Princess Diana can rightfully be considered the star of the British monarchy. Neither before nor after her, no one from the royal family was as loved and adored by the subjects of the “crown” as she was. Her life still arouses great interest among the media and ordinary people, although a lot of time has passed since the death of the princess.

What do we know about Diana?

Née Spencer was born in the summer of July 1, 1961 in Norfolk. Diana Frances had a noble origin. Her mother and father were viscounts and also maintained close ties to the English royal family.

Diana's father John was from the same family line as Churchill, as well as the Duke of Marlborough. All of them came from the Spencer-Churchill family. The father of the future princess himself was Viscount Elthorp.

Only through the illegitimate, but also recognized sons of King Charles II, Diana carried part of the “royal blood”. As a child, the future princess lived in Sandringham. The Viscount's daughter completed the first educational stage at home.

The girl's parents then taught her at a private school near King's Line. A little later, after failures in her studies, she entered Riddlesworth Hall School. At the age of eight, Diana experienced her parents' divorce. She, her half-sisters and brother remained to live with their father. Diana's father quickly got a new wife, but she was unable to establish contact with the children, so she played the role of an evil stepmother in their fate.

In 1975, Diana officially received the title "lady". This event was overshadowed by the death of her grandfather. At the age of twelve, Diana Francis was sent to West Hill School. She studied poorly; only Diana’s musical abilities aroused admiration.

In addition to her favorite music, Diana was fond of dancing. She loved these two activities and excelled in her creative field..

In 1978, the girl moved to live in London. She had her own home there. Being very young, Diana loved to tinker with kids, so she got a job looking after children at the Young England kindergarten as a teacher’s assistant.

How did the lady meet the prince?

The first meeting of the future princess of Britain with Prince Charles took place when she was only 16 years old. In 1977, the prince came to her father's estate to play polo.

After a short courtship, Charles invited Diana to the royal yacht. At the beginning of 1980, Diana had the honor of meeting the royal family at the family castle, Balmoral.

The press immediately drew attention to the Prince of Wales's genuine interest in the young lady. Although the engagement of the young people was kept secret, all the details of their meetings, which the media could find out, were savored by journalists from different sides almost every day.

Under such pressure, Prince Charles made a hasty proposal to Diana. This happened on February 6, 1981. Diana was then the first Englishwoman to later become a royal bride, and she was also the first bride to have a paid position before becoming a princess.

Before the wedding, the girl settled in Buckingham Palace with the Queen Mother. The Queen herself presented Diana with an elegant and intricate sapphire brooch as a sign of her affection.

Wedding celebration

The wedding of Diana and the Prince of Wales took place on July 29, 1981. The day was chosen taking into account weather conditions so that nothing could overshadow the grand celebration. The wedding ceremony took place in St. Paul's Cathedral. Why not in Westminster Abbey, which is generally accepted for monarchs and nobility? There were simply more places for guests in this cathedral. The church, of course, was not as pretentious as the abbey, but it also captivated with its surroundings and beauty.

So Lady Diana and the future queen of the hearts of her subjects became the Princess of Wales. The festive ceremony was shown by all world media. The broadcast was watched by approximately 700 thousand television viewers. Another approximately 650 thousand spectators waited for the couple on the street to enjoy the spectacle of the wedding procession.

The girl's wedding dress cost about 10 thousand pounds. The full length of her veil was also impressive, measuring 7.5 meters.

Fate after the wedding

The question of whether Charles truly loved Princess Diana remains open to this day. After the wedding, Lady Diana quit her job at the kindergarten and began her direct duties as Princess of Wales.

She visited kindergartens, schools, and charity events. Diana was very active in charity work. Helped those in need and supported AIDS patients. Its popularity among British citizens grew at a tremendous speed. Diana was literally considered an angel of mercy in the flesh. People began to call her our “Lady Di,” thereby showing special affection for her and her activities.

Every appearance, every trip abroad attracted a lot of attention to Charles’s wife. Diana very quickly became a trendsetter, managing to bring a little glamor to the strict royal dress code.

Diana loved to be in the company of children and ordinary people; she spoke openly about the problems of modern society, which earned herself even greater fame.

The princess could easily go for tea to establishments that she supported through her charitable activities. It was Diana who put an end to prejudices about AIDS patients by publicly shaking the hand of one person infected with the disease.

During her career as Charles's wife, Lady Di received the following awards:

  • Order of Queen Elizabeth II;
  • Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Crown;
  • Egyptian Order of Virtue.

The princess had many more unofficial awards.

Unfulfilled dreams of happiness

The birth of Charles and Lady Di's first son, William, occurred on June 21, 1982. Then, on September 15, 1984, the couple's second son, Henry, was born. Diana always dreamed of a big family.

From the very beginning, the Princess of Wales insisted on a completely normal upbringing for her sons. At her insistence, they were sent to simple kindergartens, then attended an average English school.

After the birth of Prince Henry, known today as Harry, Diana and Charles' marriage began to crack. It is known that before the wedding, Charles told his friend that he did not love Diana yet, but perhaps he would be able to love her in the future.

Apparently, Charles, who was 13 years older than her, failed to fall in love with the girl. Then the couple began to live separately. After this event, Andrew Morton’s book “Diana: Her True Story” was published. The manuscript was published with the consent of the princess herself and with the participation of her friends.

This is how the world learned about Lady Di’s suicide attempts, about her experiences, loneliness, and also about the fact that she struggled with bulimia for many years. This book provided evidence that Charles was still interested in his former girlfriend Camilla Parker. This hurt the Princess of Wales, and ultimately led to the couple's divorce.

The Prince and Princess of Wales officially divorced in 1996.

The couple's divorce turned into a confrontation when Diana gave a frank interview to the BBC channel. In it, she sincerely spoke about how Charles never wanted to be king and about how difficult it was for her to live in the royal family. After the divorce, Diana devoted a lot of time to her children. She appeared with them at all social events.

Diana Spencer always said that she wanted to become a queen, but she did not want the English throne, but wanted to be the queen of people's hearts. Her reputation after the divorce was slightly damaged by information about affairs with other men. So Officer Hewitt vilely made his relationship with the princess public by writing a book about it.

When the divorce proceedings ended, the princess switched from direct charitable activities to other work. She put all her dresses up for auction. The proceeds from the sale amounted to more than £3.5 million. Diana also visited her sick mother Teresa. After the divorce, the media tirelessly followed Lady Di's activities, discussing her every step and every decision she made.

Divorce: before and after

Formally, the marriage of Princess Diana and Prince Charles broke up much earlier than the divorce proceedings began. Evil tongues said that even after marrying Diana, Charles did not end his relationship with his former girlfriend Camilla.

And Diana herself soon began an affair with cardiac surgeon Hasnat Khan. There is information that they really loved each other, but could not withstand public pressure and broke up. In addition, Khan’s parents were also against this relationship. Diana and Hasnat tried to save their relationship by leaving for Pakistan, but nothing worked out for the lovers there either.

Diana Frances Spencer's next relationship was the last in her life. So she was credited with an affair with Egyptian billionaire Dodi al-Fayed. The couple was allegedly even seen on the same yacht. But it was never possible to confirm this connection with indisputable facts.

Cause of death of Princess Diana

The Princess of Wales died from injuries acquired in a car accident on August 31, 1997. Diana was traveling in the car with her bodyguard and her “tabloid” lover Dodi al-Fayed. Everyone who was driving around Paris in that ill-fated car, except for the bodyguard, died.

Even after a lengthy investigation, the police were unable to convincingly explain why the car accident occurred..

The disaster occurred when the driver attempted to break away from reporters on motorcycles pursuing Diana. In the tunnel, he lost control, and according to one version, a collision occurred.

Princess Diana was hospitalized, but she died after two hours in the hospital. Trevor Rea Jones (Lady Di's bodyguard), having recovered from his injuries, claimed to remember nothing about the accident. After the incident, his face had to be restored almost completely using plastic surgery. The fatal scene took place in a tunnel under the Parisian Pont Alma. Diana's car collided with a concrete support.

At the age of 36, the people's favorite Lady Di passed away. A wave of grief swept across Britain and France. Memorials were erected in honor of the princess, to which people laid flowers.

The princess was buried in her native Elthorp on a secluded island. Versions of her death excited the hearts and minds of people for a long time. Some believed that Diana's death was a direct consequence of a conspiracy against her. Others blamed it on the paparazzi who followed the princess. Scotland Yard also published its version, which said that the driver's blood alcohol was three times the limit, and the speed in the tunnel was also greatly exceeded.

Many songs and poems were written in memory of Diana. Elton John and Michael Jackson also dedicated their works to her. 10 years after the accident, a film was made about Princess Diana and the last hours of her life. In addition, today stamps with her image are issued in many countries. According to inexorable statistics, Princess Diana has broken all records of popularity among British monarchs. She remained in the hearts of people as their true unofficial queen.

The book “The Real Diana” by Lady Colin Campbell, the same aristocratic writer close to royal circles who has already written a book about the Queen Mother that shook the whole world, has appeared on the shelves of British bookstores. Now she has revealed unknown facts about Diana's life in the royal family.

Lady Campbell claims that Diana's father, the ambitious Lord John Spencer, harbored a plan for many years to marry his daughter to Prince Charles. But it wasn’t Diana who was meant at all, but her older sister Sarah.

And when Charles’s father, Prince Philip, began looking for a bride for him, Sarah Spencer was one of the first to be considered. But this union did not take place because Sarah’s statement was published in the press: “I don’t care whose wife I become, a prince or a garbage man, as long as there is love between us!” After all, the Queen, as you know, cannot stand anyone from her family discussing their personal life in public.

The future Princess Diana was the youngest of the three Spencer daughters. "Diana's family hoped she would marry Prince Andrew," writes Colin Campbell. - Diana kept his photograph on her bedside table the entire time she was studying at West Heath school. Her family even nicknamed her the Duchess - that would have been Diana’s title if she had become the wife of Andrew, Duke of York.”

The youth of aristocratic families have known the young offspring of the royal family since childhood, so Diana knew everyone - Charles, Andrew, Anna, and Edward. But it was with Andrew that she had a childhood friendship - according to Lady Campbell, in infancy they played together on the grounds of the royal Sandringham estate, where the Spencers rented a mansion. This right was granted by King George VI to his friend, Diana's maternal grandfather. In addition, the Windsor and Spencer families had long-standing connections: one of Diana's great-grandmothers was the mistress of George IV and, according to rumors, even gave birth to an illegitimate child. And grandmother Ruth (as well as grandmother Cynthia on her mother’s side) served as a maid of honor to the Queen Mother. John Spencer himself performed the honorary duties of Queen Elizabeth's equerry.

After Sarah left the race, the Spencer family council decided to urgently replace her with Diana, the writer claims. Diana was ordered to attend all events where Charles appeared. And then the opportunity to get closer to the heir to the throne finally came - at one of the country receptions, Diana saw that Charles had gone for a walk alone. “In a field, near a haystack, the prince stopped and sat down. Diana came up and sat down next to her: “You really miss Lord Mountbatten, right? Now you really need someone to take care of you!” - she said. Not long before this, Charles had lost his beloved great-uncle and mentor, Lord Mountbatten, and he really needed sympathy,” says Lady Campbell.

The butler Paul Burrell, who served there at that time, writes about how Diana first arrived at the royal Balmoral Castle as Charles’s personal guest (he, in turn, also wrote a book about Diana, “Royal Duty”).

The fact is that Diana made a mistake - she brought with her only one evening dress for three days. She was lucky - the evenings turned out to be warm, and everyone gathered in an informal setting - in a barbecue house. So no one except Paul Burrell noticed her miscalculation. However, it’s forgivable - Diana was only nineteen years old, while the rest of Charles’s company were over thirty, or even forty. Moreover, even though she was an aristocrat, she worked as a modest teacher in a kindergarten and lived in a rented London apartment, and not at all with her father and stepmother, with whom she felt uncomfortable. “She acted modestly and often blushed,” recalls Paul Burrell. - Over time, the ladies of the court noticed the meagerness of her wardrobe and ordered something for her: a blue skirt, a collarless jacket of the same color, matching shoes and a white blouse with a stand-up collar.

It was this costume that the princess wore when her engagement to Prince Charles was publicly announced on February 24 at Buckingham Palace.”

Lady Colin Campbell believes that this same suit later played a bad joke on Diana: “She put on a ready-made blue suit, which fit her baggyly. In it she seemed much fuller than she actually was. When she saw photos of herself in the press, she muttered, “Oh my God, I’m so fat!” Charles tried to console her by saying that she looked great. And at the same time he pinched her on the fold of fat on her waist.” Lady Campbell believes that it was this moment, after which Diana set herself the goal of losing weight before her wedding, that was the beginning of her notorious bulimia.

“For three days Diana starved herself, after which she broke down and ran to the nearest candy store for candy. She only stopped when she had eaten the entire box. After which she was horrified, rushed into the bathroom and used the well-known “two fingers in the mouth” method. Deciding that this was a great way out of the situation, Diana began to do this every day,” writes Lady Campbell. The dressmaker who was working on the wedding dress grumbled - once again the outfit had to be sewn in. After all, Diana lost 12 kilograms in a short time. She looked great. The same could not be said about the state of her nerves. “As usually happens with bulimia, she began to have mood swings, and there were causeless bouts of sobbing. Over time, Charles had to take a sip of all this,” says Lady Campbell.

According to her information, Diana showed a tendency towards bulimia from school. It was difficult for young Lady Spencer to control how much she ate. “Classmates recall that she could eat a dozen slices of bread at one time. And then three more full bowls of baked beans,” the book says. And it started at the age of eight - that is, exactly when Diana’s parents were getting divorced.

DID DIANA HAVE THE RIGHT TO MARRY CHARLES?

The divorce of John and Frances Spencer became one of the most discussed social scandals of the late 60s. Everyone condemned Frances, who, without waiting for a divorce, took a lover. No one wanted to hear that the real reason she left her husband was abuse.

Diana's mother claimed that her husband beat and humiliated her. But she had no witnesses... As a result, custody of the children - three daughters and a son - went to John. “And he soon sent them to boarding schools and took himself a new wife, whom his offspring hated,” writes Lady Campbell. At the same time, the children also condemned their own mother. “She should have stayed with us! I would never, ever abandon my children! It would be better if I died! - Diana said, even as an adult.

Lady Campbell claims that Charles also lacked parental love since childhood: his mother Elizabeth was too busy with government affairs, and his father subjected his every action to ruthless criticism, from which Charles developed something like a neurosis.

They say that even as an adult, Charles once could not resist tears when he heard from his father: “Everything you say is complete nonsense!” - in response to discussions about architecture, which Charles had a good understanding of. Charles's first (and, as it turned out later, his only lifelong) love, Camilla Shand, chose the handsome royal guard officer Andrew Parker-Bowles over him, whom she married, despite Charles' persistent courtship.

And when, six years after her marriage, Camilla, having lost interest in her husband, nevertheless responded to the love of the Prince of Wales, their marriage was no longer possible - even if she had divorced, the heir to the throne cannot marry a divorced woman. Nevertheless, at the ball at the Royal Polo Club, these two kissed in front of everyone.

It was then that Prince Philip urgently began to look for a bride for his son, for whose role Diana was somewhat hastily chosen. Lady Campbell believes that for some time Charles believed that young Spencer would be able to give him what he so passionately dreamed of - that is, selfless and reckless love. “But here’s the problem: Diana, who really sincerely liked Charles, also suffered from a “dislike complex,” therefore, instead of loving someone, she needed someone to love her herself,” writes Campbell.

Preparations for the wedding were kept secret for as long as possible. Paul Burrell recalls: “When the royal jeweler David Thomas brought a case containing a selection of engagement rings to the palace, the servants were told that it contained rings intended as a gift for Prince Andrew on his 21st birthday.

Although the rings were obviously women's. Charles asked the Queen to make the choice. Diana later told her friends: “I would never have chosen such a tasteless ring. I would prefer something simpler and more elegant."

According to Lady Campbell, when Charles proposed to Diana, he implored her to think carefully before answering. After all, a member of the royal family has many responsibilities, every step is visible, you need to be able to keep your face, and you can immediately forget about personal freedom. “But Diana agreed instantly, without any hesitation. It seems that she simply could not imagine that any difficulties could follow her wedding with the prince. She was raised on the romance novels of Barbara Cartland, where after the wedding the ending immediately comes: “And they lived happily ever after, loving each other...”

Lady Campbell writes.

Previously, there was no doubt that Diana at least met one of the main requirements for the bride of the heir to the throne. It is known that before the wedding, the queen’s personal gynecologist examined her and declared that Diana was healthy and innocent. On this occasion, one friend of Camilla Parker-Bowles even quipped: “It may well be that Lady Diana was chosen precisely because she remained the only virgin aristocrat of marriageable age in this country.” But Lady Colin Campbell, having interviewed Diana’s school friends, makes a sensational statement: “Diana was only seventeen when she met young Daniel Wiggin. The son of a baronet, he was a friend of her brother Charles.

And he became her first lover. Soon Diana met the next one - James Coltrust, also the son of a baronet. He was very physically attractive to her, he was just her type of man - tall, dark, muscular.” In addition to them, Lady Campbell lists five more of Diana's premarital lovers. Moreover, the future Princess of Wales, according to her information, was so close to Guardsman Rory Scott that she spent weekends at his parents’ farm, washing and ironing his shirts. And Rory confirmed to the writer that his relationship with Diana was “determinedly not platonic.” Little of! Allegedly, he was not Diana’s first yet.

According to Lady Campbell, there was one more thing that could have upset the wedding if it had been known in 1981.

“The fact that Diana's mother's great-great-great-grandmother Eliza Kewark was an Indian, born in Bombay, was one of the Spencer family's best-kept secrets,” writes Lady Colin Campbell. “After all, if anyone had found out about this, then none of Frances Spencer’s three daughters would have ever been able to marry successfully.”

IS THE PRINCESS TOO FRIENDLY WITH THE SERVANTS?

And so on July 29, 1981, in St. Paul's Cathedral, 32-year-old Prince Charles married 20-year-old Diana Spencer. The ceremony of the fabulous wedding, by all accounts, was watched by 75 million people. It is known that at the wedding, Queen Elizabeth, to celebrate, slightly picked up her skirt and famously danced a jig. It seemed to everyone that this marriage would bring happiness to both the newlyweds and England.

But for Charles and Diana, these hopes were dashed during their honeymoon, which they spent on a cruise in the Mediterranean Sea on board the royal ship Britannia. According to Lady Campbell, it was there that it became clear that Charles was not able to devote enough time to his young wife, by her standards, and Diana was not able to come to terms with this. The prince plunged into his own affairs several times a day - looking through business papers, or even just for fun reading something on philosophy. Meanwhile, Diana was languishing with boredom and complaining about life. “Bulimia had by then severely undermined her nervous system,” writes Lady Campbell. It ended with Charles having an irresistible desire to call Camilla Parker-Bowles directly from the yacht Britannia, locked in the bathroom of his own cabin.

Diana accidentally overheard their conversation. There was gossip about Charles' affair with Camilla in royal circles, but until recently Diana led a completely different life, and these rumors did not reach her. Now she found out everything and demanded that her husband end his relationship with Camilla.

“The worst thing was that the newlyweds, apart from a passionate desire to be loved and happy, had very little in common,” says Lady Campbell. So footman Paul Burrell, who after the wedding was made the personal butler of the Prince and Princess of Wales, recalls how Charles used to sit all evenings downstairs in the library, listening to Haydn, while Diana was playing Whitney Houston in her room on the second floor. In terms of her interests, she was an ordinary resident of London.

Perhaps she is kinder and more sympathetic - this is what her work with children taught her. Having become Princess of Wales, Diana had the opportunity to do what she had long been disposed to do - help people. Paul Burrell talks about the horror he experienced when he was driving somewhere with the princess, and she suddenly stopped next to a vulgarly made-up girl in a short skirt, freezing in the damp wind. While the butler was breaking out in a cold sweat, imagining the headlines of tomorrow's newspapers: “Princess Diana spends time in the company of prostitutes,” his patron handed the girl 100 pounds and said: “Buy yourself something warm. And so that the next time I pass here, you are better dressed.” Moreover, after a couple of weeks, Diana actually made sure that the girl was now waiting for clients in a warm leather jacket.

But Diana did not share Charles’s interests in art, philosophy, fishing and hunting. When, after her first participation in the royal hunt, according to the ritual, her cheeks were smeared with blood taken from the belly of a freshly killed deer, cut with a hunting knife, Diana shuddered in disgust. But not so long ago, Charles initiated Camilla into a hunter in the same way, and she was delighted with the medieval rite! “Even the sports in which Diana was strong - tennis, swimming, dancing - were not those that Charles appreciated, who preferred horse riding,” Lady Campbell claims.

In the first months, Diana and Charles lived in Buckingham Palace, which, as you know, is a real labyrinth of endless corridors, halls and rooms. As soon as Diana moved further away from her apartment, she became lost. After all, no one thought to give her a tour of the palace.

Somehow Diana learned the way to the pool and also to the throne room, where she was allowed to take ballet and tap dancing lessons. Diana fluttered there in tights, not far from two ancient thrones, standing on their gilded legs under a heavy burgundy canopy with gold tassels. One higher, for the Queen, the other lower, for the Duke of Edinburgh.

As for Charles's parents, in their own way they tried very hard to be affectionate and hospitable with Diana. Every now and then in the evenings, when Diana got tired of sitting alone, she called the royal page: “Please find out, will the Queen be dining alone today?” He went to report and received the answer: “Please tell Lady Diana that I will be happy to have dinner with her at 8:15.” The crowned mother-in-law never refused her.

But the atmosphere was too formal for intimate conversations. What can we say about the crowded receptions that Diana now had to attend. The Queen, being an excellent hostess, always made sure that no guest sat at the table twice with the same neighbor. And Diana always wanted to sit with Prince Charles.

In a word, irritation accumulated. According to Lady Colin Campbell, even the royal dogs began to seem disgusting to Diana: “During tea parties with her mother-in-law, these corgis hovered around Diana like a little demon, dripping saliva onto her shoes. And she slowly kicked them in the side. And then she complained to her husband: “They smelled me! Do they think my legs are steaks?” Diana also disliked the labrador Sandringham, who belonged to Charles himself.

She complained: “You pay more attention to this animal than to me.” In the end, Charles, tired of quarreling with his wife over the dog, found nothing better than to take Sandringham to the veterinarian and euthanize him. Although Diana did not ask for anything like that. She just wanted Charles to spend more time with her, because she felt so lonely... “After the death of the dog, to which Charles was very attached, something seemed to die in the prince himself,” writes Lady Campbell.

With whom the princess found an outlet, it was with the servants. She often sat with the silverware keeper, Victor Fletcher. Or chatting in the kitchen with chef Robert Pine, who regaled her with rustic jokes and homemade ice cream. Or in the pantry drying dishes with Paul Burrell. “It ended with Prince Charles, to his great surprise, finding footman Mark Simpson in the princess’s bedroom.

He sat on the edge of the bed and calmly talked with Diana, who was not at all embarrassed that she was not dressed decently enough,” recalls Burrell. This Mark smuggled a Big Mac from McDonald's into the palace for her.

It was thanks to her friendship with the servants that Diana learned that her husband, in her absence, still maintained a relationship with Camilla. One day, while waiting for Burrell in the pantry, she looked into the notebook where he wrote down the guests expected at the table. "Mr and Mrs Oliver Hour and Mrs Parker Bowles for dinner", "Mrs Candida Lucette-Green and Mrs Parker Bowles for dinner", "Mr and Mrs Parker Bowles with children."

DIANA STRIKES BACK

Subsequently, collaborating in 1992 with journalist Andrew Morton, who wrote the book “Diana. Her true story,” the princess said that, while pregnant with William, she threw herself down a wooden staircase in front of her husband. Out of despair and powerlessness to change anything. Lady Colin Campbell writes: “In fact, according to the testimony of the servants present at that scene, everything was not so. She simply slipped on the slippery wooden steps and fell. Fortunately, everything worked out - for both Diana and William." According to her information, Diana more than once tried to play on Charles’s feelings, imitating suicide attempts. Once, in the heat of a quarrel, she took a penknife and held it over her wrist - however, without even scratching herself. Another time she poked herself in the leg with a lemon squeezer.

Well, Charles... “At the slightest sign of an impending showdown, he simply turned and left,” writes Lady Campbell.

According to the writer, the affairs that Diana eventually began to have on the side were explained partly by the need for happiness and love, and partly by the desire to arouse at least jealousy in her husband. But Charles did not react. “Knowing his wife’s relationship with banker Philip Dunne, the prince personally invited him to join them on holiday in Switzerland,” Campbell claims. Diana's father-in-law and mother-in-law viewed Diana's novels completely differently. When they heard rumors about their daughter-in-law's next hobby - her own bodyguard Barry Mannaki - he was hastily transferred to a run-of-the-mill police department. Diana was most amazed that her lover so easily agreed to break up with her.

After all, he could, in the end, resign! It soon became clear that the story did not end there. “Barry was going to sell the Diana love story to one of the tabloids,” writes Lady Campbell. - Less than a few weeks passed before he died. Diana did not believe that his death was accidental, seeing it as the machinations of the secret services.”

As for the red-haired officer James Hewitt, with whom Diana also had an affair and whom many now believe is Prince Harry's biological father, Lady Campbell firmly rejects this possibility. According to her information, Diana had an affair with Barry after Harry was born, and with Hewitt even later. By the way, the same story ended up repeating itself with Hewitt - the palace found out about their relationship, and Diana’s lover was transferred to serve in Germany for two years.

But trying to prevent a scandal was as useless as trying to hold back water with a sieve.

At first, Diana and Charles decided to separate, which was impossible to keep secret. Then the same book by Andrew Morton came out, written based on conversations with Diana. And to top it all off, the princess herself gave a television interview in which she told the whole world about her problems with piercing frankness: “I loved my husband very much and wanted to share both grief and joy with him. I thought we were a very good couple." - “Do you think that Mrs. Parker-Bowles played a role in the breakdown of your marriage?” - “You see, there were three of us in this marriage. A little cramped, isn’t it?” In the same television interview, Diana spoke about her bulimia.

And when asked if she plans to eventually become a queen, Diana replied: “I would like to be the queen of people’s hearts, but I can’t imagine myself being the queen of this country.” Finally, she also admitted that she had an affair with James Hewitt.

This interview truly turned the already popular Diana into the queen of people's hearts. Millions of people reasoned: not only is she actively involved in charity work, she brings hope to people with cancer and AIDS, the homeless, the poor, those affected by landmines... She is also a sincere, loving and at the same time deeply unhappy person. But Diana became a decidedly unsuitable person for Windsor Castle.

PINK GRANDMOTHER, BROWN GRANDMOTHER

The Queen could not ignore the scandals surrounding her son's marriage indefinitely, and eventually made the difficult decision to officially divorce. Considering that there was no actual marriage for a long time, this struck Diana terribly. Paul Burrell recalls: “On the table lay a letter on the stamp paper of Windsor Castle, written in the Queen’s recognizable clear handwriting. It began with the words “Dear Diana...” and ended, as usual: “With love, from mom.” The princess was greatly offended by the letter's mention that the queen had consulted the government and the church. “But this is my marriage! No one has the right to interfere in my husband’s and my problems! - she shouted. - They are telling me about the interests of the country.

But why doesn’t anyone care about my interests or the interests of my children?” Diana sat down at the table and wrote to the queen, asking for time to think. But the very next day a letter arrived on the same topic from Prince Charles. To Diana's fury, some of the wording in the letters from her husband and mother-in-law coincided verbatim. For example, “a personal and national tragedy” or “a depressing and confusing situation in which we all find ourselves.”

After the divorce, Diana lost her title of Royal Highness and from now on had to curtsey even to her own sons at official events. She was even more upset that Charles now went entirely to her hated rival, Camilla. However, the new situation also had its advantages. For example, freedom.

Now Diana has access to cash again. Throughout the marriage, she had to use only the card or sign checks: “Welsh”. But it’s awkward to somehow pay in this way at the cinema or in a fast food restaurant. In addition, all expenses were in full view of the mother-in-law, which was also tiring. Paul Burrell recalls: “The first thing Diana did was to take twenty of her dresses and suits to a second-hand store, and from this alone she earned about 11 thousand pounds in cash. So the young princes saw paper money for the first time, and they really liked it. Especially because the queen's face is on the banknotes. The princes immediately nicknamed the five-pound note “blue grandmother,” the ten-pound note “brown grandmother,” and the fifty pounds “pink grandmother.” It was the “pink granny” that William and Harry vied with each other to try to grab when their mother, laughing, handed them money.”

And then Dodi al-Fayed appeared in Diana’s life.

“No one would have traded her for a career under any circumstances - Dodi’s special attitude towards work gave him a lot of free time, and he willingly devoted it to Diana in whatever quantities she wanted,” writes Lady Campbell. - In addition, they had a lot in common: they loved the same films, books, music. These two could have found true happiness and lived together until old age, if not for that terrible accident. By the way, the only person who survived in her, bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, having restored his memory, said that the last sound he heard from the dying Diana was a groan: “Dodie”...

The causes of the accident have not yet been figured out. “The only thing that can now be said with almost certainty, many years later, is that the paparazzi following the princess’s car were not directly to blame for her death, as originally thought,” writes Lady Campbell. “The investigation, which lasted several years, established that there were traces of white paint on the mangled remains of Diana’s black car. This means that the cause of the accident was a collision with a mysterious car that fled the scene. Despite years of joint searches by French and British police, this car was never found.”

Reflecting on all this, the writer recalls Diana’s plans to move with her sons to America, which Paul Burrell told her about. “These plans were unlikely to please the British elite,” she claims.

The butler himself recalls it this way: “The princess showed me a magazine with a plan of a house that was sold in California on the ocean coast. We sat down on the floor in the living room and began to plan: here will be William’s room, here will be Harry’s, here will be the main hall, and here will the servants live. She dreamed of morning runs on the beach, of bright sunshine, unlike London. “We could also get a dog there,” Diana said. - Labrador...”

Fifteen years ago, on the night of August 31, 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a car accident in Paris.

Diana, Princess of Wales, née Lady Diana Frances Spencer, is the former wife of the heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, and the mother of Princes William and Harry.

In 1975, Diana's father Edward John Spencer assumed the title of Earl.

Diana studied at Riddlesworth Hall School in Norfolk and West Heath School in Kent, then at school in Chateau d'Oex in Switzerland.

After finishing school, she returned to England and began working as a kindergarten teacher in London.

Their first son, William, was born on June 21, 1982, and their second son, Harry, was born two years later on September 15, 1984.

After the divorce, Diana was deprived of the right to be called a member of the royal family, but she retained the title of Princess of Wales.

There are several versions of the cause of Princess Diana's death.

In January 2004, hearings were launched to establish the circumstances of the death of Dodi al-Fayed and Princess Diana.

The hearing was adjourned pending an investigation into the Paris car crash and was resumed on 2 October 2007 at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. The jury heard testimony from more than 250 witnesses from eight countries.

Following the hearings, the jurors came to the conclusion that the illegal actions of the tabloid journalists who were pursuing their car, and the careless driving of the car by the driver Henri Paul. The main cause of the accident was said to be drunken driving by Henri Paul.

By the end of 2013, Kensington Palace, where Princess Diana lived after her divorce, . The couple will move into the new wing, which was occupied by Queen Elizabeth II's sister, Princess Margaret, until her death.

On June 21, 2012, on his thirtieth birthday, Prince William inherited it from his late mother. The total amount was ten million pounds sterling (about $15.7 million).

Many books have been written about Princess Diana, films have been made, including the film “Unlawful Killing” directed by Keith Allen, which was shown at the 64th Cannes Film Festival.

In September 1997, the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund was founded using public donations and proceeds from the sale of souvenirs, including Elton John's single "Candle In The Wind" dedicated to the princess. fund).

In March 1998, it was announced that the foundation would provide grants of £1 million to each of the six charities officially supported by Princess Diana (English National Ballet, Leprosy Mission, National AIDS Society, Centrepoint, Children's Hospital Great Ormond Street, Royal Marsden Hospital).

Grants of £1 million were also provided to the Children's Osteopathic Center and organizations that help landmine victims. A further £5 million was shared among around 100 other charities in the arts, health, education, sport and children's sectors.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Diana Frances Spencer, Her Highness Princess of Wales, was born on July 1, 1961 in Norfolk into an English aristocratic family. Her father John Spencer, holder of the title Viscount Elthorp, came from the ancient Spencer-Churchill family, bearers of royal blood descended from Charles the Second, famous as the “Merry King”. Charles had 14 recognized illegitimate sons who received the title, a large number of unrecognized children and not a single heir born in an official marriage. However, thanks to this king, the list of aristocratic families in England has significantly expanded.

The dynasty to which Princess Diana belonged can be proud of such eminent sons as Sir and the Duke of Marlborough. The ancestral home of the Spencer family is Spencer House, located in the Westminster quarter of central London. Diana's mother Frances Shand Kydd also comes from an aristocratic family. Diana's maternal grandmother was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.

The biography of the future princess was also beyond claims. The future Princess Diana received her primary education at Sandringham, where she spent her childhood. Lady Di's first teacher was Gertrude Allen, a governess who had previously taught the girl's mother. Diana received further education at Silfield private school, and later studied at Riddlesworth Hall. As a child, the character of the future princess was not difficult, but she was always quite stubborn.

According to the teachers’ recollections, the girl read and drew well, dedicating her drawings to her mother and father. Diana's parents divorced when she was 8 years old, which was a great shock for the child. As a result of the divorce proceedings, Diana remained with her father, and her mother went to Scotland, where she lived with her new husband.


The next place of study for the future Princess of Wales is the exclusive West Hill School for Girls in Kent. Here Diana did not prove herself to be a diligent student, but music and dancing became her hobbies, and, according to rumors, in her youth Lady Di was not good at exact sciences, and she even failed her exams several times.

In 1977, Diana and Prince Charles met in Althorp, but at that time the future spouses did not pay serious attention to each other. In the same year, Diana studied in Switzerland for a short time, but returned home due to severe homesickness. After completing her studies, Diana began working as a nanny and kindergarten teacher in the prestigious London area of ​​Knightsbridge.

Prince Charles and the wedding

In 1980, Diana again entered the social circle of Prince Charles. The single life of the heir to the throne at that time was a serious cause for concern for his parents. Queen Elizabeth was especially worried about her son’s relationship with a noble married lady, a relationship with whom the prince did not even try to hide. In the current situation, Diana Spencer's candidacy for the role of princess was happily approved by the royal family, Charles and, according to some rumors, even Camilla Parker-Bowles.


The prince first invited Diana to the royal yacht, after which an invitation was received to Balmoral Castle to meet the royal family. Charles proposed at Windsor Castle, but the engagement was kept secret for some time. The official announcement took place on February 24, 1981. The symbol of this event was the famous ring of Princess Diana - a precious sapphire surrounded by fourteen diamonds.

Lady Di became the first Englishwoman in 300 years to marry the heir to the throne.

The wedding of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer became the most expensive wedding ceremony in British history. The celebration took place at St. Paul's Cathedral in London on July 29, 1981. The wedding ceremony was preceded by a ceremonial passage through the streets of London of carriages with members of the royal family, a march of Commonwealth regiments and the “Glass Carriage” in which Diana and her father arrived.

Prince Charles was dressed in the full uniform of a Commander of Her Majesty's Fleet. Diana wore a dress with an 8-meter train costing 9,000 pounds, designed by young English designers Elizabeth and David Emanuel. The design of the dress was kept in the strictest confidence from the public and the press, and the dress was delivered to the palace in a sealed envelope. The head of the future princess was decorated with a family heirloom - a tiara.


Diana and Charles's wedding has been called a "fairytale wedding" and "the wedding of the century." According to experts, the audience who watched the live broadcast of the celebrations on the world's main television channels amounted to more than 750 million people. After a gala dinner at Buckingham Palace, the couple traveled by royal train to the Broadlands estate and then flew to Gibraltar, from where Charles and Princess Diana began their Mediterranean cruise. At the end of the cruise, another reception was given in Scotland, where members of the press were given permission to photograph the newlyweds.

The wedding celebrations cost taxpayers almost three million pounds.

Divorce

The personal life of the crowned family was not so fabulous and soon attracted public attention with several scandals in which, according to the press, various lovers and mistresses constantly appeared. According to rumors, even at the time of Charles’ marriage proposal, Diana knew about his relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles. Subsequently, it became increasingly difficult for the princess to contain her jealousy and protect the family’s reputation, since Prince Charles not only did not interrupt the extramarital affair, but also openly admitted it. The situation was complicated by the fact that in the person who took her son’s side in this conflict, Princess Diana received an influential opponent.


By 1990, the delicate situation could no longer be hidden and the situation became widely publicized. During this period, Princess Diana also admitted her relationship with riding coach James Hewitt.

In 1995, according to rumors, Diana met her true love. While visiting a friend in the hospital, the princess accidentally met cardiac surgeon Hasnat Khan. The feelings were mutual, but the constant attention of the public, from which the couple even fled to Khan’s homeland, Pakistan, and the active condemnation by Khan’s parents of both his role as the princess’s de facto lover and the freedom-loving views of the woman herself, did not allow the romance to develop and, perhaps, deprived a chance for happiness between two people truly in love.


At the insistence of Queen Elizabeth, Charles and Diana officially divorced in 1996, four years after the effective breakup of their family. Her marriage to Prince Charles produced two sons: Welsh and Welsh.


After the divorce, Diana, according to journalists, begins a relationship with film producer, the son of Egyptian billionaire Dodi al-Fayed. This connection was not officially confirmed by any of the princess's close friends, and in the book written by Diana's butler, the fact of their relationship is directly denied.

Death

On August 31, 1997, Princess Diana died in a car accident. During Diana's visit to Paris, a car, in which, in addition to the princess herself, there were Dodi al-Fayed, bodyguard Trevor Rhys Jones and driver Henri Paul, driving in the tunnel under the Alma bridge, collided with a concrete support. The driver and Dodi al-Fayed died instantly at the scene. Princess Diana died two hours later in the Salpêtrière hospital. The princess's bodyguard survived, but received severe head injuries, as a result of which he does not remember anything about the moment of the accident itself.


Princess Diana's wrecked car

The death of Princess Diana was a shock not only for the people of Great Britain, but also for the whole world. In France, mourners turned a Parisian replica of the Statue of Liberty's torch into a spontaneous memorial to Diana. The princess's funeral took place on September 6. Lady Di's grave is on a secluded island on Althorp Manor (the Spencer family estate) in Northamptonshire.

Among the causes of the car accident, many factors are cited, starting with the version according to which the princess’s car tried to break away from the car with the paparazzi pursuing them, and ending with the version regarding. There are still many rumors and theories about the causes of the death of everyone's favorite princess.


A Scotland Yard report published ten years later confirmed the fact that the investigation found that the speed limit for driving on the section of road under the Alma Bridge was twice the speed limit, as well as the fact that the driver had alcohol in his blood that was three times the legal limit.

Memory

Princess Diana enjoyed the sincere love of the people of Great Britain, who affectionately called her Lady Di. The princess did a lot of charity work, donating significant funds to various foundations, was an activist in the movement that sought to ban anti-personnel mines, and provided people with material and moral assistance.

Sir dedicated the song “Candle in the Wind” to her memory, and the song “Privacy”, in which he not only expressed grief for the princess, but also talked about the burden of constant attention and gossip, which may be indirectly to blame for Lady Di’s death.

10 years after her death, a film was made dedicated to the last hours of the princess’s life. The songs “Depeche mode” and “Aquarium” are dedicated to her. Postage stamps are issued in her honor in many countries around the world.

According to a BBC poll, Princess Diana is one of the most popular people in British history, ahead of other English monarchs in this ranking.

Awards

  • Royal Family Order of Queen Elizabeth II
  • Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown
  • Order of Virtue Special Class

Diana Frances Spencer was born on July 1, 1961 in Sandringham, Norfolk, to Viscount Althorp John Spencer and Frances Ruth Burke Roche. When the girl was six years old, her parents divorced. Mother moved to London, where she soon married American businessman Peter Shand-Kidd. John Spencer also remarried. Perhaps it was the psychological trauma of childhood that caused Diana’s further self-doubt.

In the winter of 1977, at the family estate in Althorp, 16-year-old Diana met Prince Charles of Wales for the first time. But the young people did not pay much attention to each other then.

Diana really wanted independence. Her father gave her an apartment in London when she came of age. The girl even got a job as an assistant teacher in a kindergarten; she liked to babysit children.

Meanwhile, the Crown Prince reappeared in Diana's life. He began courting her older sister Sarah Spencer. In November 1979, Charles invited Diana to take part in a fox hunt. She rode perfectly in the saddle, and the prince called her “a charming, lively and witty girl who is interesting to be with.”

The heart of Britain's most eligible bachelor was not free at that time: since 1972, he had been dating Camilla Parker-Bowles, the wife of officer Andrew Parker-Bowles, a member of the royal family. However, at court, Camilla was considered a completely unsuitable candidate for the role of the future queen. Having learned about Charles's relationship with Diana, Prince Philip invited his son to marry her: the girl came from a well-born family, was young, healthy, and well-educated.