Strange Facts Everyone Just Ignores About Princess Diana

in the netflix hit the crown there are a few facts that are left out of princess diana's story and some of them are too strange to not be talked about here are some of the strangest facts about princess diana as the crown alluded to in season four princess diana's older sister sarah spencer did actually date prince charles several years before diana caught his attention according to sarah bradford author of diana finally the complete story the couple seemed like a good match at the time prince charles enjoyed sarah's sparkiness and irreverent wit and they made each other laugh the relationship is said to have fizzled out after sarah gave a rather shocking interview in which she claimed she wouldn't marry the royal however it was thanks to this relationship that diana and charles first crossed paths according to the daily times diana first met the prince in a plowed field in 1977 when she was just 16. princess diana's marriage to prince charles wasn't her family's first brush with the royal family in fact diana's maternal grandmother lady ruth firmoy worked as a lady in waiting to the queen mother charles's grandmother according to radio times lady firmoy began working for the royal family in 1956 and over the years became a close friend of the queen mother in his famous biography of diana diana her true story in her own words andrew morton revealed that lady firmoy's experience with the royals led her to caution her granddaughter about joining the family telling her you must understand that their sense of humor and lifestyle are very different and i don't think it will suit you i hope i don't need to tell you how fortunate you are to have been invited here how unique an opportunity this is once the marriage began to crumble lady firmoy reportedly took charles's side as robert runcie told the times in 1996 she was totally and wholly a child's person because she's seen him grow up loved him like all the women at court do and regarded diana as an actress a schemer it must have been difficult for diana to feel that even her own grandmother wasn't an ally before she became princess diana she was simply diana spencer a relatively normal albeit privileged british school girl in fact she even won a pretty funny award as a kid diana is said to have won an at school award for taking good care of her guinea pig as w reported the princess-to-be was pretty obsessed with guinea pigs as a kid she participated in several pet shows at sandringham her childhood home in 1972 she reportedly won both first and second prize her guinea pig peanuts also came with her to boarding school she was even named head of pet's corner where the students pets lived while diana's guinea pig obsession may seem a little strange it was actually an early sign of her famously caring empathetic nature before diana married into the royal family she had a surprisingly normal job you may be surprised to learn that the princess actually worked at a nursery school in london as a part-time kindergarten teacher she worked at the school until her engagement to prince charles and it was during this period that she began to be hounded by the press to make about that in the 2017 documentary the diana story photographer arthur edwards explained how he searched a few different nurseries trying to find diana when he found the correct school she came out for a quick photo with a few children he recalled she posed and halfway through taking the photographs the sun came out while most fans of princess diana probably know that she and prince charles ended up being seriously mismatched they may not realize just how significant their age gap was when they became engaged he was 32 while she was only 19. looking back it's clear that the couple's age difference meant they came from vastly different worlds as an old employee of the royal household told the sun they didn't know each other and at 19 you don't know your mind they had nothing in common and as time went by that really showed however royal correspondent stephen bates told time that the age gap was rarely questioned at the time of their engagement but as readers digest reported people eventually accepted that the age gap was one of the main reasons that the marriage ultimately failed and i suppose in love whatever it is infamous moments in princess diana's history didn't make it into the crown one of these moments was her spur of the moment dance with john travolta in 1985 during the royal couple's trip to the united states they were invited to a gala dinner at the white house amongst the other guests were some of hollywood's biggest stars including travolta as paul burrell diana's butler at the time wrote in the way we were remembering diana the princess hadn't actually been planning on dancing with travolta in fact she'd been hoping to be partnered with mikhail barishnikov the famous belay dancer however barrel wrote that nancy and reagan set up the press to take a picture of her dancing with john travolta as travolta reportedly recalled later diana had actually tried to lead the dance well that's not going to happen i've got to go back to my school days of learning ballroom dancing and show that i can lead her apparently travolta and diana remained close friends after the chance encounter it turns out dancing wasn't so foreign to the princess she had dreamed of becoming a ballerina herself as pop sugar reported she'd fallen in love with ballet as a child and had hoped to dance professionally as a career however she eventually reached a height of 5 foot 10 which was considered too tall nevertheless the princess continued to take dance lessons even after marrying into the royal family her ballet teacher ann allen said over time as we went through our dance class i realised just how much dance meant to her she had dance in her soul one seriously surprising fact about princess diana may come as a shock the royal never officially graduated from high school in fact most of her school life was pretty unusual according to the washington post diana was initially homeschooled by a governess before attending west heath school in kent as yahoo news reported the princess made the decision to leave school at 16 after failing her o levels twice instead opting to attend a finishing school in switzerland while diana may not have been academically gifted she did show particular talent in the arts she even won an award for being an extremely helpful student for her school and classmates according to her official biography even though diana didn't finish school she made an effort when it came to her children's education in fact she ensured that unlike previous royals her sons were educated in the school system it turns out princess diana had a bit of a wild side in one of her bolder moments diana reportedly sneaked into a gay bar with her friend freddie mercury the lead singer of queen as actress cleo rocko's revealed in her memoir she mercury and diana had been close friends in the 80s one evening the trio had been hanging out when diana found out the other two were going out to the famous royal vauxhall tavern she asked if she could join them apparently rockos and mercury were a little nervous about taking diana to the well-known gay bar with rocko's writing we pleaded what would be the headline if you were caught in a gay bar brawl however diana was determined and dressed up in an army jacket aviators and a cap apparently passing for a gay male model as rocko's tells it the three friends managed to spend an evening at the gay bar without being spotted princess diana's gay bar venture wasn't the only time she sneaked out of the palace to have a little fun apparently she also ducked out to a bar with her friend and soon-to-be sister-in-law sarah ferguson sarah who married prince andrew reportedly joined diana in trying to crash andrew's stag party as diana's biographer andrew morton wrote in diana her true story the pair dressed up as policewomen in an attempt to sneak into the party when that failed morton said the two friends drank champagne and orange juice at annabelle's nightclub before returning to buckingham palace where they stopped andrew's car at the entrance as he returned home at the time the two women were mistaken for kissigram girls at the nightclub thanks to their bizarre costumes luis louis the manager of the nightclub told the associated press they were perfectly disguised and certainly had us fooled apparently they even got thrown in a police van at one point during the evening until someone recognized diana it turns out princess diana didn't mind throwing convention out the window according to marie claire diana was a true royal trailblazer when it came to the birth of her sons the royals of the past had given birth by having the baby pulled out with forceps while the mother was under anaesthetic diana however was apparently not so keen on this tradition in fact she not only gave birth fully awake she also gave birth standing up as child birth expert sheila kitzinger explained it was the first active royal birth a complete contrast to the queen's apparently prince charles was even present at the birth and helped to support his wife diana also chose to give birth at saint mary's hospital rather than at home this started a brand new royal tradition with meghan markle and kate middleton following in her footsteps in the crown princess diana was shown surprising prince charles with a dance to billy joel's uptown girl with dancer wayne sleep it turns out this unusual performance really did happen apparently the performance was supposed to be a present but charles wasn't too keen on the performance as sleep recalled the entire audience was astonished to see her up on stage he recalled that at the time she refused to bow to the royal box before the dance saying i'm not bowing to him he's my hubby even though diana's infamous performance wasn't a hit with her husband it's gone down in legend and by all accounts the dance was pretty spectacular despite even sleeps doubts princess diana wants to talk to you on the phone so i said hello she said well i'm wednesday i want to dance with you and i thought my god car she's too tall as sleep recalled to the guardian the routine had a bit of everything jazz ballet even a kick line at one point i pirouetted and she pushed me down then i carried her across the stage long into her adulthood diana is said to have kept stuffed animals in her bedroom according to the abc documentary the story of diana her stuffed animals had been with her for a long time when diana was just six her mother left the family and her father became inattentive as vogue put it her family was her 20 stuffed animals it seemed that everyone who came across diana's slightly bizarre collection of toys couldn't help but notice it james hewitt who had an affair with diana during her marriage once said she had 30 childhood cuddly toys lining the end of her bed even though princess diana was largely a target of gossip and tabloid speculation during her time as part of the royal family she made some significant contributions to the charities and organizations she supported one of her main causes was supporting the minds advisory group in their bid to create a global ban on landmines throughout 1997 diana was closely involved with the organization she even acted as a keynote speaker at one of their events lou mcgrath one of the group's founders told the bbc it was tremendously important to have her on board it was a turning point just a few months after diana's tragic death the group's campaign was shown to be successful as 122 governments pledged to stop using landmines the group even won a nobel prize that year as mcgrath explained diana's help had been controversial but without it the group wouldn't have been nearly as effective aside from everything else this nobel prize winning campaign is quite the legacy for the princess check out one of our newest 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Channel: The List

Views: 80,020

Rating: 4.8679247 out of 5

Keywords: the list, princess diana, diana spencer, prince charles and princess di, strange facts

Id: 3WBHhIbeKms

Length: 12min 3sec (723 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 25 2021