Diana, Princess of Wales

Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997), was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her activism and glamour made her an international icon, and earned her enduring popularity.
Diana was born into British nobility, and grew up close to the royal family on their Sandringham estate. In 1981, while working as a nursery teacher's assistant, she became engaged to Charles, the eldest son of Elizabeth II. Their wedding took place at St Paul's Cathedral in July 1981 and made her Princess of Wales, a role in which she was enthusiastically received by the public. The couple had two sons, William and Harry, who were then respectively second and third in the line of succession to the British throne. Diana's marriage to Charles suffered due to their incompatibility and extramarital affairs. They separated in 1992, soon after the breakdown of their relationship became public knowledge. Their marital difficulties were widely publicised, and the couple divorced in 1996.
As Princess of Wales, Diana undertook royal duties on behalf of the Queen and represented her at functions across the Commonwealth realms. She was celebrated in the media for her unconventional approach to charity work. Her patronages were initially centred on children and the elderly, but she later became known for her involvement in two particular campaigns: one involved the social attitudes towards and the acceptance of AIDS patients, and the other for the removal of landmines, promoted through the International Red Cross. She also raised awareness and advocated for ways to help people affected by cancer and mental illness. Diana was initially noted for her shyness, but her charisma and friendliness endeared her to the public and helped her reputation survive the public collapse of her marriage. Considered photogenic, she is regarded as a fashion icon of the 1980s and 1990s.
In August 1997, Diana died in a car crash in Paris; the incident led to extensive public mourning and global media attention. An inquest returned a verdict of unlawful killing following Operation Paget, an investigation by the Metropolitan Police. Her legacy has had a deep impact on the royal family and British society.[1]

Early life

Diana Frances Spencer was born on 1 July 1961, the fourth of five children of John Spencer, Viscount Althorp (1924–1992), and Frances Spencer, Viscountess Althorp (née Roche; 1936–2004).[2] She was delivered at Park House, Sandringham, Norfolk.[3] The Spencer family had been closely allied with the British royal family for several generations;[4] her grandmothers, Cynthia Spencer, Countess Spencer, and Ruth Roche, Baroness Fermoy, had served as ladies-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.[5] Her parents were hoping for a boy to carry on the family line, and no name was chosen for a week until they settled on Diana Frances after her mother and Lady Diana Spencer, a many-times-great-aunt who was also a prospective Princess of Wales as a potential bride for Frederick, Prince of Wales.[6] Within the family, she was also known informally as "Duch", a reference to her duchess-like attitude in childhood.[7]
On 30 August 1961,[8] Diana was baptised at St. Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham.[6] She grew up with three siblings: Sarah, Jane, and Charles.[9] Her infant brother, John, died shortly after his birth one year before Diana was born.[10] The desire for an heir added strain to her parents' marriage, and Lady Althorp was sent to Harley Street clinics in London to determine the cause of the "problem".[6] The experience was described as "humiliating" by Diana's younger brother, Charles: "It was a dreadful time for my parents and probably the root of their divorce because I don't think they ever got over it".[6] Diana grew up in Park House, situated on the Sandringham estate.[11] The family leased the house from its owner, Queen Elizabeth II, whom Diana called "Aunt Lilibet" since childhood.[12] The royal family frequently holidayed at the neighbouring Sandringham House, and Diana played with Princes Andrew and Edward.[13]
Althorp (pictured in 2006), the Spencer family seat
Diana was seven years old when her parents divorced.[14] Her mother later began a relationship with Peter Shand Kydd and married him in 1969.[15] Diana lived with her mother in London during her parents' separation in 1967, but during that year's Christmas holidays, Lord Althorp refused to let his daughter return to London with Lady Althorp. Shortly afterwards, he won custody of Diana with support from his former mother-in-law, Lady Fermoy.[16] In 1976, Lord Althorp married Raine, Countess of Dartmouth.[17] Diana's relationship with her stepmother was particularly bad.[18] She resented Raine, whom she called a "bully". On one occasion Diana pushed her down the stairs.[18] She later described her childhood as "very unhappy" and "very unstable, the whole thing".[19] She became known as Lady Diana after her father later inherited the title of Earl Spencer in 1975, at which point her father moved the entire family from Park House to Althorp, the Spencer seat in Northamptonshire.[20]

Education and career

Diana was initially home-schooled under the supervision of her governess, Gertrude Allen.[21] She began her formal education at Silfield Private School in King's Lynn, Norfolk, and moved to Riddlesworth Hall School, an all-girls boarding school near Thetford, when she was nine.[22] She joined her sisters at West Heath Girls' School in Sevenoaks, Kent, in 1973.[23] She did not perform well academically, failing her O-levels twice.[24][25] Her outstanding community spirit was recognised with an award from West Heath.[26] She left West Heath when she was sixteen.[27] Her brother Charles recalls her as being quite shy up until that time.[28] She demonstrated musical ability as a skilled pianist.[26] She also excelled in swimming and diving, and studied ballet and tap dance.[29]

Coleherne Court in Chelsea, London, where Diana lived between 1979 and 1981. An English Heritage blue plaque is located at the address.

In 1978, Diana worked for three months as a nanny for Philippa and Jeremy Whitaker in Hampshire.[30] After attending Institut Alpin Videmanette (a finishing school in Rougemont, Switzerland) for one term, and leaving after the Easter term of 1978,[31] Diana returned to London, where she shared her mother's flat with two school friends.[32] In London, she took an advanced cooking course and worked at a series of low-paying jobs; she worked as a dance instructor for youth until a skiing accident caused her to miss three months of work.[33] She then found employment as a playgroup pre-school assistant, did some cleaning work for her sister Sarah and several of her friends, and acted as a hostess at parties. She spent time working as a nanny for the Robertsons, an American family living in London,[34] and worked as a nursery teacher's assistant at the Young England School in Pimlico.[35] In July 1979, her mother bought her a flat at Coleherne Court in Earl's Court as an 18th birthday present.[36] She lived there with three flatmates until 25 February 1981.[37]

Personal life

Diana first met Charles, Prince of Wales, the Queen's eldest son and heir apparent, when she was 16 in November 1977. He was then 29 and dating her older sister, Sarah.[38][39] Charles and Diana were guests at a country weekend during the summer of 1980 and he took a serious interest in her as a potential bride.[40] The relationship progressed when he invited her aboard the royal yacht Britannia for a sailing weekend to Cowes. This was followed by an invitation to Balmoral Castle (the royal family's Scottish residence) to meet his family.[41][42] She was well received by the Queen, the Queen Mother and the Duke of Edinburgh. Charles subsequently courted Diana in London. He proposed on 6 February 1981 at Windsor Castle, and she accepted, but their engagement was kept secret for two and a half weeks.[37]

Engagement and wedding

Further information: Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer and Wedding dress of Lady Diana Spencer
Diana and Charles's wedding commemorated on a stamp by the Post of Seychelles
Their engagement became official on 24 February 1981.[21] Diana selected her own engagement ring.[21] Following the engagement, she left her occupation as a nursery teacher's assistant and temporarily lived at the Queen Mother's residence, Clarence House.[43] She subsequently resided at Buckingham Palace until the wedding,[43] where, according to the biographer Ingrid Seward, her life was "incredibly lonely".[44] Diana was the first Englishwoman to marry the first in line to the throne since Anne Hyde married James, Duke of York and Albany (later James VII and II), over 300 years earlier, and she was also the first royal bride to have a paying job before her engagement.[21][26] Diana's first public appearance with Charles was at a charity ball held at Goldsmiths' Hall in March 1981, where she was introduced to Princess Grace of Monaco.[43]
Diana became Princess of Wales aged 20 when she married Charles, then 32, on 29 July 1981. The wedding was held at St Paul's Cathedral, which offered more seating than Westminster Abbey, a church that was generally used for royal weddings.[21][26] The service was widely described as a "fairytale wedding" and was watched by a global television audience of 750 million people while 600,000 spectators lined the streets to catch a glimpse of the couple en route to the ceremony.[21][45] At the altar, Diana inadvertently reversed the order of his first two names, saying "Philip Charles" Arthur George instead.[45] She did not say she would "obey" him; that traditional vow was left out at the couple's request, which caused some comment at the time.[46] Diana wore a dress valued at £9,000 (equivalent to £36,700 in 2021) with a 25-foot (7.62-metre) train.[47] Within a few years of the wedding, the Queen extended Diana visible tokens of membership in the royal family, lending her the Queen Mary's Lover's Knot Tiara[48][49] and granting her the badge of the Royal Family Order of Elizabeth II.[50][51]

Children

The couple had residences at Kensington Palace and Highgrove House, near Tetbury. On 5 November 1981, Diana's pregnancy was announced.[52] In January 1982—12 weeks into the pregnancy—Diana fell down a staircase at Sandringham, suffering some bruising, and the royal gynaecologist George Pinker was summoned from London; the foetus was uninjured.[53] Diana later confessed that she had intentionally thrown herself down the stairs because she was feeling "so inadequate".[54] On 21 June 1982, she gave birth to the couple's first son, Prince William.[55] She subsequently suffered from postpartum depression after her first pregnancy.[56] Amidst some media criticism, she decided to take William—who was still a baby—on her first major tours of Australia and New Zealand, and the decision was popularly applauded. By her own admission, Diana had not initially intended to take William until Malcolm Fraser, the Australian prime minister, made the suggestion.[57]
A second son, Harry, was born on 15 September 1984.[58] Diana said she and Charles were closest during her pregnancy with Harry.[59] She was aware their second child was a boy, but did not share the knowledge with anyone else, including Charles as he was hoping for a girl.[60]
Diana gave her sons wider experiences than was usual for royal children.[21][61][62] She rarely deferred to Charles or to the royal family, and was often intransigent when it came to the children. She chose their first given names, dismissed a royal family nanny and engaged one of her own choosing, selected their schools and clothing, planned their outings, and took them to school herself as often as her schedule permitted. She also organised her public duties around their timetables.[63] Diana was reported to have described Harry as "naughty, just like me", and William as "my little wise old man" whom she started to rely on as her confidant by his early teens.[64]

Problems and separation

With Charles during the royal tour of Australia in 1983
Five years into the marriage, the couple's incompatibility and age difference became visible and damaging.[65] In 1986 Diana began a relationship with James Hewitt, the family's former riding instructor and in the same year, Charles resumed his relationship with his former girlfriend Camilla Parker Bowles. The media speculated that Hewitt, not Charles, was Harry's father based on the alleged physical similarity between Hewitt and Harry, but Hewitt and others have denied this. Harry was born two years before Hewitt and Diana began their affair.[59][66]
By 1987 cracks in the marriage had become visible and the couple's unhappiness and cold attitude towards one another were being reported by the press,[44][67] who dubbed them "the Glums" because of their evident discomfort in each other's company.[68][69] In 1989 Diana was at a birthday party for Parker Bowles's sister, Annabel Elliot, when she confronted Parker Bowles about her and Charles's extramarital affair.[70][71] These affairs were later exposed in 1992 with the publication of Andrew Morton's book, Diana: Her True Story.[72][73] The book, which also revealed Diana's allegedly suicidal unhappiness, caused a media storm. In 1991, James Colthurst conducted secret interviews with Diana in which she had talked about her marital issues and difficulties. These recordings were later used as a source for Morton's book.[74][75] During her lifetime, both Diana and Morton denied her direct involvement in the writing process and maintained that family and friends were the book's main source, however, after her death Morton acknowledged Diana's role in writing the tell-all in the book's updated edition, Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words.[76]
The Queen and Prince Philip hosted a meeting between Charles and Diana and unsuccessfully tried to effect a reconciliation.[77] Philip wrote to Diana and expressed his disappointment at the extramarital affairs of both her and Charles; he asked her to examine their behaviour from the other's point of view.[78] Diana reportedly found the letters difficult, but nevertheless appreciated that he was acting with good intent.[79] It was alleged by some people, including Diana's close friend Simone Simmons, that Diana and Philip had a tense relationship;[80][81][82] however, other observers said their letters provided no sign of friction between them.[83] Philip later issued a statement, publicly denying the allegations of him insulting Diana.[84]
During 1992 and 1993, leaked tapes of telephone conversations reflected negatively on both Charles and Diana. Tape recordings of Diana and James Gilbey were made public in August 1992,[85] and transcripts were published the same month.[21] The article, "Squidgygate", was followed in November 1992 by the leaked "Camillagate" tapes, intimate exchanges between Charles and Parker Bowles, published in the tabloids.[86][87] In December 1992, Prime Minister John Major announced the couple's "amicable separation" to the House of Commons.[88][89]
Carrying out an engagement in South Shields, 1992
Between 1992 and 1993, Diana hired a voice coach, Peter Settelen, to help her develop her public speaking voice.[90] In a videotape recorded by Settelen in 1992, Diana said that in 1984 through to 1986, she had been "deeply in love with someone who worked in this environment."[91][92] It is thought she was referring to Barry Mannakee,[93] who was transferred to the Diplomatic Protection Squad in 1986 after his managers had determined that his relationship with Diana had been inappropriate.[92][94] Diana said in the tape that Mannakee had been "chucked out" from his role as her bodyguard following suspicion that the two were having an affair.[91] Penny Junor suggested in her 1998 book that Diana was in a romantic relationship with Mannakee.[95] Diana's friends dismissed the claim as absurd.[95] In the subsequently released tapes, Diana said she had feelings for that "someone", saying "I was quite happy to give all this up [and] just to go off and live with him". She described him as "the greatest friend [she's] ever had", though she denied any sexual relationship with him.[96] She also spoke bitterly of her husband saying that "[He] made me feel so inadequate in every possible way, that each time I came up for air he pushed me down again."[97][98]
Although she blamed Parker Bowles for her marital troubles, Diana began to believe her husband had been involved in other affairs. In October 1993 Diana wrote to her butler Paul Burrell, telling him that she believed her husband was now in love with his personal assistant Tiggy Legge-Bourke—who was also his sons' former nanny—and was planning to have her killed "to make the path clear for him to marry Tiggy".[99][100] Legge-Bourke had been hired by Charles as a young companion for his sons while they were in his care, and Diana was resentful of Legge-Bourke and her relationship with the young princes.[101] Charles sought public understanding via a televised interview with Jonathan Dimbleby on 29 June 1994. In the interview, he said he had rekindled his relationship with Parker Bowles in 1986 only after his marriage to Diana had "irretrievably broken down".[102][103][104] In the same year, Diana's affair with Hewitt was exposed in detail in the book Princess in Love by Anna Pasternak, with Hewitt acting as the main source.[64] Diana was evidently disturbed and outraged when the book was released, although Pasternak claimed Hewitt had acted with Diana's support to avoid having the affair covered in Andrew Morton's second book.[64] In the same year, the News of the World claimed that Diana had had an affair with the married art dealer Oliver Hoare.[105][106] According to Hoare's obituary, there was little doubt she had been in a relationship with him.[107] However, Diana denied any romantic relationship with Hoare, whom she described as a friend.[108][109] She was also linked by the press to the rugby union player Will Carling[110][111] and private equity investor Theodore J. Forstmann,[112][113] yet these claims were neither confirmed nor proven.[114][115]

Divorce

Kensington Palace (pictured in 2018), Diana's home and the site of her 1995 Panorama interview
The journalist Martin Bashir interviewed Diana for the BBC current affairs show Panorama. The interview was broadcast on 20 November 1995.[116] Diana discussed her own and her husband's extramarital affairs.[117] Referring to Charles's relationship with Parker Bowles, she said: "Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded." She also expressed doubt about her husband's suitability for kingship.[116] The authors Tina Brown, Sally Bedell Smith, and Sarah Bradford support Diana's admission in the interview that she had suffered from depression, bulimia and had engaged numerous times in the act of self harm; the show's transcript records Diana confirming many of her mental health problems.[116] The combination of illnesses from which Diana herself said she suffered resulted in some of her biographers opining that she had borderline personality disorder.[118][119] It was later revealed that Bashir had used forged bank statements to win Diana and her brother's trust to secure the interview, falsely indicating people close to her had been paid for spying.[120] Lord Dyson conducted an independent inquiry into the issue and concluded that Bashir had "little difficulty in playing on [Diana's] fears and paranoia", a sentiment that was shared by Diana's son William.[121][122]
The interview proved to be the tipping point. On 20 December, Buckingham Palace announced that the Queen had sent letters to Charles and Diana, advising them to divorce.[123][124] The Queen's move was backed by Prime Minister John Major and by senior privy counsellors, and, according to the BBC, was decided after two weeks of talks.[125] Charles formally agreed to the divorce in a written statement soon after.[123] In February 1996, Diana announced her agreement after negotiations with Charles and representatives of the Queen,[126] irritating Buckingham Palace by issuing her own announcement of the divorce agreement and its terms. In July 1996, the couple agreed on the terms of their divorce.[127] This followed shortly after Diana's accusation that Charles's personal assistant Tiggy Legge-Bourke had aborted his child, after which Legge-Bourke instructed her solicitor Peter Carter-Ruck to demand an apology.[128][129] Diana's private secretary Patrick Jephson resigned shortly before the story broke, later writing that Diana had "exulted in accusing Legge-Bourke of having had an abortion".[130][131] The rumours of Legge-Bourke's alleged abortion were apparently spread by Martin Bashir as a means to gain his Panoram.