
; 1 July 1961 31 August 1997) was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales
, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century. Her wedding to the Prince of Wales, held at St Paul's Cathedral
, was televised and watched by a global audience of over 750 million people. After this marriage she received the courtesy titles Princess of Wales
, Duchess of Cornwall
, Duchess of Rothesay
, Countess of Chester and Baroness of Renfrew.
She won't go quietly, that's the problem. I'll fight to the end, because I believe that I have a role to fulfill, and I've got two children to bring up.
I'd like to be a queen of people's hearts, in people's hearts, but I don't see myself being Queen of this country. I don't think many people will want me to be Queen.
I do things differently, because I don't go by a rule book, because I lead from the heart, not the head, and albeit that's got me into trouble in my work, I understand that.
Everyone needs to be valued. Everyone has the potential to give something back.
; 1 July 1961 31 August 1997) was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales
, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century. Her wedding to the Prince of Wales, held at St Paul's Cathedral
, was televised and watched by a global audience of over 750 million people. After this marriage she received the courtesy titles Princess of Wales
, Duchess of Cornwall
, Duchess of Rothesay
, Countess of Chester and Baroness of Renfrew. The marriage produced two sons: Princes William and Harry
, currently second and third in line
to the thrones of the 16 Commonwealth realm
s, respectively.
A public figure from the announcement of her engagement to the Prince of Wales
, Diana was born into an aristocratic English family with royal ancestry, and she remained the focus of worldwide media scrutiny during and after her marriage, which ended in divorce on 28 August 1996, including following her death in a car crash
in Paris on 31 August 1997 and the subsequent display of public mourning
a week later. Diana also received recognition for her charity work and for her support of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines
. From 1989, she was the president of Great Ormond Street Hospital
for Children, in addition to dozens of other charities.
Early life
Diana Spencer was born in the late afternoon on 1 July 1961, in Sandringham, Norfolk. She was the third child of Viscount and Viscountess Althorp
(née Frances Roche, later Shand Kydd). The Spencer family
was hoping for a male heir to carry on the Spencer title. The Spencer family is one of Great Britain's oldest and most important families, closely allied with the royal family for several generations. As the family was expecting a boy, no name was chosen for a week, until they settled on Diana Frances, after a Spencer ancestress and her mother. Diana was the sister of Lady Sarah McCorquodale
, Jane Fellowes, Baroness Fellowes
, and Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer
. Diana was baptized at Sandringham church, with commoners as god parents
; her younger brother, Charles, was baptized at Westminster Abbey
with Elizabeth II as principal godparent. Another brother, John, died a year before she was born. According to Andrew Morton
's biography of Diana, the infant John Spencer was so deformed and sick he only survived 10 hours after birth. The desire for an heir added strain to the Spencers' marriage, and Lady Althorp was reportedly sent to Harley Street
clinics in London to determine the cause of the "problem". The experience was described as "humiliating" by Charles Spencer, the current earl: "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." Diana grew up in Park House, which was situated near to the Sandringham estate
.
Diana's mother The Honourable
Frances Shand Kydd
was also a member of the British aristocracy
for her parents were the Baron Fermoy
and his wife Lady
Ruth Roche, Baroness Fermoy
. The Baroness had been an Extra Woman of the Bedchamber to The Queen Mother, and they were very close friends.
Diana's parents separated when she was only seven years of age. Her mother, Frances, had an affair with Peter Shand Kydd
. In Morton's book, he describes Diana's remembrance of her father loading suitcases in the car, her mother crunching across the gravel forecourt and driving away through the gates of Park House. Diana and her younger brother lived with their mother in London during their parents' separation, but during the Christmas holidays at the end of the year, Lord Althorp refused to let his estranged wife return with the children to London. Shortly afterward Lord Althorp won custody of Diana and her three siblings, with support from his mother-in-law, Frances Spencer's mother. She was first educated at Riddlesworth Hall, and later attended boarding school at The New School at West Heath
.
In 1973, Lord Althorp began a relationship with Raine, Countess of Dartmouth, the only daughter of Alexander McCorquodale and Barbara Cartland
. Diana received the title of Lady after her father inherited the title of Earl Spencer in 1975. Lord Spencer and Lady Dartmouth were married at Caxton Hall
, London, on 14 July 1976. As Countess Spencer, Raine was unpopular with her stepdaughter Lady Diana. Lady Diana was often noted for her shyness while growing up, but she did take an interest in both music and dancing. She also had a great interest in children. After attending finishing school at the Institut Alpin Videmanette
in Switzerland, she moved to London. She began working with children, eventually becoming a nursery teacher at the Young England School. Diana had apparently played with The Princes Andrew
and Edward
as a child while her family rented Park House, a property owned by Elizabeth II and situated on the Sandringham estate.
Education
At the age of seven, Diana was sent to Riddlesworth Hall, an all-girls boarding school. While she was young, she attended a local public school. She did not shine academically, and was moved to West Heath Girls' School (later reorganised as The New School at West Heath) in Sevenoaks
, Kent, where she was regarded as a poor student, having attempted and failed all of her O-levels
twice. However, she showed a particular talent for music as an accomplished pianist. Her outstanding community spirit was recognised with an award from West Heath. In 1977, at the age of 16, she left West Heath and briefly attended Institut Alpin Videmanette
, a finishing school
in Rougemont, Switzerland
. At about that time, she first met her future husband, who was then dating her eldest sister, Lady Sarah
. Lady Diana also excelled in swimming and diving, and longed to be a professional ballerina
with the Royal Ballet. She studied ballet for a time, but then grew to 5'10", too tall for the profession.
Lady Diana moved to London before she turned 17, living in her mother's flat, as her mother then spent most of the year in Scotland. Soon afterwards, an apartment was purchased for £50,000 as an 18th birthday present, at Coleherne Court in Earls Court
. She lived there until 1981 with three flatmates.
In London, she took an advanced cooking course at her mother's suggestion, although she never became an adroit cook, and worked as a dance instructor for youth, until a skiing accident caused her to miss three months of work. She then found employment as a playgroup (pre-preschool) assistant, did some cleaning work for her sister Sarah and several of her friends, and worked as a hostess at parties. Lady Diana also spent time working as a nanny for an American family living in London.
Relationship with the Prince of Wales

The Prince of Wales had known Lady Diana for several years, but he first took a serious interest in her as a potential bride during the summer of 1980, when they were guests at a country weekend, where she watched him play polo
. The relationship developed as he invited her for a sailing weekend to Cowes
aboard the royal yacht Britannia
, followed by an invitation to Balmoral
(the Royal Family's Scottish residence) to meet his family. Lady Diana was well received by Elizabeth II, by The Duke of Edinburgh
, and by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. The couple subsequently courted in London. The prince proposed on 6 February 1981, and Lady Diana accepted, but their engagement was kept secret for the next few weeks.
Engagement and marriage
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Their engagement became official on 24 February 1981, after Lady Diana selected a large £30,000 ring (£94,800 in today's terms) consisting of 14 diamonds surrounding a sapphire, similar to her mother's engagement ring. The ring was made by the then Crown jewellers Garrard
but, unusually for a member of the Royal Family, the ring was not unique and was, at the time, featured in Garrard's jewellery collection. The ring later became, in 2010, the engagement ring of Catherine Middleton (now The Duchess of Cambridge, wife of Diana's elder son Prince William).
Twenty-year-old Diana became The Princess of Wales when she married The Prince of Wales on 29 July 1981 at St Paul's Cathedral
, which offered more seating than Westminster Abbey
, generally used for royal nuptials. It was widely billed as a "fairytale wedding", watched by a global television audience of 750 million while 600,000 people lined the streets to catch a glimpse of Diana en route to the ceremony. At the altar Diana accidentally reversed the order of Charles's first two names, saying "Philip Charles" Arthur George instead. She did not say that she would "obey" him; that traditional vow was left out at the couple's request, which caused some comment at the time. Diana wore a dress
valued at £9000 with a 25-foot (8-metre) train.
Children
On 5 November 1981, the Princess' first pregnancy was officially announced, and she frankly discussed her pregnancy with members of the press corps. In the private Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, on 21 June 1982, the Princess gave birth to her and the Prince's first son and heir, William Arthur Philip Louis. Amidst some media criticism, she decided to take William, still a baby, on her first major tours of Australia and New Zealand, but the decision was popularly applauded. By her own admission, the Princess of Wales had not initially intended to take William until it was suggested by Malcolm Fraser
, the Australian prime minister
.
A second son, Henry Charles Albert David
, was born two years after William, on 15 September 1984. The Princess asserted she and the Prince were closest during her pregnancy with "Harry
" (as the younger prince has always been known). She was aware their second child was a boy, but did not share the knowledge with anyone else, including the Prince of Wales.
Even her harshest critics agree that the Princess of Wales was a devoted, imaginative and demonstrative mother. She rarely deferred to the Prince 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 negotiated her public duties around their timetables.
Charity work
Although in 1983 she confided in the then-Premier of Newfoundland, Brian Peckford
, "I am finding it very difficult to cope with the pressures of being Princess of Wales, but I am learning to cope," from the mid-1980s, the Princess of Wales became increasingly associated with numerous charities. As Princess of Wales she was expected to regularly make public appearances to hospitals, schools and other facilities, in the 20th century model of royal patronage. The Princess developed an intense interest in serious illnesses and health-related matters outside the purview of traditional royal involvement, including AIDS and leprosy
. In addition, she was the patroness of charities and organisations working with the homeless, youth, drug addicts and the elderly. From 1989, she was President of Great Ormond Street Hospital
for Children. The day after her divorce, she announced her resignation from over 100 charities to spend more time with the remaining six.
During her final year, Diana lent highly visible support to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines
, a campaign won the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1997, only a few months after her death.
Problems and separation
During the early 1990s, the marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales fell apart, an event at first suppressed, then sensationalised, by the world media. Both the Prince and Princess allegedly spoke to the press through friends, each blaming the other for the marriage's demise.The chronology of the break-up identifies reported difficulties between the Prince and Princess as early as 1985. The Princess of Wales began an affair with Major James Hewitt
, and the Prince of Wales returned to his former girlfriend, Camilla Shand (now The Duchess of Cornwall, who had become Mrs Andrew Parker-Bowles. These affairs were exposed in May 1992 with the publication of Diana: Her True Story, by Andrew Morton. The book, which also laid bare the Princess' allegedly suicidal unhappiness, caused a media storm. This publication was followed during 1992 and 1993 by leaked tapes of telephone conversations which negatively reflected on both the royal antagonists. Transcripts of taped intimate conversations between the Princess and James Gilbey
were published by the Sun newspaper in Britain in August 1992. The article's title, "Squidgygate
", referenced Gilbey's affectionate nickname for Diana. The next to surface, in November 1992, were the leaked "Camillagate" tapes, intimate exchanges between the Prince of Wales and Camilla, published in Today and the Mirror newspapers.
In the meantime, rumours had begun to surface about the Princess of Wales' relationship with James Hewitt
, her former riding instructor. These would be brought into the open by the publication in 1994 of Princess in Love.
In December 1992, Prime Minister John Major
announced the Wales' "amicable separation" to the House of Commons,
and the full Camillagate transcript was published a month later in the newspapers, in January 1993. On 3 December 1993, the Princess of Wales announced her withdrawal from public life.
The Prince of Wales sought public understanding via a televised interview with Jonathan Dimbleby
on 29 June 1994. In this he confirmed his own extramarital affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles, saying that he had only rekindled their association in 1986, after his marriage to the Princess had "irretrievably broken down".
While she blamed Camilla Parker-Bowles for her marital troubles due to her previous relationship with the Prince, the Princess at some point began to believe he had other affairs. In October 1993, she wrote to a friend that she believed her husband was now in love with Tiggy Legge-Bourke
and wanted to marry her. Legge-Bourke had been hired by the Prince as a young companion for his sons while they were in his care, and the Princess was extremely resentful of Legge-Bourke and her relationship with the young princes.
Divorce
The Princess of Wales was interviewed for the BBC current affairs show Panoramaby journalist Martin Bashir
; the interview was broadcast on 20 November 1995. In it, the Princess said of her relationship with Hewitt, "Yes, I adored him." Of Camilla, she claimed "There were three of us in this marriage." For herself, she said, "I'd like to be a queen of people's hearts." On the Prince of Wales' suitability for kingship, she said, "Because I know the character I would think that the top job, as I call it, would bring enormous limitations to him, and I don't know whether he could adapt to that."
In December 1995, the Queen asked the Prince and Princess of Wales for "an early divorce", as a direct result of the Princess' Panorama interview. This followed shortly after the Princess' accusation that Tiggy Legge-Bourke
had aborted the Prince's child, after which Legge-Bourke instructed Peter Carter-Ruck
to demand an apology. Two days before this story broke, Diana's secretary Patrick Jephson resigned, later writing that the Princess had "exulted in accusing Legge-Bourke of having had an abortion".
On 20 December 1995, Buckingham Palace publicly announced the Queen had sent letters to the Prince and Princess of Wales advising them to divorce. The Queen's move was backed by the Prime Minister and by senior Privy Counsellors
, and, according to the BBC, was decided after two weeks of talks. The Prince immediately agreed with the suggestion. In February, the Princess announced her agreement after negotiations with the Prince and representatives of the Queen, irritating Buckingham Palace by issuing her own announcement of a divorce agreement and its terms.
The divorce was finalised on 28 August 1996.
Diana received a lump sum settlement of around £17 million along with a clause standard in royal divorces preventing her from discussing the details.
Days before the decree absolute of divorce, Letters Patent
were issued with general rules to regulate royal titles after divorce. In accordance, as she was no longer married to the Prince of Wales
, Diana lost the style Her Royal Highness and instead was styled Diana, Princess of Wales. Buckingham Palace issued a press release on the day of the decree absolute of divorce was issued, announcing Diana's change of title, but made it clear Diana continued to be a British princess
.
Almost a year before, according to Tina Brown, The Duke of Edinburgh
had warned the Princess of Wales, "If you don't behave, my girl, we'll take your title away." The Princess is said to have replied: "My title is a lot older than yours, Philip".
Buckingham Palace
stated Diana was still a member of the Royal Family, as she was the mother of the second- and third-in-line to the throne. This was confirmed by the Deputy Coroner of the Queen's Household
, Baroness Butler-Sloss
, after a pre-hearing on 8 January 2007: "I am satisfied that at her death, Diana, Princess of Wales continued to be considered as a member of the Royal Household." This appears to have been confirmed in the High Court judicial review matter of Al Fayed & Ors v Butler-Sloss. In that case, three High Court judges accepted submissions that the "very name ‘Coroner to the Queen's Household’ gave the appearance of partiality in the context of inquests into the deaths of two people, one of whom was a member of the Family and the other was not."
Personal life after divorce

, which she had shared with the Prince of Wales since the first year of their marriage, and it remained her home until her death.
Diana dated the respected heart surgeon Hasnat Khan
, from Jhelum
, Pakistan, who was called "the love of her life" after her death by many of her closest friends, for almost two years, before Khan ended the relationship. Khan was intensely private and the relationship was conducted in secrecy, with Diana lying to members of the press who questioned her about it. Khan was from a traditional Pakistani family who expected him to marry from a related Muslim clan, and their differences, which were not just religious, became too much for Khan. According to Khan's testimonial at the inquest for her death, it was Diana herself, not Khan, who ended their relationship in a late-night meeting in Hyde Park
, which adjoins the grounds of Kensington Palace, in June 1997.
Within a month Diana had begun dating Dodi Al-Fayed
, son of her host that summer, Mohamed Al-Fayed
. Diana had considered taking her sons that summer on a holiday to the Hamptons on Long Island, New York, but security officials had prevented it. After deciding against a trip to Thailand
, she accepted Fayed's invitation to join his family in the south of France, where his compound and large security detail would not cause concern to the Royal Protection squad. Mohamed Al-Fayed bought a multi-million pound yacht, the Jonikal, a 60-metre yacht on which to entertain Diana and her sons.
Landmines
In January 1997, pictures of Diana touring an Angolan minefield in a ballistic helmet and flak jacketwere seen worldwide. It was during this campaign that some accused her of meddling in politics and declared her a 'loose cannon'. In August 1997, just days before her death, she visited Bosnia
with Jerry White
and Ken Rutherford of the Landmine Survivors Network
. Her interest in landmines was focused on the injuries they create, often to children, long after a conflict is over.
She is believed to have influenced the signing, though only after her death, of the Ottawa Treaty
, which created an international ban on the use of anti-personnel landmines. Introducing the Second Reading of the Landmines Bill
1998 to the British House of Commons
, the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook
, paid tribute to Diana's work on landmines:
All Honourable Members will be aware from their postbags of the immense contribution made by Diana, Princess of Wales to bringing home to many of our constituents the human costs of landmines. The best way in which to record our appreciation of her work, and the work of NGOs that have campaigned against landmines, is to pass the Bill, and to pave the way towards a global ban on landmines.
The United Nations appealed to the nations which produced and stockpiled the largest numbers of landmines (United States, China, India, North Korea
, Pakistan, and Russia) to sign the Ottawa Treaty
forbidding their production and use, for which Diana had campaigned. Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF), said that landmines remained "a deadly attraction for children, whose innate curiosity and need for play often lure them directly into harm's way".
Death
On 31 August 1997, Diana was fatally injured in a car crash in the Pont de l'Almaroad tunnel in Paris, which also caused the death of her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed and their driver, Henri Paul
, acting security manager of the Hôtel Ritz Paris
. Millions of people watched her funeral.
Conspiracy theories and inquest
The initial French judicial investigation concluded the accident was caused by Henri Paul's drunken loss of control. From February 1999, Dodi's father, Mohamed Al-Fayed
(the owner of the Paris Ritz, for which Paul had worked) maintained the crash had been planned, accusing MI6
as well as The Duke of Edinburgh
. Inquests in London during 2004 and 2007 attributed the accident to grossly negligent driving by Henri Paul and to the pursuing paparazzi
. The following day Al-Fayed announced he would end his 10-year campaign for the sake of the late princess' children.
Tribute, funeral, and burial
The sudden and unexpected death of an extraordinarily popular royal figure brought statements from senior figures worldwide and many tributes by members of the public. People left public offerings of flowers, candles, cards and personal messages outside Kensington Palacefor many months.
Diana's funeral took place in Westminster Abbey
on 6 September 1997. The previous day Queen Elizabeth II had paid tribute to her in a live television broadcast.
Her sons, the Princes William and Harry, walked in the funeral procession behind her coffin, along with the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh, and with Diana's brother, Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer
. Lord Spencer said of his sister, "She proved in the last year that she needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic."
Memorials


. Permanent memorials include:
- The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Gardens in Regent Centre Gardens KirkintillochKirkintillochKirkintilloch is a town and former burgh in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It lies on the Forth and Clyde Canal, about eight miles northeast of central Glasgow...
- The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial FountainDiana, Princess of Wales Memorial FountainThe Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain is a memorial to Diana, Princess of Wales. It was designed to express Diana's spirit and love of children. It is located in the southwest corner of Hyde Park in London, just south of the Serpentine Lake and east of the Serpentine Gallery...
in Hyde Park, LondonHyde Park, LondonHyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, United Kingdom, and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.The park is divided in two by the Serpentine...
, opened by Elizabeth II - The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial PlaygroundDiana, Princess of Wales Memorial PlaygroundThe Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground is a memorial to Diana, Princess of Wales in Kensington Gardens, in The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea , London....
in Kensington GardensKensington GardensKensington Gardens, once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, is one of the Royal Parks of London, lying immediately to the west of Hyde Park. It is shared between the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The park covers an area of 111 hectares .The open spaces...
, London - The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial WalkDiana, Princess of Wales Memorial WalkThe Diana,Princess of Wales Memorial Walk is a long circular walking trail in London, England, dedicated to the memory of Diana, Princess of Wales. It goes between Kensington Gardens, Green Park, Hyde Park and St. James's Park in a figure-eight pattern, passing five sites that are associated with...
, a circular path between Kensington Gardens, Green ParkGreen Park-External links:*...
, Hyde Park and St James's Park, London.
In addition, there are two memorials inside Harrods
department store, at the time owned by Dodi Al-Fayed's father Mohamed Al-Fayed
, in London. The first memorial consists of photos of the two behind a pyramid-shaped display that holds a wine glass still smudged with lipstick from Diana's last dinner as well as an 'engagement' ring Dodi purchased the day before they died. The second, unveiled in 2005 and titled "Innocent Victims", is a bronze statue of the two dancing on a beach beneath the wings of an albatross. The Flame of Liberty
, erected in 1989 on the Place de l'Alma in Paris, above the entrance to the tunnel in which the fatal crash later occurred, has become an unofficial memorial to Diana.
Memorabilia
Following Diana's death, the Diana Memorial Fund was granted intellectual property rights over her image. In 1998, after refusing the Franklin Mintan official license to produce Diana merchandise, the fund sued the company, accusing it of illegally selling Diana dolls, plates and jewellery. In California, where the initial case was tried, a suit to preserve the right of publicity may be filed on behalf of a dead person, but only if that person is a Californian. The Memorial Fund therefore filed the lawsuit on behalf of the estate and, upon losing the case, were required to pay the Franklin Mint's legal costs of £3 million which, combined with other fees, caused the Memorial Fund to freeze their grants to charities.
In 1998, Azermarka
issued postage stamps with both Azeri
and English captions, commemorating Diana. The English text reads "Diana, Princess of Wales. The Princess that captured people's hearts".
In 2003, the Franklin Mint counter-sued; the case was eventually settled in 2004, with the fund agreeing to an out-of-court settlement, which was donated to mutually agreed charitable causes.
Today, pursuant to this lawsuit, two California companies continue to sell Diana memorabilia without the need for any permission from Diana's estate: the Franklin Mint and Princess Ring LLC.
Diana in contemporary art

Diana has been depicted in contemporary art
since her death. Some of the artworks have referenced the conspiracy theories, as well as paying tribute to Diana's compassion and acknowledging her perceived victimhood.
In July 1999, Tracey Emin
created a number of monoprint drawings featuring textual references about Diana's public and private life, for Temple of Diana, a themed exhibition at The Blue Gallery, London. Works such as They Wanted You To Be Destroyed (1999) related to Diana's bulimia, while others included affectionate texts such as Love Was On Your Side and Diana's Dress with puffy sleeves. Another text praised her selflessness – The things you did to help other people, showing Diana in protective clothing walking through a minefield in Angola – while another referenced the conspiracy theories. Of her drawings, Emin maintained "They're quite sentimental . . . and there's nothing cynical about it whatsoever."
In 2005 Martin Sastre
premiered during the Venice Biennial the film Diana: The Rose Conspiracy
. This fictional work starts with the world discovering Diana alive and enjoying a happy undercover new life in a dangerous favela
on the outskirts of Montevideo
. Shot on a genuine Uruguayan slum and using a Diana impersonator from São Paulo
, the film was selected among the Venice Biennial's best works by the Italian Art Critics Association.
In 2007, following an earlier series referencing the conspiracy theories, Stella Vine
created a series of Diana paintings for her first major solo exhibition at Modern Art Oxford
gallery. Vine intended to portray Diana's combined strength and vulnerability as well as her closeness to her two sons. The works, all completed in 2007, included Diana branches, Diana family picnic, Diana veil and Diana pram, which incorporated the quotation "I vow to thee my country". Immodesty Blaize
said she had been entranced by Diana crash, finding it "by turns horrifying, bemusing and funny". Vine asserted her own abiding attraction to "the beauty and the tragedy of Diana's life".
Later events
On 13 July 2006 Italian magazine Chipublished photographs showing Diana amid the wreckage of the car crash, despite an unofficial blackout on such photographs being published. The editor of Chi defended his decision by saying he published the photographs simply because they had not been previously seen, and he felt the images are not disrespectful to the memory of Diana. Fresh controversy arose over the issue of these photographs when Britain's Channel 4
broadcast them during a documentary in June 2007.
1 July 2007 marked a concert
at Wembley Stadium
. The event, organised by the Princes William and Harry, celebrated the 46th anniversary of their mother's birth and occurred a few weeks before the 10th anniversary of her death on 31 August.
The 2007 docudrama
Diana: Last Days of a Princess
details the final two months of her life.
On an October 2007 episode of The Chaser's War on Everything
, Andrew Hansen
mocked Diana in his "Eulogy Song", which immediately created considerable controversy in the Australian media.
Contemporary opinions

Diana was revealed to be a major source behind Andrew Morton's Diana: Her True Story, which had portrayed her as being wronged by the House of Windsor. Morton instanced Diana's claim that she attempted suicide while pregnant by falling down a series of stairs and that Charles had left her to go riding. Tina Brown opined that it was not a suicide attempt because she would not intentionally have tried to harm the unborn child.
Royal biographer Sarah Bradford commented, "The only cure for her (Diana's) suffering would have been the love of the Prince of Wales, which she so passionately desired, something which would always be denied her. His was the final rejection; the way in which he consistently denigrated her reduced her to despair." Diana herself commented, "My husband made me feel inadequate in every possible way that each time I came up for air he pushed me down again ..."
Diana herself admitted to struggling with depression, self-injury, and bulimia, which recurred throughout the early years of her marriage. One biographer suggested Diana suffered from borderline personality disorder
.
In 2007, Tina Brown wrote a biography about Diana as a "restless and demanding ... obsessed with her public image" and also "spiteful, manipulative, media-savvy neurotic." Brown also claims Diana married Charles for his power and had a romantic relationship with Dodi Fayed to anger the royal family, with no intention of marrying him.
Titles and styles
- 1 July 1961 – 9 June 1975: The Honourable Diana Frances Spencer
- 9 June 1975 – 29 July 1981: The Lady Diana Frances Spencer
- 29 July 1981 – 28 August 1996: Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales
- in Scotland: 29 July 1981 – 28 August 1996: Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Rothesay
- 28 August 1996 – 31 August 1997: Diana, Princess of Wales
- in Scotland: 28 August 1996 – 31 August 1997: Diana, Duchess of Rothesay
Posthumously, as in life, she is most popularly referred to as "Princess Diana", a title she never held.The style "Princess Diana", although often used by the public and the media during her lifetime, was always incorrect. With rare exceptions (such as Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester
) only women born to the title (such as The Princess Anne
) may use it before their given names. After her divorce in 1996, Diana was officially styled Diana, Princess of Wales, having lost the prefix HRH
Still, she is sometimes referred to (according to the tradition of using maiden names after death) in the media as "Lady Diana Spencer", or simply as "Lady Di". After Tony Blair's famous speech she was also often referred to as the People's Princess.
Diana's full title, while married, was Her Royal Highness The Princess Charles Philip Arthur George, Princess of Wales & Countess of Chester, Duchess of Cornwall, Duchess of Rothesay, Countess of Carrick, Baroness of Renfrew, Lady of the Isles, Princess of Scotland.
After her divorce and until her death Diana, Princess of Wales continued to be a Princess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
without the style Royal Highness
. As the mother of the future Sovereign
, she was accorded the same precedence she enjoyed whilst being married to The Prince of Wales
. This situation made the Princess the first non royal British princess in history.
Honours
British honours- Royal Family Order of Queen Elizabeth IIRoyal Family Order of Queen Elizabeth IIThe Royal Family Order of Queen Elizabeth II is a high honour bestowed as a mark of personal esteem on titled female members of the British Royal Family for personal service to Queen Elizabeth II. It is not automatically awarded and there is no public announcement of the honour...
Foreign honours
- Grand Cross of the Order of the CrownOrder of the Crown (Netherlands)The Order of the Crown is a house order of the Dutch Royal House of Orange-Nassau. The order came into being as a result of Queen Juliana's reorganization of The House Order of Orange in 1969. The 18 classes of the House order were no longer felt to be appropriate in the ever more egalitarian...
, bestowed by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in 1982
Legacy

- Diana's interest in supporting and helping young people led to the establishment of the Diana Memorial AwardDiana Memorial AwardThe Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Award for Inspirational Young People was established in 1999 by a board chaired by the then Chancellor, Gordon Brown, who felt that the award would reflect the personal interest of Diana, Princess of Wales in helping and supporting young people.-Purpose:The...
, awarded to youths who have demonstrated the unselfish devotion and commitment to causes advocated by the Princess. - In 2002, Diana was ranked 3rd in 100 Greatest Britons100 Greatest Britons100 Greatest Britons was broadcast in 2002 by the BBC. The programme was the result of a vote conducted to determine whom the United Kingdom public considers the greatest British people in history. The series, Great Britons, included individual programmes on the top ten, with viewers having further...
poll, outranking The Queen and other British monarchs. - On 30 August 2007 Peruvian photographer Mario TestinoMario Testino-Early Life:Testino grew up in Lima, the eldest son of a businessman. When he was young he wanted to be a priest. Testino recalls being unpopular at school because of his flamboyance. He was good at math and went on to study economics at Universidad del Pacífico, where his insistence on wearing...
announced that on 20 November he would auction a signed photo of Diana for the benefit of the Peru earthquake (in London by Phillips de Pury & Co). The photo appeared in a 1997 Vanity FairVanity Fair (magazine)Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
issue, and shows Diana wearing a black dress. - The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial PlaygroundDiana, Princess of Wales Memorial PlaygroundThe Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground is a memorial to Diana, Princess of Wales in Kensington Gardens, in The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea , London....
was erected in Kensington GardensKensington GardensKensington Gardens, once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, is one of the Royal Parks of London, lying immediately to the west of Hyde Park. It is shared between the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The park covers an area of 111 hectares .The open spaces...
at a cost of £1.7 million. - The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial WalkDiana, Princess of Wales Memorial WalkThe Diana,Princess of Wales Memorial Walk is a long circular walking trail in London, England, dedicated to the memory of Diana, Princess of Wales. It goes between Kensington Gardens, Green Park, Hyde Park and St. James's Park in a figure-eight pattern, passing five sites that are associated with...
was dedicated to the memory of Diana, Princess of Wales. It stretches between Kensington Gardens, Green Park, Hyde Park and St. James's Park. - On 6 July 2004, The Queen officially opened the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial FountainDiana, Princess of Wales Memorial FountainThe Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain is a memorial to Diana, Princess of Wales. It was designed to express Diana's spirit and love of children. It is located in the southwest corner of Hyde Park in London, just south of the Serpentine Lake and east of the Serpentine Gallery...
. It is located in the south-west corner of Hyde Park in London. - In 1999 the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Award for Inspirational Young People was established.
- Diana's family announced in 2010 they would auction art and horse-drawn carriages that once belonged to Althorp House.
- Fashion designers David and Elizabeth EmanuelDavid Emanuel (fashion designer)David Emanuel is a Welsh fashion designer who is, perhaps, best known for having designed the wedding dress worn by Diana, Princess of Wales in 1981.-Early years:Born and brought up in Bridgend , David Emanuel excelled in music...
, responsible for much of Diana's clothes, including her wedding dress, announced in May 2010 they were auctioning 30 lots of clothing, measurements, and related items.
Ancestry
Diana by birth is a member of the Spencer family, one of the oldest and most prominent noble families in Britain which currently holds the titles of Duke of Marborough, Earl Spencer
and Viscount Churchill
. The Spencers claimed to have descended from a cadet branch of the powerful medieval Despenser family, but its validity is still being questioned. Diana's noble ancestors include the legendary John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and Prince of Mindelheim
, his equally famous wife, the powerful and influential Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough
, Britain's first Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford
, Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo, 2nd Duke of Alba
, one of the most powerful men of his era, Maria, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh
, and Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey
. She is also a distant relative of the dukes of Abercorn
, Bedford
, Richmond
, Devonshire
, Gordon
and most of the members of the British aristocracy.
Diana's ancestry also connects her with most of Europe's royal houses. Diana is five times descended from the House of Stuart
from Charles II
's four illegitimate sons James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth
, Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton
, Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St Albans
and Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond
, and from James II
's daughter, Henrietta FitzJames, Countess of Newcastle
, an ancestry she shares with the current Dukes of Alba
. From the House of Stuart, Diana is a descendant of the House of Bourbon
from the line Henry IV of France
and of the House of Medici from the line of Marie de' Medici
. She is also a descendant of powerful Italian noble families such as that of the House of Sforza
who ruled as the Dukes of Milan from the line of the legendary Caterina Sforza, Countess of Forlì
. Diana also descends from the House of Wittelsbach via morganatic line from Frederick V, Elector Palatine
and of the House of Hanover
via Sophia von Platen und Hallermund, Countess of Leinster and Darlington
, the illegitimate daughter of Ernest Augustus, Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg
and the half sister of George I
. Diana also descends from the House of Toledo of the original dukes of Alba and Medina Sidonia
.
Issue
Name | Birth | Marriage | Issue | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge | 21 June 1982 | 29 April 2011 | Catherine Middleton | |
Prince Harry of Wales Prince Harry of Wales Prince Henry of Wales , commonly known as Prince Harry, is the younger son of Charles, Prince of Wales and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, and fourth grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh... |
15 September 1984 |
See also

- Burrell affairBurrell affairThe Burrell affair was a scandal in 2002 which arose from a number of allegations about the behaviour of the British Royal Family and their servants...
- Concert for DianaConcert for DianaConcert for Diana was a concert held at the then new Wembley Stadium in London, England, United Kingdom in honour of Diana, Princess of Wales, on 1 July 2007, which would have been her 46th birthday; 31 August that year brought the 10th anniversary of her death...
- Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial FundDiana, Princess of Wales Memorial FundThe Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund is an independent grant-giving foundation established in September 1997 after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, to continue her humanitarian work in the United Kingdom and overseas...
- Diana, Princess of Wales: TributeDiana, Princess of Wales: TributeDiana, Princess of Wales: Tribute is a 1997 two CD release in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales with participation of a great number of renowned artists...
- Diana - The People's PrincessDiana - The People's PrincessDiana – The People’s Princess is a limited-run, traveling exhibition located at the Branson Exhibition Center at 3950 Green Mountain Drive in Branson, Missouri....
(exhibition) - SquidgygateSquidgygateSquidgygate refers to the pre-1990 telephone conversations between Diana, Princess of Wales and a close friend, James Gilbey, and to the controversy surrounding how those conversations were recorded. During the calls, Gilbey affectionately called Diana by the names "Squidgy" and "Squidge"...
- The New School at West HeathThe New School at West HeathThe New School at West Heath is an independent school in Sevenoaks, in southeast England. It caters for children for whom mainstream schooling has become insufficient, for varying reasons...
(Mr Al-Fayed's memorial to Diana) - Elisabeth of BavariaElisabeth of BavariaElisabeth of Austria was the spouse of Franz Joseph I, and therefore both Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary. She also held the titles of Queen of Bohemia and Croatia, among others...
External links
- Concert for Diana
- Princess Diana: The Best Photos – slideshow by Life magazine
- Trampling on Diana's grave: Outrage as C4 to show image of princess dying
- DIANA – The crash investigator and the mystery driver
- 9th Earl Spencer's Eulogy for Princess Diana Text, audio, video at American Rhethoric
- Prince Harry's Memorial Remarks on the 10 Year Anniversary of Diana's Death Text, audio, video at American Rhethoric
- Funeral and Eulogies for Princess Diana at Internet-esq.com.
- Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund official website of Theworkcontinues.org.
- "Diana Remembered" at PeoplePeople (magazine)In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
magazine - HM Coroner of Surrey: The Official Inquest Into The Deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales & Dodi Al Fayed at Surreycoroner.info.
- Lord Stevens' Operation Paget Report Into The Death of Diana, Princess of Wales—published 14 December 2006 at Police.uk.
- The Goddess of Domestic Tribulations by Theodore Dalrymple Essay on the cultural significance of Princess Diana. Theodore Dalrymple. City Journal at City-journal.com.
- "Ten Years On: Why Princess Diana Mattered". TIME.
- BBC mini-site Diana One Year On pictures of Diana, Panorama interview video extracts, coverage of the funeral, how the UK newspapers reported her death