The Tragic Truth About Princess Diana

princess diana is remembered fondly as a gem of great britain's royal family but her life in the nation's spotlight was anything but a fairy tale before she was a princess diana spencer was already a lady she inherited a title within the british nobility at birth making her on paper a perfect match for prunes think rolling hills beautiful gardens and polo matches but diana's childhood was not all what you'd think it would have been princess diana had a tragically lonely childhood despite the large countryside estate she lived in the title she had and the money that her family possessed things were not easy diana's mother left her and her siblings for another man when diana was only six tragically diana thought that her mother was simply on vacation and her brother charles spencer recalled that diana used to sit on the doorstep of the house waiting for her mother to return father told me about five years ago he said you sat on the doorstep you didn't eat you didn't sleep just sat back just you know you just never spoke due in part to the cracking family foundation the earl of spencer diana's father reportedly entered a dark phase of depression and left all the raising of his children to a variety of nannies diana herself recalled that her childhood was very unhappy and that she considered her 20 stuffed animals as her family imagine marrying someone you've only ever met a dozen times the thought's enough to make us shudder but that was the reality for diana spencer princess diana and prince charles met just 12 times before they got married so how did that happen well diana and charles met when they were 16 and 29 respectively as charles was close to diana's older sister at the time by the time it'd been decided that diana was to be a romantic interest of the princes she was caught up in the whirlwind but her married life with charles would be anything but happy tragically much of her struggles in the marriage would play out in the public eye my husband and i had to keep everything together because we didn't want to disappoint the public and yet obviously there was a lot of anxiety going on within our four walls the british tabloids are infamous for their intrusive tactics and when diana spencer emerged they were obsessed with her diana was just 19 when she and prince charles became an item she was living in london at the time working as a part-time teacher and the press went absolutely crazy in a 1995 interview with the bbc diana recalled how she initially took the press attention as being a result of her husband's good reputation and status she said it took a long time to understand why people were so interested in me but i assumed it was because my husband had done a lot of wonderful work leading up to our marriage and our relationship as she later discovered the press's relationship with the couple was much more parasitic than benign but then ice during the years you see yourself as a good product that sits on a shelf and sells well and making people make a lot of money out of you the press attention was not something that diana was prepared for and although she learned how to maneuver the tabloids it was never a relationship that she desired as far as i was concerned i was a fat chubby 20 year old 21 year old and i couldn't understand the level interest even if you're not a fan of the royal family you know that there are protocols they have to follow there's a lot to learn and diana spencer was left to figure it out on her own diana recalled in an interview with the bbc that she was pretty much abandoned by the royal family and had to learn the ropes without guidance it was isolating but it was also a situation where you couldn't indulge in feeling sorry for yourself you had to either sink or swim when asked if there was a time in her life as a royal that forced her to learn on the go diana said that her royal tour of australia and new zealand changed just about everything by the end of that trip she said she was quote a different person i realised the sense of duty the level of intensity of interest and the demanding role i now found myself in needless to say it seems like things would have been a lot less painful if her husband had offered more help princess diana was still a teenager when she and prince charles became a couple and not only was she followed by pretty much every camera in great britain but her sense of self and her relationship with food drastically changed diana is reported to have lost an extreme amount of weight before her wedding going from a 27-inch waist to a 23-inch waist and she quickly developed bulimia her eating disorder has been linked to her sense of isolation as well as her deteriorating relationship with prince charles and she later spoke about it with the bbc when no one listens to or you feel no one's listening to you all sorts of things start to happen for instance you have so much pain inside yourself that you try and hurt yourself on the outside diana said that people around her saw her cries for help as attention seeking but all she wanted was to get better i didn't like myself i was ashamed because i couldn't cope with the precious possibly the worst kept secret throughout princess diana's marriage to prince charles was his infidelity charles and camilla parker bowles had been together for years and although she was not the ideal person for him to marry in the eyes of the royal family their relationship continued so it really should come as no shock that diana fell into the arms of another man and that just so happened to be her security guard diana and her bodyguard barry manicke were rumored to have a serious romantic relationship diana was even recorded saying that she would be quote quite happy to give all this up and to just go off and live with him and he kept saying he thought it was a good idea too manikey was removed from diana's security detail in 1986 and died in 1987 during a motorcycle accident at the beginning of their marriage princess diana and prince charles looked like they were living the fairy tale dream who wouldn't want to marry a prince but the romantic situation that looked amazing from the outside was really just filled with two people who had nothing in common and former royal household employee and relationship expert karen mooney shared that the couple was doomed from the start mooney told the sun they had nothing in common she was in awe of him and he was the prince of wales it was a bit like a fairy tale for her but of course it ended up being completely the reverse princess diana and prince charles's marriage ultimately came to a tragic end after a lengthy separation they finally got divorced but that came with some immense losses for diana for one thing much of the security and privacy that diana had been granted as a royal were taken away she was stripped of her royal title her pride certainly took a hit and her public dignity was in tatters for starters there was the matter of her royal title diana was formerly known as her royal highness the princess of wales when she got divorced from charles he made a point of stripping her title away from her this hurt for a number of reasons first queen elizabeth reportedly was fine with diana keeping her title but it was charles who pushed for her to give it up second it meant that diana would have too curtsy to her ex-husband the royal family and her sons ouch as part of the divorce repercussions diana also lost her police protection she was only protected while attending public events but she was essentially at the whim of any danger that came her way mental health was not something that was talked about in 1980s great britain and it certainly was not something that the royal family addressed so it came as a shock when diana spencer addressed her mental health problems in public for the first time and she revealed that she wasn't given any help or guidance from the royal family throughout her struggles she said in a 1995 interview with the bbc well maybe i was the first person ever to be in this family who ever had a depression or was ever openly tearful and obviously that was daunting because if you've never seen it before how do you support it she went on to share that her depression was used to paint her in an unsympathetic light giving her a reputation in the media that she struggled to shake off well it gave everybody a wonderful new label his diana's unstable and diana's mentally imbalanced but diana's candidness although tragic had a lasting impact on mental health in great britain it's commonly regarded that diana's openness allowed for a new public perspective on mental health and eating disorders this comes as a tragic shock but princess diana reportedly felt that prince charles was ashamed of prince harry yes you read that correctly as noted by vogue friends and family of diana shared that charles's reaction to harry was less than fatherly just hours after diana came home after giving birth to harry charles went and played in a polo match to make the situation even more tragic charles reportedly complained at the time that harry quote looked like a spencer and said that his red hair was a dead giveaway it's hard to know just how harry's relationship with his father progressed later in his life but harry did give some incredible insight into his fractured bond with charles in a march 2021 sit down with oprah winfrey harry shared that charles had stopped taking his calls considering their history it makes us wonder if diana would be surprised at harry and charles modern-day relationship in 1995 dianna spencer turned to the press to share the darker side of her fairy tale story and the results scanned a lie's donation the sit-down interview that she did with the bbc still marks one of the most expository admissions against the royal family and princess diana really did not hold back she talked about her mental health her eating disorder and the struggles she faced within the royal institution including charles adultery well there were three of us in this marriage so it was a bit crowded the interview marked one of the saddest parts of diana's life as she faced the media alone perhaps what makes diana's 1995 interview that much more tragic are the parallels between it and the interview that prince harry and meghan markle did with oprah winfrey in 2021 after abuse from the british tabloids and eerily similar treatment from the royal family harry and megan stepped back from their roles and leveled some very serious claims about racism and favoritism within the royal family touching back on what you asking what my mum would think of this i think she saw it coming princess diana's life really began to unravel in the latter half of the 1990s she gave the expository interview with the bbc her marriage came to an end and unfortunately she experienced a tragic falling out with her son prince william as noted by vanity fair diana's friend simone simmons shared that diana regretted the interview because of what it did to her relationship with william simmons said of william's interview reaction william was absolutely livid of course it was in all the papers and william told me he was teased at school because of it he felt really bad for his mom because of what she had gone through but he was furious with her simmons also shared that diana only told william about the interview after it had been recorded leading to more tension between them simmons shared the weekend after it went out they had a big row at kensington palace william was furious and diana was distraught i was there the day after she spoke to him and diana was in a terrible state princess diana's storied and difficult life came to a tragic end when she was killed in a car crash on august 31st 1997. she was just 36 years old at the time of the accident diana was in paris france accompanied by her boyfriend dodie fayed her bodyguard and her driver henry paul the four were rushing through a tunnel trying to escape paparazzi when the car collided with a pillar fayed and paul were found dead at the scene and diana was pronounced dead at six a.m that morning after having been transported to the hospital her bodyguard trevor reese jones survived after enduring serious injuries the world went into a state of shock in reaction to the news flowers began to pile up in front of buckingham palace the following morning and hundreds of mourners gathered at kensington palace the people's princess as diana was often called was survived by her two sons prince william and prince harry who were 15 and 12 at the time to make matters even more tragic diana spencer was reportedly not going to be given a public funeral by the royal family queen elizabeth reportedly wanted princess diana's funeral to be a private gathering without the pomp and circumstance of a public ceremony but outcry from the british people mounted it took the palace five days to make a statement about diana's death which incurred a huge amount of public backlash it appeared as though the palace bowed to public pressure because diana was eventually given the royal funeral that so many were demanding diana's funeral saw massive crowds lining the streets and it was watched worldwide by about 2.5 billion people her funeral consisted of a viewing at st james's palace and a formal ceremony at westminster abbey diana's brother charles spencer delivered the eulogy and all but blamed the royal family for her death of all the ironies about diana perhaps the greatest was this a girl given the name of the ancient goddess of hunting was in the end the most hunted person of the modern age if you are struggling with an eating disorder or know someone who is help is available visit the national eating disorders association neda website or contact neda's live helpline at 1-800-931-2237 you can also receive 24 7 crisis support via text send neda to 741 741

Channel: The List

Views: 28,989

Keywords: the list, the royals, princess diana, prince william, prince charles

Id: uY24YEHwIg4

Length: 12min 40sec (760 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 17 2021