoing the fast vigorous pace originally set by the Duke of Edinburgh.
He needs to prove himself in his father’s eyes. Nazario coming through flat out. Watching polo, Diana gets easily bored. By nature, she’s competitive. At school sports days, she relishes the chance of getting out onto the field to race against the other mothers. But, the couple’s competitiveness spilled over into the public arena when Diana and Charles both made major speeches on the same day.
Diana’s on AIDS and Charles’s about education. That in Shakespeare’s land, one child in seven leaves primary school functionally illiterate. It turned out to be an unintentional clash, but exposed the yawning gap of communication between them. punctuation and numerous With growing confidence, Diana is flexing independent muscles, going her own way, and enjoying the limelight.
Charles is falling back into bachelor habits. It’s becoming obvious they are moving further and further apart. The press first began to seriously speculate on the state of the marriage in 1987 when Charles stayed at Balmoral alone. Diana remained in London with the children carrying out public duties, playing tennis, and seeing friends.
They were apart for almost 6 weeks. And I think he expected a wife to fit into his cozy little life. He did not expect that she would become a far greater star than than he was. Uh I think he as he was sort of used to being the son with everybody orbiting around him, and he fully expected his wife would be a pretty little satellite, you know, skimming around on the fringes of his life.
Well, that’s not what wives want. And that’s not what happened. Pretty soon, she became the big star, and he was, you know, relegated to outer space. She no longer conceals her boredom in his country world of horses and polo. He seeks company and support elsewhere. The fairy tale of the gorgeous butterfly and her charming prince is wearing thin.
I think for a time that they were happy. And then then the butterfly sort of got away and and got out of control. And then and and Charles got bored. I just think he he he she didn’t stimulate him mentally enough and he’s always preferred the company of older women. Charles has known Camilla Parker Bowles since his bachelor days.
Camilla’s fun. She’s undemanding. She’s married and she’s there. And I think she’s one of those really gutsy sort of sort of horsey ladies really. I mean, I don’t mean that rudely because um the people that know her say she’s absolutely fabulous, but she’s a lot of fun. And she’s sort of spirited and she doesn’t mind what you say to her, and she loves dogs, and she and horses, and the country life, and she jokes, and she’s she’s also extremely intelligent.
And she’s uncomplicated. She is a link with a life when he was much freer, when he was a bachelor. And obviously a very good companion who enjoys fishing as he does, shooting and hunting, especially hunting that he really is passionate about in the winter. And she and her husband both enjoy these things with him. And few few other people like that that were around when he was the center of the world.
The bachelor life suited Charles. Before Diana and marriage, sun, fun, and girls were all there for the taking. It was a glamorous existence. But his fate was to fulfill a royal role and provide the next heir. After putting it off for as long as he could, he finally chose a mother for his children. Looking through Prince Charles’ statements on and interviews on marriage and on love, he was looking for somebody to fulfill a role, not for a woman to share his life.
He was looking for a partner, not a lover. And basically, in summary, he was looking for a marriage of convenience. Diana married for love because I spoke to many of her friends and they insisted and emphasized the fact that she was besotted with him. And that’s the word they use.
Absolutely, utterly besotted with him. >> [cheering] >> Marriage also offered her security. Earl Spencer, Diana’s father, dominated her childhood. He took charge of his four children after divorce and a bitter court battle with her mother, Frances. Diana’s bulimia nervosa can be traced back to her parents’ separation. Press exposure of Diana’s own marriage problems in spring 1992 coincided with her father’s death, stirring up unhappy childhood memories and adding more pressures on the princess.
Because her mother wasn’t there for her, uh she lent very much on her father. She’s supposed to have said at the time to Nanny Clark, “I never never want to get divorced, Nanny. Please don’t let it happen to me.” At the age of 12, Diana followed her sisters to West Heath School in Kent. Here, the order and routine of boarding provided a greater sense of stability compared to home.
As a young teenager, Diana was popular but lacked confidence. She kept a low profile. Shy with adults, it was only amongst friends of her own age that she became more of an extrovert. She enjoyed babysitting small children and on leaving school accepted an offer of working part-time in a London kindergarten. Despite her lack of formal training, Diana’s abilities suited the job and she felt comfortable in this unpressured world of small children.
I wanted to teach children and they said, “Why not come along?” So, I first started off doing afternoons and then I took over the mornings and did whole days. But, I only worked 3 days a week kindergarten and the other two I looked after American baby boy. Constitutional pressures to provide the heir and spare necessary to continue the royal line only reinforced her personal wish to have children of her own as soon as possible.
She’s concentrated on creating the secure family base she never had in her own childhood. She’s introduced a new more relaxed style of parenting into the royal tradition. >> >> There were no family Spanish holidays in the sun for the young Charles with his mother and father. He was mainly brought up by nannies, although his parents did supervise the more formal events such as delivering him to his first boarding school in 1955.
At 13, he went on to Gordonstoun in the Scottish Highlands. The Spartan philosophy was designed to instill discipline. And then at 17, he was sent away to Australia to Geelong Grammar School. Here, the physically demanding outdoor regime taught self-reliance and perseverance. It was an education to toughen him up for the life of duty ahead.
>> >> At 20, he took up his inheritance to become Prince of Wales. He has a profound sense of duty and a strong belief in the continuity of monarchy. In his view, each generation, particularly his own children, should assume responsibilities from an early age. He’s tried to instill in them a sense of duty.
I think Charles is a bit of an idealist, really. And so, he tried to instill all these things in his children, whether it’s worked or not, it’s it’s too early to tell. But it I think a sense of duty is what he tried to instill in them. Always be polite. Say thank you to the policeman when they open the the gate. Tiny things that really uh matter hugely if you’re in that position.
On to Cambridge and Charles’s attainment of a degree in anthropology, archaeology, and history. This marked the beginning of his image as the intellectual deep-thinking prince. A love of music is important in his life. I’d like to name it. I’d like you Diana is less well known for her taste in classical music, but she enjoyed piano lessons at school, and years later was offered the chance of unofficially performing in public.
>> especially. Her impromptu performance at an Australian music school certainly found an appreciative audience. The media’s disco die image ignores a continuing interest in the performing arts. Naturally, her public role has expanded her artistic knowledge. >> [applause] >> She’s certainly matured intellectually a lot, a great deal. She enjoys opera.
She’s a very serious balletomane. She She knows an awful lot about that subject. I’d say she’s an expert. She could write a book about ballet. No one would have predicted this judging by her academic record. She hated exams and left school with few qualifications. Her ties with West Heath School remain strong.
In 1987, she returned to give a speech and open the new sports hall, an appropriate task for someone who excelled as an athlete. She was a natural swimmer and highly competitive. Had spent many hours practicing to perfect a prize-winning ripple-free dive. My years at West Heath were certainly very happy ones indeed. I made many friends who I often see.
And in spite of what Miss Roach and my other teachers may have thought at the time, I did actually learn something. Though you would never have known by my O level results. Diana and Charles are products of very different backgrounds. I think when two people have nothing in common at all, apart from their children, it is a problem.
They were sitting at the dining table at Highgrove, and um Charles was talking to somebody about the Just So Stories, and she said, “Just so? Just so what, Charles?” It illustrates the the divide between them, doesn’t it? I mean, she’d never heard of Rudyard Kipling and the Just So Stories. And so, she’s a completely completely different generation.
Born in 1961, Diana’s upbringing was influenced by the youth culture of the ’70s and ’80s. Metropolitan at heart, she’s a people person. Charles was middle-aged before his time, brought up in the company of people far older than himself. Introspective, he prefers solitude and quiet painting on a Scottish beach.
But Diana has found an emotional outlet in her public work as Princess of Wales. Her children and her public are her life. That is where she gets the emotion that’s missing in her marriage. She she gets the adulation that she loves it, and she really enjoys doing the work she does for charities. I mean, she genuinely enjoys it.
Endless handshakes are part of the job. It can be a wrenching experience. But she disregards the stuffier aspects of royal protocol with spontaneous gestures of affection. And her warmth is invariably returned. Her sense of humor even overrides any vanity about hairstyles in the wind. Smiles and laughs are a disarming safety valve both publicly and privately.
>> [laughter] [laughter] >> Humor and a self-deprecating wit also served to protect against those who wait to trip her up. It’s her way of keeping the unexpected and the hot and tiring in perspective. She manages to retain the ability to see the absurdities of the job. A tongue-in-cheek attitude to military dress also eases the straitjacket of protocol.
Teasingly irreverent, it’s a subtle way of bucking the system. Members of the royal family are expected to behave within a rigid structure of protocol. Diana is a victim of an immovable system of family tradition and royal precedent. What we saw happen to the Duchess of York tells us a lot about what has been happening to the Princess of Wales.
That when you marry into that family, you are expected to be exactly what they want and you do have very little say yourself. I mean, a very tiny example is you must spend every Christmas with the Queen and the rest of your royal relatives. Which is um inconceivable that you might wish to spend that time with your own family.
They just draw you in and um and lock you into that that world and there’s no going back. Off-duty royal life is dominated by the Windsors’ love of horses. As a family, they compete in almost every type of equestrian sport. The Queen is a countrywoman at heart, never happier than when she’s near her horses. But a nasty fall from a horse in childhood has left Diana very wary of them.
There’s little common ground between these two very different women. Diana attends numerous polo matches, but her role is to act as prize giver and add decoration for the inevitable photo call. The game itself holds very little attraction. For Charles, polo is an emotional safety valve, a vital antidote to the formalities of public life.
When he broke his arm playing polo, he laughed it off as an unfortunate inconvenience. But when the injury proved to be more serious and a second operation was needed, Diana was seen by his side in the role of the supportive wife. Charles chose to recuperate apart from his wife at Highgrove, their country home in Gloucestershire.
This is Camilla Parker Bowles’ territory. She lives just down the road. When Prince Charles broke his right arm playing polo, he recovered at Highgrove. >> >> Who was there to help him? Camilla Parker Bowles. What Diana finds offensive, and that’s always found offensive about Camilla Parker Bowles, is the fact that she seems to have been always in the background, and she’s very hostile towards her.
Ask any woman, the one thing you don’t expect your husband to do when you get married is to continue having close friendship with the people he knew before, if they’re female. It’s an insult. It’s a real insult to to Diana that he maintained this this friendship, and I mean friendship, which is all my I mean I don’t mean that he was having an affair with her.
I mean this close confidant who is a woman. It’s just like throwing a bucket of cold water over the Diana and I don’t blame her for being so upset by it. It is just an insult to her. Charles has always had everything his own way because that’s the way royal children are brought up. They’re pampered too. People bow and scrape to them.
That’s what he’s used to. He’s used to getting his own way. If he wants to maintain a close friendship with Camilla, I’m sure he couldn’t see the harm in it. I’m not saying there was any harm in it. It was just an insult to his wife. I think he would have been quite happy just to let her carry on the way she was.
I mean they leading their separate lives. I mean he’s he’s seen his own parents lead separate lives and maintain a semblance of happiness. And I don’t I think probably it’s what he wanted for himself. I don’t think he’s rejected her. I think she is finally rejected him. Diana is no longer the impressionable young girl he married.
A decade of public experience has given her her own ideas. As a contemporary woman with an independent outlook, she’s no longer prepared to tow the line. She’s now forcing the issue of change into the open. I think that Diana wants to continue in her role as Princess of Wales. She wants to serve the Queen. She wants to serve the nation doing her charity work which has earned her a place >> >> internationally of esteem.
But at the same time, she’s no longer prepared to continue with the charade. Alone in Egypt, there’s nowhere for Diana to hide. The press will always find her. In Turkey, Charles’ solitary painting trip is also disrupted by an intrusive media audience. How can any relationship survive under such relentless pressures? But the world waits to see the outcome of this Shakespearean drama of lost love >> >> and a monarchy in crisis.
The story of Diana is one of transformation from a shy, unsophisticated teenager into a self-confident woman prepared to challenge the royal system. She’s disproved the dumb blonde theory >> >> and exposed a strong will and determination to get what she wants for herself and her children. I think she’s been trying to expose the inner workings of the royal family so that something better can come out of that.
Yeah, I think she was desperate to find an avenue to let the world know what was going on, not just for her own benefit, but for the benefit of the entire royal family. For the benefit of her children. It seems to me that she feels that the royal family are locked into a time warp. And unless they break out of that, and unless they realize that the 21st century is here, it’s on our doorsteps, and unless they adapt to this, they’re going to be finished.
In this democratic age, royalty has had to widen the circle of marriage partners to include commoners. But Diana and Charles are yet another example of an experiment that has failed. What if royalty ultimately proves to be something you have to be born and bred to? Lady Diana Spencer seemed the perfect raw material for a royal consort.
Now she’s seen as the tragic queen in waiting who may bring down the House of Windsor. Cast alone into a royal system at 19, she’s come a long way. The glass slipper no longer fits. The fairy tale has ended. They were the love story that would run and run. The happy ever after romance to take the royal family into the 21st century.
This beautiful princess was a breath of fresh air, a glamorous lifeline for the British monarchy’s stuffy image. The mystique is shattered. 11 years on, they’re leading separate lives.
