Princess Diana and Prince Charles: a royal love story. Sons remember Princess Diana (12 photos) Princess Diana her story
“William and Harry are the only men in my life who have not let me down,” Lady Diana said about her sons. Having survived her husband's scandalous infidelities, she could not trust him, so she devoted herself entirely to raising her two sons. 
Princess Diana with her sons William and Harry.
Both William and Harry were crazy about their mother as children, and they still remember her with warmth and tenderness today. Her mischievous character gave them no rest, and sometimes it was Princess Diana who was the instigator of the most daring antics. So, she came with pleasure to watch her favorite boys kick the ball around the football field, and her loving mother often secretly put sweets in Harry’s leggings. Lady Di sent funny cards with warm words to her favorite boys, and once unexpectedly invited Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell, supermodels whose photographs decorated the room of teenage William, to Buckingham Palace (William was almost speechless from surprise and stumbled while getting up up the stairs to your room. 
Princess Diana is a loving mother.
Filming the documentary marked the first time Harry and William decided to talk publicly about their mother. They admitted that frank conversations with the filmmakers became a kind of way of reflection, since Diana’s death still remains a painful and not fully experienced event for both sons. 
Princess Diana with her beloved sons.
Speaking of mom, William and Harry willingly showed off their childhood photos. Most of the photographs were taken by Diana herself; she loved photographing her sons. These family chronicles have never been published before and will be a real gift for TV viewers. 
Princess Diana with Prince Harry on the royal yacht.
Princess Diana with Prince Harry on vacation. Photo from the personal archive of the royal family.
Prince William and Prince Harry dressed as police officers.
Pregnant Princess Diana holds Prince William in her arms.
Prince William and Prince Harry. Photo from the personal archive of the royal family.
Princess Diana with her sons on the plane.
William and Harry are sure that it was their mother who raised them as they are now: open, sociable, natural. The only thing they truly regret is that they lost their mother so early, they did not have time to give her the love, tenderness and attention that she deserved. Harry, who spoke with his mother on the eve of the disaster, still cannot forgive himself that their last conversation was short and he, still just a child, wanted to end it quickly. Harry assures that he remembered all the words Diana said at that moment for the rest of his life. 
Princess Diana with her sons.
“I sit at my desk today and desperately need someone who will hug me, encourage me, help me become stronger and hold my head high,” Princess Diana wrote in her diary in 1993. She felt absolutely alone throughout her marriage to Charles, and even more so afterward. Just think about it: Princess Diana would be alive today if she had been born into a family at least a little similar to the one into which Kate Middleton was lucky enough to be born. In a family where parents are a reliable support and unconditional love, and not a tangle of vices and vain ambitions.
Papa John Spencer
“What can you say about your daughter’s upcoming wedding to Prince Charles? You are happy?" ─ asked the excited TV journalist. The corpulent John Spencer involuntarily grunted with pleasure several times into the camera and, laughing not too aristocratically, replied: “Oh, yes, of course!”
This blitz interview took place on February 24, 1981, near the fence of Buckingham Palace, on the day of the official announcement of the engagement of Diana and Charles. Earl Spencer was in seventh heaven - his life's project was close to fruition.
The fact that 19-year-old Diana was an infantile child, and Prince Charles a sophisticated (including in love) 31-year-old man, did not matter. Edward John Spencer himself married at 30, and his wife was also 12 years younger, so the difference between Charles and Diana did not bother him. Nor was the unhappy ending of her own misalliance frightening: Frances endured 13 toxic years next to him and at 31 she ran away to another, accusing her husband of domestic tyranny and beatings (alas, the poor thing had no evidence, although Diana admitted in one of her interviews that she had seen how a father hits his mother in the face).
The main thing that John Spencer saw in Diana was that she was his last chance to become related to the Windsors.
According to the original plan, Charles was supposed to get the eldest of the daughters - the lively and prettier Lady Sarah. As for Diana, she was being prepared for Andrew. Everything was so serious that the girl had a portrait of Elizabeth II’s youngest son on her bedside table, and her family nicknamed her “Duchess” (“Duch”) - a title she would receive if she married Andrew, Duke of York. For the same reason, the Spencer family practically spat on Diana's education. The future Duchess of York had no use for it.
But everything went wrong.
Sarah was already taken seriously as the most likely candidate for Charles's bride when she allowed herself to comment to the press: “I don’t care who I marry, a garbage man or a prince, as long as there is love between us.” The girl just wanted to convey to the public that she was not with the prince because of the titles. But it turned out crooked, and Charles crossed Sarah off his list with the words “You just did something incredibly stupid.”
The Spencers urgently needed a spare bride. And the portrait of Andrew on Diana's nightstand was replaced with a photo of Charles.
Grandma Ruth Fermoy
Lady Fermoy hoped that her granddaughter would be more prudent than her mother to appreciate the family's efforts. Lady Fermoy decisively erased her own daughter from her life. The ungrateful girl dared to divorce Diana's father. And this is after so many efforts made by Ruth to marry 18-year-old Frances to the most eligible bachelor - the future Earl Spencer. Their wedding was attended by all members of the royal family, including Elizabeth II. And the wedding took place in Westminster Abbey (Frances then became the youngest bride ever married in this place). All for the sake of your beloved daughter? The true motives became clear when Frances tried to achieve joint custody of the children after the divorce. Ruth mercilessly sided with her son-in-law, slandering her daughter in court. In her opinion, communication with her mother could harm the girls' future. But the family had special plans for them. Francis was no longer allowed into the house, and the children were told that their mother had left them for another man. No one thought what damage such information would cause to the psyche of children.
Lady Fermoy showed the only gesture of prudence after the official announcement of the engagement of Diana and Charles. “Dear, you must understand that their sense of humor, their way of life is different, and I don’t think they will suit you,” she told her granddaughter. But it's too late. Diana was poisoned by the illusions of her own chosenness. And all she did was refuse to invite her grandmother to the wedding. She was content with the invitation from Elizabeth Sr.
Even before her death in 1993, Ruth Fermoy acted not as Diana's own grandmother, but as an adherent of the royal family. Already knowing that the end was near, she asked for forgiveness from Elizabeth II and the Queen Mother for having a hand in Diana's marriage to Charles. Ruth complained that she should have warned everyone from the very beginning “about the bad temper” of her granddaughter, who clearly took after her mother.
Mom Frances Shand Kid
Yes, they were often compared with each other - the mother also married very early and to a man who was 12 years older, they were both unhappy in their marriage and both came to the idea of divorce by the age of 30. But that's where the similarities ended. “Mom had a cool character. If my mother had been in my place, Camilla would have ended up somewhere outside the UK immediately after the wedding, maybe even at the South Pole,” Diana joked. Frances was selfish. And she knew how to make sacrifices for personal good. Even if the victims were their own children. “I couldn’t understand: how could you leave your children? It’s better to die than to leave your child,” the princess later said. But for Frances it was never a question of life and death. At 31, she set out to arrange her personal life, knowing that she was leaving four children without a mother.
Diana honestly tried to improve her relationship with her mother the entire time she was married to Charles. She invited her to the wedding. She invited me to all important events in her life. And when Frances herself had another divorce in 1988 (her second husband left her for a younger woman), Diana dragged her mother to Kensington Palace to “lick her wounds.” In 1990, the princess took her mother on vacation to the Hawaiian Islands. But friendship and understanding never happened between them. And when it became clear that Diana and Charles’s marriage was rapidly heading towards divorce, Frances stepped aside to see how things would end. And then she started making strange comments to the press. She was glad in an interview that Diana was freed from the title of “Princess of Wales” (it was not entirely clear which aspect brought her joy - that Diana became free, or that she was deprived of the title of princess). Then she spoke rudely about her when she found out who her lover was. Did she have the right to criticize Diana for wanting to arrange her future? A few months before her death, Diana once again quarreled with her mother during a telephone conversation and stopped communicating with Frances altogether.
Brother Charles Spencer
At Diana’s funeral and now, 20 years after her death, her younger brother Charles Spencer repeats in a broken voice: “How I wish I could help her!” And he immediately receives a response from the princess’s former chef: “This makes me sick. Where were you when she really needed you? You were never on her side." Darren McGready is not alone. “I’m not going to sit and be silent while Diana’s younger brother rewrites history,” the princess’s former butler Paul Burrell supports his colleague. In 2002, he handed over to the court Diana’s correspondence with Charles Spencer, dated 1993 - these letters became the best evidence of “brotherly” hypocrisy.
In December 1992, Diana and the Prince of Wales officially announced their decision to separate. Diana desperately needed the opportunity to escape away from London, gather her strength and “reboot.” The best place seemed to her to be Garden House, the house in which she was born and lived her carefree childhood years. Her father had already died by that time, her brother lived in Althorp, the Spencer family castle. Meanwhile, Garden House was empty, and Diana was absolutely sure that Charlie would not refuse her request for temporary shelter in her home. At the beginning of 1993, she wrote to him about this. And in response she received an estimate - how much it would cost her to live on the estate, and what he expected from her besides rent. However, while Diana was digesting the contents of the first letter, 2 weeks later the second one arrived. My brother changed his mind. And her presence in Garden House was now seen as undesirable. But he, of course, can help her find something else to rent. “I’m very sorry that I won’t be able to help my sister,” Charles Spencer ended the message. He returned Diana's angry answer to her without opening the envelope.
However, why did Diana suddenly decide that her brother would be on her side? 4 years before these events, Charles had already shown how cynical he could be towards his sister, who did not live up to the expectations of her relatives. When it became obvious that things were heading towards divorce, wasn't it her brother who asked Diana to return the same "Spencer tiara" that adorned her head on her wedding day? It was difficult to make it hurt more. This tiara meant more to Dee than her favorite piece of jewelry. By the standards of the royal family, Diana was practically without a dowry. And this tiara was a kind of symbol of her independence, the only impressive jewel that she brought with her into marriage. There was a short quarrel between Diana and her brother. As it turned out, Charles decided to give this tiara to his future wife so that she could decorate her wedding dress with it. Double slap. Diana put the tiara in a cardboard box and took it downstairs to the butler, telling Charles Spencer that he could call for it at any convenient time.
“For 20 years now I’ve been asking myself: what could I have done? What a pity that I didn’t have time to help her” ─ Lady Di’s brother sheds tears in front of the lenses of ABC TV channel already in 2017.
“What hypocrisy! Charles Spencer forgot that some of us were there when he turned his back on Diana,” and these are the words of Elizabeth II’s former press secretary, Dickie Arbeiter, who, on duty, communicated with Diana throughout the years of the princess’s life at Court.
“I have always interfered with everyone, I was unnecessary... Of the entire host of relatives and acquaintances around me, only my boys love me, and it’s me, with all my shortcomings and advantages,” Diana once said sadly. Even if the princess was not always honest, these words are the pure and very bitter truth.
So, while the royal family, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary, is once again “taking the rap” for the death of the “princess of human hearts,” her blood relatives are rewriting history with enviable zeal and earning millions on souvenirs and an attraction called the “Princess of Wales Memorial” in the family estate Althorp (admission, of course, is paid - 18.50 English pounds). The memory of Diana is perfectly monetized. Especially on anniversaries. So, in honor of the 15th anniversary of the princess’s death, an exhibition of her outfits was organized in Althorp. And now there is an exhibition of the best photographs of Lady Di taken by Mario Testino. Diana's body is buried on an island where the general public has no access, but everyone can admire the place from afar and look at the almost sacred waters washing the shores of the tomb of the people's princess. Of course, also for money. Recently, Earl Spencer invested several million pounds sterling in the reconstruction of Althorp and the princess's grave. Knowing that even during his sister’s lifetime he did nothing for her sake for nothing, one can imagine what kind of profit Charles Spencer expects to make in this anniversary year.
Fifteen years ago, on the night of August 31, 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a car accident in Paris.
Diana, Princess of Wales, née Lady Diana Frances Spencer, is the former wife of the heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, and the mother of Princes William and Harry.
In 1975, Diana's father Edward John Spencer assumed the hereditary title of Earl.
Diana studied at Riddlesworth Hall School in Norfolk and West Heath School in Kent, then at school in Chateau d'Oex in Switzerland.
After finishing school, she returned to England and began working as a kindergarten teacher in London.
Their first son, William, was born on June 21, 1982, and their second son, Harry, was born two years later on September 15, 1984.
After the divorce, Diana was deprived of the right to be called a member of the royal family, but she retained the title of Princess of Wales.
There are several versions of the cause of Princess Diana's death.
In January 2004, hearings were launched to establish the circumstances of the death of Dodi al-Fayed and Princess Diana.
The hearing was adjourned pending an investigation into the Paris car crash and was resumed on 2 October 2007 at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. The jury heard testimony from more than 250 witnesses from eight countries.
Following the hearings, the jurors came to the conclusion that the illegal actions of the tabloid journalists who were pursuing their car, and the careless driving of the car by the driver Henri Paul. The main cause of the accident was said to be drunken driving by Henri Paul.
By the end of 2013, Kensington Palace, where Princess Diana lived after her divorce, . The couple will move into the new wing, which was occupied by Queen Elizabeth II's sister, Princess Margaret, until her death.
On June 21, 2012, on his thirtieth birthday, Prince William inherited it from his late mother. The total amount was ten million pounds sterling (about $15.7 million).
Many books have been written about Princess Diana, films have been made, including the film “Unlawful Killing” directed by Keith Allen, which was shown at the 64th Cannes Film Festival.
In September 1997, the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund was founded using public donations and proceeds from the sale of souvenirs, including Elton John's single "Candle In The Wind" dedicated to the princess. fund).
In March 1998, it was announced that the foundation would provide grants of £1 million to each of the six charities officially supported by Princess Diana (English National Ballet, Leprosy Mission, National AIDS Society, Centrepoint, Children's Hospital Great Ormond Street, Royal Marsden Hospital).
Grants of £1 million were also provided to the Children's Osteopathic Center and organizations that help landmine victims. A further £5 million was shared among around 100 other charities in the arts, health, education, sport and children's sectors.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
On July 1, Diana would have turned 55 years old. The famous princess, with her open demeanor, became a breath of fresh air in the royal palace.
When she married Prince Charles in St. Paul's Cathedral, the wedding ceremony (according to Wikipedia) was watched by 750 million viewers around the world. Diana was in the center of public attention throughout her life. Everything connected with her, from clothes to hairstyle, immediately became an international trend. And even almost two decades after her tragic death, public interest in the personality of the Princess of Wales does not fade. In memory of the beloved princess, here are twenty-six little-known facts about her life.
1. Studying at school
Diana was not good at science, and after she failed two exams at West Heath Girls' School at the age of 16, her education ended. Her father intended to send her to study in Sweden, but she insisted on returning home.
2. Meeting Charles and getting engaged
Prince Charles and Diana met when he was dating Sarah, Diana's older sister. Sarah and Charles' relationship came to a standstill after she publicly announced that she did not love the prince. Diana, on the other hand, really liked Charles and even hung his photograph above her bed at boarding school. “I want to become a dancer or the Princess of Wales,” she once admitted to her classmate.
Diana was just 16 when she first saw Charles (who was then 28) hunting in Norfolk. According to the recollections of her former music teacher, Diana was very excited and could not talk about anything else: “Finally, I met him!” Two years later, their engagement was officially announced, when Sarah proudly declared: “I introduced them, I am Cupid.”
After finishing school and until the official announcement of her engagement, the young aristocrat worked first as a nanny and then as a kindergarten teacher in Knightsbridge, one of the most prestigious areas of London.
4. An Englishwoman among royal wives
As surprising as it may sound, over the past 300 years, Lady Diana Frances Spencer was the first Englishwoman to become the wife of the heir to the British throne. Before her, the wives of English kings were mainly representatives of German royal dynasties, there was also a Danish woman (Alexandra of Denmark, wife of Edward VII), and even the Queen Mother, wife of George VI and grandmother of Charles, was Scottish.
Princess Diana's wedding dress was decorated with 10,000 pearls and ended with an 8-meter train - the longest in the history of royal weddings. To support the English fashion industry, Diana turned to young designers David and Elizabeth Emanuel, whom she accidentally met through a Vogue editor. “We knew that the dress had to go down in history and at the same time please Diana. The ceremony was at St. Paul's Cathedral, so we needed something that would fill the center aisle and look impressive." For five months, the windows of the Emanuel boutique in central London were tightly closed with blinds, and the boutique itself was carefully guarded so that no one could see the silk taffeta creation ahead of time. On the wedding day it was delivered in a sealed envelope. But, just in case, a spare dress was sewn. “We didn’t try it on Diana, we didn’t even discuss it,” Elizabeth admitted in 2011, when the second dress became known.
6. "Commoner's Sapphire"
Diana chose a sapphire ring from the Garrard catalog for her engagement, instead of ordering one, as was customary in the royal environment. The 12-carat sapphire, surrounded by 14 diamonds in white gold, was called the “commoner's sapphire” because, despite the price of $60,000, anyone could buy it. “Many people wanted a ring like Diana’s,” a Cartier representative told The New York Times. Since then, the "commoner's sapphire" has become associated with Princess Diana. After her death, Prince Harry inherited the ring, but gave it to Prince William before his engagement to Kate Middleton in 2010. William is rumored to have taken the sapphire from the royal safe and carried it in his backpack during a three-week trip to Africa before giving it to Kate. The ring is now valued at ten times its original cost.
7. Oath at the altar
For the first time in history, Diana arbitrarily changed the words of her wedding vow, deliberately omitting the phrase “obey her husband.” Thirty years later, William and Kate repeated this vow.
8. Favorite dish
Diana's personal chef Darren McGrady recalls that one of her favorite foods was cream pudding, and when he was making it, she would often go into the kitchen and remove the raisins from the top. Diana liked stuffed peppers and eggplant; When dining alone, she preferred lean meat, a large bowl of salad and yogurt for dessert.
Some biographers claim that Diana's favorite color was pink, and she often wore dresses in various shades, from pale pink to deep crimson.
10. Favorite perfume
Her favorite perfume after the divorce was the French perfume 24 Faubourg from Hermès - a delicate solemn aroma with a bouquet of jasmine and gardenia, iris and vanilla, giving off peach, bergamot, sandalwood and patchouli.
Diana herself chose the names for her children and insisted that the eldest son be named William, despite the fact that Charles chose the name Arthur, and the youngest - Henry (that's how he was baptized, although everyone calls him Harry), while his father wanted name your son Albert. Diana breastfed her children, although this is not customary in the royal family. Diana and Charles were the first royal parents who, contrary to established tradition, traveled with their young children. During their six-week tour of Australia and New Zealand, they took nine-month-old William with them. Royal biographer Christopher Warwick claims that William and Harry were very happy with Diana, as her approach to raising children was radically different from that adopted at court.
12. William – the first prince to attend kindergarten
The preschool education of royal children was traditionally provided by private teachers and governesses. Princess Diana changed this order, insisting that Prince William be sent to a regular kindergarten. Thus, he became the first heir to the throne to attend a preschool outside the palace. And although Diana, who was extremely attached to her children, considered it important, if possible, to create ordinary conditions for their upbringing, there were exceptions. She once invited Cindy Crawford to lunch at Buckingham Palace because 13-year-old Prince William was crazy about the model. “It was a little awkward, he was still very young, and I didn’t want to look too confident, but at the same time I had to be stylish so that the child felt that he was a supermodel,” Cindy later admitted.
13. The usual childhood of the heirs to the throne
Diana tried to show her children the diversity of life outside the palace. They ate hamburgers together at McDonald's, rode the subway and bus, wore jeans and baseball caps, went down inflatable boats down mountain rivers and rode bicycles. At Disneyland, like ordinary visitors, we stood in line for tickets.
Diana showed children another side of life when she took them with her to hospitals and homeless shelters. “She really wanted to show us all the hardships of ordinary life, and I’m very grateful to her, it was a good lesson, that’s when I realized how far away many of us are from real life, especially myself,” William told ABC News in 2012 .
14. Not a royal demeanor
Diana preferred round tables to large royal banquets, so she could communicate more closely with her guests. However, if she was alone, she often dined in the kitchen, which is completely uncharacteristic of royalty. “No one else did it like that,” her personal chef Darren McGrady admitted in 2014. Elizabeth II visited the kitchen of Buckingham Palace once a year, for her ceremonial tour everything had to be cleaned to a shine, and the chefs lined up to greet the queen. If anyone else from the royal family entered the kitchen, everyone had to immediately stop working, put the pots and pans on the stove, take three steps back and bow. Diana was simpler. “Darren, I want coffee. Oh, you're busy, then I'll do it myself. Should I do it? True, she didn’t like to cook, and why would she? McGrady cooked for her all week and stocked the refrigerator on the weekends so she could microwave meals.
15. Diana and fashion
When Diana first met Charles, she was very shy and blushed easily and often. But gradually she gained self-confidence, and in 1994, a photograph of her in a tight, low-cut minidress at an exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery blew up the covers of the world's tabloids, because this little black dress was a clear violation of the royal dress code.
16. Lady Di is against formalities
When Diana talked to children, she always crouched down to be eye level with them (her son and daughter-in-law now do the same). “Diana was the first royal to communicate with children in this way,” says Majesty magazine editor Ingrid Seward. "Usually the royal family considered themselves superior to the rest, but Diana said: 'If someone is nervous in your presence, or if you are talking to a small child or a sick person, get down to their level.'
17. Change in the queen's attitude towards her daughter-in-law
The bright, emotional Diana caused a lot of trouble in the royal court; her manner in public was completely inconsistent with how members of the royal family usually behaved. This irritated the queen more than once. But today, having crossed the threshold of her ninetieth birthday, looking at how people perceive her wonderful grandchildren, Diana’s sons William and Harry, Elizabeth is forced to admit that they see Diana in them, her sincerity and love of life. Unlike their father and other members of the royal family, William and Harry always attract everyone's attention and are very popular. “It’s probably all thanks to Diana in the end,” the queen says with a smile.
18. Diana's role in the approach to the problem of AIDS
When Diana told the Queen she wanted to take on AIDS and asked her to help fund research into a vaccine, Elizabeth encouraged her to do something more appropriate. It must be admitted that in the mid-80s, when this conversation took place, they tried to hush up the AIDS problem and not notice it; those infected were often treated as if they had the plague. However, Diana did not give up, and largely due to the fact that she was one of the first to draw attention to the problem of AIDS, publicly shaking hands with HIV-infected people and calling for funding for research, attitudes towards AIDS in society changed, drugs appeared that allow patients to manage relatively normal life.
19. Fear of horses
In all aristocratic families of England, and especially in the royal family, horseback riding is not only very popular, but also mandatory. The ability to stay in the saddle is taught from an early age, and this is part of the rules of good manners even for the most impoverished baronets. Lady Diana was naturally properly trained to ride, but she was such a clumsy rider and so afraid of horses that even the Queen had to back off and stop taking her on horseback riding trips to Sudnringham.
20. “Advanced training courses” for a young aristocrat
Despite the nobility of the Spencer family, to which Diana belonged, when she married Charles, she was still too young and inexperienced in palace protocol. So Elizabeth asked her sister, Princess Margaret, Diana's neighbor at Kensington Palace, to take her daughter-in-law under her wing. Margaret was enthusiastic about this request. She saw herself in her youth in the young creature and enjoyed communication, sharing with Diana a love of theater and ballet. Margaret told who to shake hands with and what to say. They got along well, although at times the mentor could be quite harsh with her protégé. Once Diana addressed the driver by his first name, although strict royal protocol involves addressing servants exclusively by their last name. Margaret slapped her on the wrist and made a stern reprimand. And yet, their warm relationship lasted quite a long time and changed dramatically only after the official break with Charles, when Margaret unconditionally took her nephew’s side.
21. Deliberate violation of royal protocol
To celebrate the Queen's 67th birthday, Diana arrived at Windsor Castle with William and Harry, carrying balloons and paper crowns. Everything would be fine, but Elizabeth can’t stand either one or the other, and after 12 years of close communication, Diana should have known about it. However, she still decorated the hall with balloons and distributed paper crowns to the guests.
22. Official break with Charles
Elizabeth tried to do everything in her power to save the marriage of Diana and Charles. This concerned, first of all, her relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles, Charles' mistress. By unspoken order of the queen, Camilla was excommunicated from the court; all the servants knew that “that woman” should not cross the threshold of the palace. Obviously, this did not change anything, the relationship between Charles and Camilla continued, and the marriage with Diana was rapidly deteriorating.
Shortly after it was officially announced in December 1992 that the royal couple had separated, the princess asked for an audience with the queen. But upon arrival at Buckingham Palace, it turned out that the Queen was busy, and Diana had to wait in the lobby. When Elizabeth finally accepted her, Diana was on the verge of a breakdown and burst into tears right in front of the queen. She complained that everyone was against her. The fact is that as much as Lady Di was popular among the masses, she was just as undesirable in royal circles. After the break with Charles, the court unanimously sided with the heir, and Diana found herself isolated. Unable to influence the family's attitude towards her former daughter-in-law, the queen could only promise that the divorce would not affect the status of William and Harry.
23. Diana and the Taj Mahal
During an official visit to India in 1992, when the royal couple were still considered a married couple, Diana was photographed sitting alone near the Taj Mahal, that majestic monument to the love of husband and wife. It was a visual message that, while officially together, Diana and Charles were actually separated.
24. Divorce
Despite all the queen's attempts to reconcile her son and daughter-in-law, including her invitation to Diana to an official reception in honor of the President of Portugal at the end of 1992, or at Christmas 1993, the parties continued to speak unflatteringly and publicly accuse each other of infidelity, so there was no talk of any restoration of relations out of the question. Therefore, in the end, Elizabeth wrote letters to them asking them to consider divorce. Both knew that this was tantamount to an order. And if the princess asked for time to think in her response letter, Charles immediately asked Diana for a divorce. In the summer of 1996, a year before the tragic death of Lady Di, their marriage was dissolved.
25. “Queen of Human Hearts”
In an interview with the BBC in November 1995, Diana made several frank admissions about her postpartum depression, her broken marriage and her strained relationship with the royal family. About Camilla's constant presence in her marriage, she said: “There were three of us. A bit much for marriage, isn’t it?” But her most shocking statement was that Charles did not want to be king.
Developing her thought, she suggested that she herself would never become queen, but instead expressed the possibility of becoming queen "in the hearts of people." And she confirmed this fictitious status by conducting active social work and doing charity work. In June 1997, two months before her death, Diana put up for auction 79 ball gowns, which at one time appeared on the covers of glossy magazines around the world. Thus, she seemed to break with the past, and the $5.76 million received at the auction was spent to fund research into AIDS and breast cancer.
26. Life after divorce
Experiencing a break with Charles, Diana did not withdraw into herself and did not isolate herself from society; she began to enjoy a free life. Shortly before her tragic death, she met producer Dodi Al-Fayed, the eldest son of the Egyptian billionaire, owner of the Ritz hotel in Paris and the London department store Harrods. They spent several days together near Sardinia on his yacht, and then went to Paris, where on August 31, 1997 they were involved in a fatal car accident. There is still debate over the true causes of the accident, ranging from the paparazzi chase and the driver's blood alcohol level to the mysterious white car, traces of paint from which were found on the door of the Mercedes in which Diana died. The accident was allegedly the result of a collision with this car. And it doesn’t matter that this is a mysterious car that appeared out of nowhere, disappeared into nowhere, and no one saw it. But for conspiracy theory lovers, this is not an argument. They insist that it was a murder planned by the British intelligence services. This version is supported by Dodi’s father, Mohammed Al-Fayed, citing as the basis Dodi and Diana’s plans to get married, which did not suit the royal family at all. We are unlikely to ever know how it really happened. One thing is for sure - the world has lost one of the best and brightest women of all time, who forever changed the life of the royal family and the attitude of society towards the monarchy. The memory of the “queen of hearts” will remain with us forever.
Diana, Princess of Wales (Diana, Princess of Wales), née Diana Francis Spencer (July 1, 1961, Sandringham, Norfolk - August 31, 1997, Paris) - from 1981 to 1996, the first wife of Prince Charles of Wales, heir to the British throne. Popularly known as Princess Diana, Lady Diana or Lady Di. According to a 2002 poll conducted by the BBC, Diana was ranked third on the list of the hundred greatest Britons in history.
Diana was born on July 1, 1961 in Sandringham, Norfolk to John Spencer. Her father was Viscount Althorp, a branch of the same Spencer-Churchill family as the Duke of Marlborough, and.
Diana's paternal ancestors were of royal blood through the illegitimate sons of King Charles II and the illegitimate daughter of his brother and successor, King James II. The Earls Spencer have long lived in the very center of London, in Spencer House.
Diana spent her childhood in Sandringham, where she received her primary education at home. Her teacher was governess Gertrude Allen, who also taught Diana's mother. She continued her education in Sealfield, at a private school near King's Line, and then at Riddlesworth Hall preparatory school.
When Diana was 8 years old, her parents divorced. She stayed to live with her father, along with her sisters and brother. The divorce had a profound impact on the girl, and soon a stepmother appeared in the house, who disliked the children.
In 1975, after the death of her grandfather, Diana's father became the 8th Earl Spencer and she received the courtesy title "Lady", reserved for the daughters of high peers. During this period, the family moved to the ancient ancestral castle of Althorp House in Notthrogtonshire.
At the age of 12, the future princess was accepted into a privileged girls' school at West Hill, in Sevenoaks, Kent. Here she turned out to be a bad student and could not graduate. At the same time, her musical abilities were beyond doubt. The girl was also interested in dancing.
In 1977, she briefly attended school in the Swiss city of Rougemont. Once in Switzerland, Diana soon began to miss home and returned to England ahead of schedule.
Princess Diana's height: 178 centimeters.
Personal life of Princess Diana:
In the winter of 1977, before leaving for training, I met my future husband for the first time - when he came to Althorp to hunt.
In 1978 she moved to London, where she first stayed in her mother’s apartment (who then spent most of her time in Scotland). As a gift for her 18th birthday, she received her own apartment worth £100,000 in Earls Court, where she lived with three friends. During this period, Diana, who had previously adored children, began working as an assistant teacher at the Young England kindergarten in Pimilico.
The wedding of Charles and Diana, which took place on July 29, 1981, attracted a lot of public and media attention. In 1982 and 1984, the sons of Diana and Charles were born - the Princes and the Princes of Wales, who are next in line to inherit the British crown after their father.
By the early 1990s, relations between the spouses were upset, in particular due to Charles's ongoing relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles (later, after the death of Diana, who became his second wife).
Diana herself had a close relationship with her riding instructor, James Hewitt, for some time, which she admitted in a 1995 television interview (a year earlier, Charles made a similar admission about his relationship with Camilla).
The marriage broke up in 1992, after which the couple lived separately, ending in divorce in 1996 on the initiative of the Queen.
Shortly before her death, in June 1997, Diana began dating film producer Dodi al-Fayed, the son of Egyptian billionaire Mohamed al-Fayed, but apart from the press, this fact was not confirmed by any of her friends, and this is also denied in the book of Lady Diana’s butler, Paul. Barrel, who was a close friend of the princess.
Diana was actively involved in charitable and peacekeeping activities (in particular, she was an activist in the fight against AIDS and the movement to stop the production of anti-personnel mines).
She was one of the most popular women of her time in the world. In Great Britain she has always been considered the most popular member of the royal family, she was called the “Queen of Hearts” or “Queen of Hearts”.
On June 15-16, 1995, Princess Diana made a short visit to Moscow. She visited the Tushino Children's Hospital, to which she had previously provided charitable assistance (the princess donated medical equipment to the hospital), and Primary School No. 751, where she inaugurated a branch of the fund for helping disabled children "Waverly House."
On June 16, 1995, a ceremony was held to present Princess Diana with the International Leonardo Prize at the British Embassy in Moscow.
Death of Princess Diana
On August 31, 1997, Diana died in Paris in a car accident along with Dodi al-Fayed and driver Henri Paul. Al-Fayed and Paul died instantly, Diana, taken from the scene (in the tunnel in front of the Alma bridge on the Seine embankment) to the Salpêtrière hospital, died two hours later.
The cause of the accident is not entirely clear; there are a number of versions (the driver was intoxicated, the need to escape at speed from being pursued by paparazzi, as well as various conspiracy theories). The only surviving passenger of the Mercedes S280 with the number "688 LTV 75", bodyguard Trevor Rees Jones, who was seriously injured (his face had to be reconstructed by surgeons), does not remember the events.
On December 14, 2007, a report was presented by the ex-Commissioner of Scotland Yard, Lord John Stevens, who stated that the British investigation confirmed the findings that the amount of alcohol in the blood of the car driver, Henri Paul, at the time of his death was three times higher than the French limit. legislation In addition, the speed of the car exceeded the permissible speed in this place twice. Lord Stevens also noted that the passengers, including Diana, were not wearing seat belts, which also played a role in their deaths.
Princess Diana was buried on September 6 at the Spencer family estate of Althorp in Northamptonshire, on a secluded island.
Who did Princess Diana interfere with?
Diana was repeatedly called "the most photographed woman in the world" (some sources share this title between her and Grace Kelly).
Many books have been written about Diana in various languages. Almost all of her friends and close collaborators spoke with their memories. There are several documentaries and even feature films. There are both fanatical admirers of the memory of the princess, who even insist on her holiness, and critics of her personality and the pop cult that has arisen around her.
As part of the album Black Celebration (1986) by Depeche Mode, the composition “New Dress” was released, in which the author of the words and music, Martin Gore, ironically plays on the close attention the media paid to the life of Princess Diana.
