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.
The tragedy occurred on August 31, 1997, when the car in which Princess Diana was traveling, under mysterious circumstances, crashed into the 13th column of the tunnel under the Alma Bridge. Then everything was attributed to the driver being drunk and an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances. Was this really so? A few years later, a list of facts appears that can take a different look at the “accident” on that fateful day.
A surprise for many was the letter from Princess Diana herself, written by her 10 months before her own death, which was published in 2003 by the English newspaper “Daily Mirror”. Even then, in 1996, the princess was worried that her life was in the “most dangerous phase” and someone (the newspaper’s name was hidden) wanted to eliminate Diana by setting up a car accident. Such a turn of events would have paved the way for her ex-husband, Prince Charles, to remarry. According to Diana, for 15 years she was “harassed, terrorized and mentally tortured by the British system.” “I cried all this time as much as no one in the world cried, but my inner strength did not allow me to give up.” The princess felt something was wrong, as many people sense the approach of trouble, but did she really know about the impending assassination attempt? Was there really a conspiracy against Lady Di?
One of the first to suggest such a development of events was billionaire Mohammed Al-Fayed, the father of Dodi Al-Fayed, who died along with Diana. However, the French special services, which investigated the circumstances of the car accident, concluded that the princess’s Mercedes with driver Henri Paul collided in the tunnel with the Fiat of one of the paparazzi while trying to overtake. Wanting to avoid a collision, Paul drove the car to the side and crashed into the ill-fated 13th column. From that very moment, questions began to arise to which there are still no clear answers.
According to Mohamed Al-Fayed, the driver Henri Paul was indeed involved in the accident, but not quite as the official version says. The billionaire claims that the presence of a large amount of alcohol in the driver’s blood is the machinations of doctors who are also involved in this case. In addition, according to Mohammed’s words, Paul was an informant for the British intelligence service M6. It also seems strange that paparazzi James Andanson, the driver of the Fiat Uno that Diana’s Mercedes collided with, died in 2000 under very strange circumstances: his body was found in a burned-out car in the forest. The police considered it a suicide, but Al-Fayed thinks differently.
Another interesting fact is that a few weeks after the photographer’s death, the agency where he worked was attacked. The armed men took the workers hostage and fled only after they had taken out all the photographic materials and equipment. It later became known that the day after the accident, a photographer from the same agency, Lionel Cherrault, was left in the tunnel without equipment and materials. The police tried by all means to cover up this case, which, in principle, they succeeded in doing.
It also seems strange that the cameras monitoring the route from the Ritz Hotel, where Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed lived, to the exit from the tunnel around the clock, were for some reason turned off during the passage of the Mercedes.
Richard Tomlinson, an officer of the British intelligence service M6, shared interesting information regarding this case under oath. For example, that immediately before the death of the princess, two M6 special agents arrived in Paris, and in the Ritz hotel itself, M6 had its own informant. Tomlinson is confident that this informant was none other than the driver Henri Paul. Maybe that’s why the driver had two thousand pounds sterling in cash and one hundred thousand in his bank account at the time of the accident, with a salary of 23 thousand a year.
The official version of the driver’s intoxication is more than shaky, largely relying on indirect and inaccurate evidence. For example, after the accident, the driver's body lay in the sun for a long time in very hot weather instead of being placed in the refrigerator. In the heat, the blood “fermented” quite quickly, after which it was not possible to distinguish the alcohol consumed from the alcohol produced as a result of changes in the body. The second “irrefutable evidence” of the driver’s alcoholism is that he was taking the drug tiapride, which is often prescribed to alcoholics. However, tiapride is also used as a sleeping pill and sedative. It was precisely the calming effect that Henri Paul could have sought after a break with his family!
When the driver was autopsied, no signs of alcoholism were found in his liver, and just before the crash, Paul underwent a full medical examination to renew his pilot's license. However, Mohammed Al-Fayed's sources claim that before the accident, carbon monoxide was found in Henri Paul's blood, which can throw a person out of balance in life. How did it get into the driver’s body and, most importantly, who benefited from it? Surely the French intelligence services know something about this issue, but so far they are in no hurry to share information.
A bright flashing light, described by several witnesses, may have helped the tragedy unfold. Brenda Wills and Françoise Levistre have been talking about this for a long time, talking about a bright strobe light in the tunnel under the Alma bridge. No one took the words of the two women seriously (or wanted to accept them), despite the mention of these facts in authoritative periodicals. On the contrary, the witnesses, especially the Frenchwoman Levistre, were advised to be locked up in a psychiatric hospital.
The mention of the flashing light during the accident struck British intelligence officer Richard Tomlinson because he had access to secret M6 documents relating to the Milosevic affair. One of these documents outlined a plan to assassinate the Yugoslav leader: staging a car accident using bright flashing lights. (You can read about the effects of light under certain conditions in the article “Measuring.”)
Why were there no surveillance cameras in the tunnel, although no problems were noticed at the Ritz Hotel itself? Of course, this can be attributed to an accident or misunderstanding. But what really happened? We may never be able to reconstruct the full picture of the events, although there is hope for an investigation by the French intelligence services. Will they share information with the common people?
Princess Diana. Last day in Paris
A film about the last weeks of the life of one of the most famous women of the twentieth century - Diana, Princess of Wales. Diana's unexpected and tragic death in August 1997 shocked the world no less than the assassination of President Kennedy. From the very beginning, the tragedy that happened on August 31, 1997 was surrounded by many conflicting rumors and the most incredible assumptions.
Who killed Princess Diana?
Ten years ago, the worst car accident of the last century occurred. The legendary Lady Di, an English princess, a female symbol, died in a Paris tunnel (See the photo gallery “The Life Story of Princess Diana”). On August 27 and 28, the REN TV channel will show the documentary film “A Purely English Murder.” The authors conducted their own investigation and tried to find out whether this tragedy was an accident.
On August 31, 1997, at 0:27 a.m., the car containing Princess Diana, her friend Dodi al-Fayed, driver Henri Paul and Diana's bodyguard Trevor Rhys-Jones crashes into the 13th pillar of the bridge over the Alma tunnel. Dodi and driver Henri Paul die on the spot. Princess Diana will die at about 4 a.m. in hospital.
Version 1 Paparazzi killers?
The first version expressed by the investigation: several reporters who were riding scooters were to blame for the accident. They were chasing Diana's black Mercedes, and one of them may have interfered with the princess's car. The Mercedes driver, trying to avoid a collision, crashed into a concrete bridge support.
But, according to eyewitnesses, they entered the tunnel a few seconds after Diana’s Mercedes, which means they could not have caused the accident.
Lawyer Virginie Bardet:
— In fact, there is no evidence of the photographers’ guilt. The judge said: "There is no evidence of manslaughter in the actions of the photographers which led to the deaths of Diana, Dodi al-Fayed, Henri Paul and the incapacitation of Trevor Rhys-Jones."
Version 2 Mysterious “Fiat Uno”
The investigation puts forward a new version: the cause of the accident was a car, which by that time was already in the tunnel. In the immediate vicinity of the crashed Mercedes, detective police discovered fragments of a Fiat Uno.
Jacques Mules, head of the detective police team: “The fragments of the rear light and paint particles that we discovered allowed us to calculate all the characteristics of the Fiat Uno within 48 hours.”
When interviewing eyewitnesses, police allegedly found out that a white Fiat Uno zigzagged out of the tunnel a few seconds after the accident. Moreover, the driver looked not at the road, but in the rearview mirror, as if he saw something, for example, a crashed car.
The detective police determined the exact characteristics of the car, its color and year of manufacture. But even with information about the car and a description of the driver’s appearance, the investigation was unable to find either the car or the driver.
Francis Gillery, author of his own independent investigation: “All cars of this brand in the country were checked, but none of them showed signs of a similar collision. The white Fiat Uno disappeared into the ground! And the eyewitnesses of the accident who saw him began to get confused in the testimony, from which it was not clear whether the white Fiat was at the scene of the tragedy at the ill-fated moment.”
It is interesting that the version about the white Fiat that allegedly caused the accident, as well as the information about the left turn signal found at the scene of the tragedy, was not made public immediately, but only two weeks after the incident.
Version 3British intelligence services
Only today are details becoming known that for some reason it was customary not to mention. As soon as a black Mercedes entered the tunnel, a bright flash of light suddenly cut through the twilight. It is so strong that everyone who observed it was blinded for a few seconds. And a moment later, the silence of the night is shattered by the squeal of brakes and the sound of a terrible impact. François Laviste was just leaving the tunnel at that time and was only a few meters from the scene of the tragedy. At first, the investigation accepted his testimony, and then recognized the only witness as unreliable.
The version spread at the suggestion of former MI6 employee Richard Thomplison. The former agent said that the circumstances of the death of Princess Diana remind him of the plan to assassinate Slobodan Milosevic, developed by the British intelligence services. The Yugoslav president was going to be blinded in the tunnel by a powerful flash.
The police are reluctant to include mention of the flash of light in the protocols. Eyewitnesses are nervous and insist on the veracity of their testimony. And a few months later, British and French newspapers published a sensational statement by former British intelligence agent Richard Tomplison that the latest laser weapons, which are in service with the intelligence services, may have been used in the Alma tunnel.
Fiat Uno is back on stage
But how could fragments of a car that would never be found appear at the scene of the incident? The media version is that the fragments of the Fiat were planted by those who prepared this accident in advance and wanted to disguise it as a regular accident. The press insists that these are British intelligence services.
The intelligence services knew that the white Fiat would definitely be next to Princess Diana's car that night. It was in the white Fiat that one of the most famous and successful paparazzi in Paris, James Andanson, drove. He couldn’t miss such an opportunity to make money from photographs of a celebrity couple that everyone was interested in...
The media suggested that the services simply could not prove the involvement of the photographer and his car in the accident, although they really hoped. Andanson was indeed in the tunnel that night. True, according to some of his colleagues who were at the Ritz Hotel on the evening of August 30, 1997, this was a rare case when the photographer arrived at work without a car. And perhaps that is why the version developed by someone about Andanson’s guilt in the accident lost its central link even before Dodi and Diana left the hotel. On the other hand, Andanson could indeed have been involved in the accident. He repeatedly came to the attention of the al-Fayed family's security service, and for them, of course, it was no secret that Andersen was not only a successful photographer. Al-Fayed's security service allegedly managed to obtain evidence that the photographer was an agent of the British intelligence service. But Dodi’s father, for some reason, now does not consider it necessary to present them to the investigation. James Andanson was not a random figure in this tragedy.
Andanson was seen in the tunnel, and he was indeed one of the first there. They also saw a car at the scene of the tragedy that was very similar to his car, albeit with different license plates, possibly fake.
But then questions begin to which there is no answer. Why did the photographer, who spent several hours at the Ritz Hotel for the sake of a sensational photo, suddenly not waiting for Diana with Dodi al-Fayed, for no apparent reason left his post and went straight to the tunnel. After the accident, Andanson, without even waiting for the outcome, when a crowd just began to gather in the tunnel, suddenly disappears. Literally in the middle of the night - at 4 o'clock in the morning - he flies from Paris on the next flight to Corsica.
Some time later, in the French Pyrenees, his body will be found in a burnt car. While the police are establishing the identity of the deceased, unknown persons steal all the papers, photographs and computer disks related to the death of Princess Diana from the office of his Parisian photo agency.
If this is not a fatal coincidence, then Andanson was eliminated either as an unwanted witness or as the perpetrator of the murder.
In September 1999, another reporter, who was next to a mangled black Mercedes that ill-fated night, died in a Paris hospital. Reporter James Keith was preparing for minor knee surgery but told friends: "I have a feeling I won't be coming back." After being discharged from the hospital, the reporter was going to publish documents about the causes of the accident on the Alma Bridge, but within a few hours after his death, the Internet web page with details of the investigations and all materials were destroyed.
Who turned off the cameras?
The police officers working at the scene decide to include the recordings of road surveillance cameras in the case. It is from them that one can determine exactly how the accident occurred and how many cars were in the tunnel at the time of the collision. The road service workers who were called do not understand why there is such a rush, and only wonder why the films cannot be viewed tomorrow morning. But when they open the boxes in which the video cameras are mounted, they are even more surprised. The video surveillance system, which works properly in all other points of Paris, by a strange coincidence, it was in the Alma tunnel that failed. One can only guess who or what caused this.
Version 4 Drunk driver
On July 5, 1999, almost two years later, newspapers from all over the world published a sensational statement from the investigation: the main blame for what happened in the Alma tunnel lies with the Mercedes driver Henri Paul. He was the chief of security at the Ritz Hotel and also died in this disaster. Investigators accuse him of driving drunk.
Michael Cowel, al-Fayed's official spokesman: “It was officially announced that he was driving the car at a speed of 180 km/h. Very fast. Now in the file it is written in small print: “The accident occurred at a speed of 60 (!) kilometers per hour.” Not 180 km/h, but 60!”
The statement that the driver was drunk sounded like a bolt from the blue. To prove or disprove this, you just need to take the deceased’s blood for analysis. However, it is this simple operation that will turn into a real detective story.
Jacques Mules, who was the first representative of the investigative authorities to arrive at the scene of the tragedy, said that a blood test showed the true state of affairs, which means that Henri Paul was indeed very drunk.
Jacques Mules, head of the detective police brigade: “Before leaving the Ritz, Princess Diana and Dodi al-Fayed were nervous. But the main thing that indicates an accident is the presence of alcohol - 1.78 ppm in the blood of the driver, Mr. Henri Paul. In addition, he was taking antidepressants, which also affected his driving behavior.”
Michael Cowel, al-Fayed's official spokesman: “The filming proves that Henri Paul behaved adequately in the hotel that evening, he talks to Dodi at such a distance, he talks to Diana. If even the slightest signs of intoxication had been revealed, Dodi, and he was very picky in this regard, would not have gone anywhere. He would have fired him altogether.”
To have that much alcohol in his blood, Henri Paul had to drink about 10 glasses of wine. Such intoxication could not have been overlooked by the photographers located near the hotel, but none of them indicated this in their testimony.
The examination data, indicating a state of severe intoxication, was ready within 24 hours after the autopsy. But this was officially announced only two years later. For 24 months, the investigation worked on the obviously weaker version of the guilt of the paparazzi or the presence of the Fiat Uno. And two years later, it’s unlikely that anyone who saw the hotel’s security chief, Henri Paul, that evening would be able to say with certainty whether he was completely sober.
A day after the accident, toxicology experts Gilbert Pépin and Dominique Lecomte had just completed a blood test on Henri Paul. The test tubes are placed first in a box and then in a refrigerator. The results are recorded in the protocol. According to what is written, the driver can be considered not just a little drunk, but simply drunk... But the numbers written in the column below are even more surprising: the level of carbon monoxide is 20.7%. If this is actually the case, the driver simply would not be able to stand on his feet, let alone drive the car. Only a person who committed suicide by inhaling gases from a car exhaust pipe could have such an amount of carbon monoxide in his blood that was found in Paul’s blood...
Michael Cowel, al-Fayed's official spokesman: "It is more than likely that the blood samples were switched, either accidentally or deliberately. They were somehow confused. There were many mistakes with tags in the morgue, which has now been proven...”
The French intelligence services also have something to hide in this story. Due to the fact that the remaining corpses still cannot be found, it is no longer so important whether the test tubes were changed by accident or whether it was a specially prepared action. Something else is important. Someone really needed the investigation to last as long as possible. So that there is as much confusion as possible. Test tubes with Henri Paul's blood could well have been replaced with the blood of another person who committed suicide.
For a long time, the investigative authorities insisted that there could be no mistake. This is indeed the blood of Henri Paul. However, the film crew of the REN TV channel, as a result of their own investigation, managed to prove that the blood, in which traces of alcohol and carbon monoxide were found, did not belong to Princess Diana’s driver.
Jacques Mules, the head of the detective police brigade, admitted to our film crew that he took test tubes with Henri Paul’s blood with his own hands and actually mixed up the numbers, giving away a test tube with the blood of a completely different person under the name of Princess Diana’s driver.
Jacques Mules, head of the detective police brigade. “This is my mistake. The fact is that I worked for two days in a row and did not sleep at night. Due to fatigue, I mixed up the test tube numbers. I immediately informed the judge about this, but he said that it was not significant.”
It does not matter if the error was corrected immediately. And if not? What if, due to simple oversight or - even worse - deliberately, the results of the analysis remained falsified? There is still no answer to this question
Who is Henri Paul?
Henri Paul, head of security at the Ritz Hotel, is the only official culprit of the tragedy. In the investigative reports, he appears to be a complete neurasthenic and drunkard. Taxology experts point to the presence in Henri Paul’s blood, along with alcohol, of a significant amount of antidepressants. The doctor confirms that she prescribed Paul medications to treat depression. And to reduce cravings for alcohol, since, according to the doctor, the patient abused alcohol.
We decided to check whether the head of security at an elite hotel was actually an alcoholic and drug addict.
Cafe-restaurant "Le Grand Colbert". Henri Paul went here for dinner for many years.
Restaurant owner Joel Fleury: “I bought the restaurant in 1992. Henri Paul was already a regular here... He came here every week. No, he was not an alcoholic. It turned out that we practice in the same flight club - he flies light airplanes, I fly light helicopters.”
On the eve of the tragedy, Henri Paul undergoes a strict medical examination in order to renew his flying license. The doctor examines him and takes blood tests a day before the disaster.
Doctors found no traces of hidden alcoholism or traces of any medications in Henri.
After the death of Henri Paul, very large sums of money were discovered in his account, which, in theory, he could not earn. In total he had 1.2 million francs.
Boris Gromov, intelligence services historian: “Henri Paul, according to some British intelligence officers, was a full-time MI6 agent. His name was often mentioned in the files of this service. It is clear that there is nothing accidental here, and its role is clear. Because high-ranking government officials from various countries often stay at the Ritz Hotel... And serving there as the head of the security service is extremely beneficial for any intelligence service..."
40 minutes before the tragedy, Princess Diana still does not know that the driver of their car will not be Dodie’s personal bodyguard Ken Wingfield, but the head of the hotel’s security service, Henri Paul.
According to the version that the investigation initially had, his car turned out to be faulty. And so the couple set off in Henri Paul’s car. However, eight years later, Wingfield said his car was in good working order. It’s just that Henri Paul, as the head of the hotel’s security service, ordered Wingfield to stay and independently drove Diana and Dodi in his car along a different route. Why was Wingfield silent for so many years? What was he afraid of?
Diana's security guard Trevor Rhys-Jones, leaving the Ritz Hotel, sat down in his usual place - on the seat next to the driver, which is called the "dead man's seat." Due to the fact that during an accident it is most vulnerable. But Rhys-Jones survived. And Diana and Dodi al-Fayed, who were in the back seat, died. Today, the only survivor can say nothing about what happened in the tunnel. He has lost his memory and does not remember anything that would shed light on the events of that night. We can only hope that Rees-Jones will recover over time. But whether he will have time to say everything he remembers is unknown...
Dodi al-Fayed's bodyguard has been on the operating table for a long time. And despite the more severe wound, the doctors no longer doubted: the patient would live. At the same time, for some reason, they are trying to save Princess Diana in an ambulance.
The car is standing. It is impossible to perform procedures while moving.
In fact, according to experts, the princess died because someone decided that there was no need to go to the hospital. What is this, a mistake? Doctors' nerves? After all, they are people too.
Or maybe someone needed Diana to die?
When it was all over, the decision was made to send the princess's body on a special flight to London.
The plane from Paris to London flies no more than an hour. It would seem that there is no reason to linger in Paris, however, when the body of Princess Diana was taken to a British clinic, an incredible thing became clear. It turns out that before Diana’s corpse had time to cool down, it was hastily embalmed in violation of all the rules. And they prepare for burial. All this happens in Paris. While the special plane, without turning off the engine, waits for its sad cargo.
Michael Cowel, al-Fayed's official spokesman: "In violation of French law, this was carried out on behalf of the British Embassy, which, in turn, admits that it received instructions from a certain person."
The name of the person who ordered the embalming could not be established. The drugs used during embalming do not subsequently allow repeated examinations of the corpse. If British doctors wanted to re-find out what state, say, the princess’s state of health was in a few seconds before the disaster, they would not be able to do this.
That is why there are versions that perhaps some kind of gas was sprayed into the car, which made Henri Paul lose his orientation. Today it is impossible to confirm or refute this version.
Meanwhile, al-Fayed Sr. is convinced that Diana’s body was embalmed in order to hide the sensational fact. In his opinion, the English princess was pregnant with his son.
Virginie Bardet, photographers' lawyer: “We will never know whether Diana was pregnant. All documents are classified, only the cause of death has been made public: internal bleeding.”
EPILOGUE
The evidence collected is enough for numerous novels, but not enough for the Crown Prosecution Service. Non-functioning road surveillance cameras at the scene of the tragedy, witnesses of the accident dying one after another, the never found white Fiat Uno, carbon dioxide from the driver’s blood from nowhere, fabulous sums in the driver’s accounts, the criminal slowness of the French doctors and the too obvious haste of those who embalmed the body pathologists... The version of the contract killing has not been refuted by anyone. But it hasn't been proven either.
Jacques Mules, head of the detective police brigade: “There was a banal accident. Everything has been checked and rechecked a thousand times. And the search for a conspiracy, the details pulled from the finger... Espionage passions are ordinary fruits of fantasy. In the eyes of Great Britain and even the entire West, Princess Diana was a symbol of a beautiful dream. A dream cannot die in such an ordinary way.”
BY THE WAY
On August 31, the day of Lady Di’s death, Channel One will show the new film “Princess Diana. Last day in Paris" (21.25). And immediately after it ends at 23.10 - the Oscar-winning film “The Queen” with Helen Miren in the title role. About the reaction to the tragedy of the royal family.
“We weren’t going to stir up the royal family’s dirty laundry.” But after the assassination of John Kennedy, the death of Princess Diana is perhaps the loudest story. Using the example of the investigation into the death of Princess Diana, we wanted to understand how such cases are investigated in the West. Is the government interfering? Do politics influence such investigations?
We managed to learn a lot. And I would strongly recommend that the authorities pay attention to the role of American intelligence agencies in this story. After all, it is known that Diana was the object of surveillance and control on their part, especially in recent months. If they opened up their materials on Diana, I’m sure we would learn a lot of interesting things. Or maybe they would even find out the name of the killer.
Diana's story is unusual. If she had shown a little hypocrisy, or, to put it simply, simple worldly wisdom, everything would have been perfect for her! But she preferred the right to love who she wants to the throne.
The story of Prince Charles, in my opinion, is still awaiting its assessment. After all, look, in spite of everything - the will of his mother, state interests, public opinion - he has loved his Camilla for many years now.
Everything else is small compared to this...
The wedding took place on July 29, 1981 at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Prince Charles of Wales and lady Diana Spencer. This celebration, which cost the treasury almost 3 million pounds, was dubbed the “wedding of the century” in the press. Diana, in her wedding dress with a long train and tiara, looked like a princess from a fairy tale marrying the heir to the throne. The question of whether this marriage was concluded for love or whether Diana was at that time the most suitable candidate for the role of the wife of the future king remains open, and the history of the relationship between Prince Charles and Lady Di ended sadly. Having been married for 15 years, the couple officially divorced - a year before Diana’s tragic death in a car accident. AiF.ru recalls how the short relationship between Prince Charles and Lady Diana began and developed, who, without becoming the Queen of Britain, forever remained the “queen of people’s hearts.”
The Prince of Wales met his future bride in 1977, when she was only 16 years old. At that time, Charles was in a relationship with Diana's 22-year-old sister Sarah. There is a version that this romance came to an end after the girl, having met two reporters in a restaurant, carelessly shared with them the details of her personal life, including her addiction to alcohol, weight problems and numerous affairs, as well as the fact that She has already started collecting clippings from newspapers and magazines that talk about her “royal romance” to show her grandchildren. The article was published, and Charles, as you might guess, found his lover’s behavior unacceptable and stupid, immediately ending the relationship and turning his attention to the younger Spencer. Despite the fact that many considered the wedding of Diana and Charles to be the reason for the cooling of relations between the sisters - allegedly Sarah never forgave her sister for not marrying the prince - Lady Di's biographer insists that Sarah was one of the few , whom Diana trusted completely, and besides, the sisters often appeared together at special events.
Wedding of Prince Charles and Diana. 1981 Photo: flickr.com / Laura Loveday
By the time she met the heir to the British crown, Diana Spencer, the daughter of a viscount, who came from the same family as Winston Churchill, and was a paternal carrier of royal blood through the illegitimate children of kings Charles II And James II, has already received the title “lady”. It was granted to her as the daughter of a high peer when her father became 8th Earl Spencer in 1975. Diana's family moved from London to the family castle of Althorp House in Notthrogtonshire, where the royal family came to hunt. Diana received a good education, first at home, then in private schools in England and Switzerland. All this, coupled with her aristocratic upbringing, musical abilities, the girl’s external attractiveness and, as everyone initially thought, a meek character, made her an ideal candidate for the role of the prince’s bride.
A serious relationship between Charles and Diana began in 1980: the young people spent a weekend on a cruise aboard the yacht Britannia, and then Charles invited Diana to the royal summer residence, Balmoral Castle, where he introduced his chosen one to the family. Charles had already turned 30 by that time, it was fitting for him to choose a life partner, so even his mother, the Queen Elizabeth II gave permission for the wedding, although she considered Diana not ready for life in the palace.
On February 3, 1981, after six months of official relations, Charles proposed to Diana, to which she accepted. However, the engagement was kept secret for some time, until February 24, when the future wedding was publicly announced. Diana appeared in public wearing a ring made of 14 diamonds and a huge sapphire, which cost the groom £30,000. He gave the same jewelry, which he inherited from his mother, to his bride Kate Middleton for the engagement of the son of Charles and Diana - Prince William.
Preparations for the wedding took 5 months. It was decided to hold the celebration in the Cathedral of St. Paul, and not in Westminster Abbey, where, as a rule, representatives of the British royal family were married, but where it was not possible to accommodate all the invitees, and they eventually numbered more than 3,500 people. Kings, queens, princes and princesses from all over the world, as well as representatives of the English aristocracy and other high-ranking guests, arrived in London for the ceremony. The procession through the streets of London was watched by a crowd of citizens who welcomed the procession, which consisted of the carriages of Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip, members of the royal family, Prince Charles with his brother Andrew. The bride and father were the last to travel to the wedding venue, in a special glass carriage. About 750 million people watched the ceremony broadcast on TV, and they were all waiting for one thing - the bride’s exit from the carriage, when they could finally see her dress in all its glory. And the wait was worth it: Diana's outfit is still considered the most luxurious wedding dress in history. A huge silk fluffy skirt, decorated with lace and pearls, puffed sleeves and a 25-meter train - fragile Diana was almost lost in this abundance of expensive ivory-colored materials, but at the same time she looked like a fairy tale heroine come to life. The bride wore a tiara that belonged to her family on her head.
Prince Charles and Princess Diana. 1984 Photo: flickr.com / Alberto Botella
The vows given by the bride and groom in front of the altar were heard (thanks to the speakers) far beyond the cathedral - however, there were some overlays that were later called prophetic. So, Lady Diana could not correctly pronounce the long name of her future husband - Charles Philip Arthur George Windsor - and he, in turn, instead of “I promise to share with you everything that belongs to me,” said “I promise to share with you everything that belongs to you.” " It is also interesting that for the first time the word “obey” was removed from the marriage vows of the spouses.
The family happiness of Diana, who became the Princess of Wales, and Charles was short-lived, but in their marriage they had two sons: in 1982, the first-born William was born, and two years later - the youngest, red-haired Henry, who is more often called Harry. According to Diana herself, these years, the first after the birth of their children, were the happiest in the life of their family - Charles and his wife spent almost all their time in the company of each other and their sons, whom they took with them even on official trips. “Family is the most important thing,” Lady Di, who adored children from her youth and even worked at one time as a teacher in one of the London kindergartens, never tired of repeating at meetings with journalists. During this same period, the character of the princess also emerged, who not only chose the names of William and Harry herself, but also hired her own nanny, refusing the royal services, and later, despite a busy schedule of meetings and official visits, tried to pick up her sons from school on her own.
In the mid-80s, Charles resumed his affair with his longtime mistress Camilla Parker Bowles- recordings of telephone conversations confirming adultery were leaked to the press. Diana, in turn, either out of resentment, or in revenge, or out of loneliness, became close to the riding instructor James Hewitt. Journalists' attention to the details of the royals' married life forced them to give explanatory interviews - it was impossible to avoid questions. None of them, of course, went into details, but Diana still allowed herself a comment that spread around the world: “There are too many people in my marriage.”
Princess Diana with her sons Harry and William. 1989 Photo: www.globallookpress.com
The princess meant not only Charles’ mistress, who after her death would still become the prince’s legal wife, but also the entire royal family, who took an active part in the life of their young family. Which in itself is quite logical, given Charles' status as a potential future king of Great Britain. Elizabeth II was outraged by the media attention that Diana brought upon them with her behavior - the whole world was closely watching her, because the princess led an active social life, devoting a lot of time to charity, visiting orphanages, nursing homes, and rehabilitation centers. She herself walked through a minefield, supporting the campaign to ban the use of anti-personnel mines, donated family money to fight AIDS, attracting numerous famous friends, artists and musicians as sponsors. Her subjects and residents of other countries adored her, and she declared that she wanted to be, first of all, the “queen of people’s hearts,” and not the queen of Britain. Of course, Charles and his affair were out of favor with the people, he was made the main culprit of the unhappy marriage - but his mother and the royal family were, of course, on the side of the heir and could not allow Diana to further spoil his reputation.
To everyone's relief, Diana and Charles officially divorced in August 1996, and Diana ceased to be Her Royal Highness. However, as the former wife of the crown prince and the mother of pretenders to the throne, she was still obliged to follow protocol. Diana did not stop her charitable activities, and the attention of the press to her person did not wane. It is known that after breaking up with Charles, who no longer tried to hide his relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles, Lady Di first started an unsuccessful affair with a surgeon of Pakistani origin Hasnat Khan, for whose sake she almost converted to Islam, and later with an Arab multimillionaire Dodi Al-Fayed. It was in his car on the way from a Parisian restaurant that Diana crashed on the evening of August 31, 1997. For Charles, as for the little princes, her death was a blow, despite previous disagreements. Even Queen Elizabeth, seeing how the nation mourned the disgraced princess, filling the square in front of Buckingham Palace with flowers, made an official televised address, expressing her grief at the death of the mother of her grandchildren. As for Charles, he married for the second time only 8 years after Diana’s death - the wedding with Camilla Parker-Bowles was not solemn; they registered their long-standing relationship with the municipal department of Windsor. And, despite the blessing from the royal family, Elizabeth II was not present at the wedding.
More than 20 years have passed since Princess Diana died in a car accident, but new facts about her life continue to appear regularly in the press. In the InStyle review - all the most interesting and unexpected things about the “Queen of Hearts”.
1. She was the fourth of five children in the family
Princess Diana had two sisters, Sarah and Jane, and a younger brother, Charles. Another Spencer child, a boy named John, was born in January 1960 and died a few hours later.
2. Her parents divorced when she was 7 years old.
Diana's parents, Francis Shand Kydd and Earl John Spencer, separated in 1969.
3. Diana's grandmother served at court
Ruth Roche, Lady Fermoy, Princess Diana's maternal grandmother, was the Queen Mother's personal assistant and companion. They were very friendly, and Lady Fermoy often helped her in organizing holidays.
4. Diana grew up on Sandrigham Estate
Sandrigham House is located in Norfolk and belongs to the royal family. On its territory there is Park House, where Princess Diana's mother was born, and then Diana herself. The princess spent her childhood there.
5. Diana dreamed of becoming a ballerina
Diana studied ballet for a long time and wanted to become a professional dancer, but she was too tall for this (Diana’s height is 178 cm).
6. She worked as a nanny and teacher
Before meeting Prince Charles, Diana was a nanny. She later became a kindergarten teacher. At that time, Diana received about five dollars an hour.
7. She was the first royal bride to have a paid job
And Kate Middleton is the first to have a higher education.
8. Prince Charles first dated her older sister
It was thanks to her sister Sarah that Diana met her future husband. “I introduced them, became their Cupid,” Sarah Spencer later said.
9. Prince Charles was a distant relative of Diana
Charles and Diana were each other's 16th cousins.
10. Before the wedding, Diana saw Prince Charles only 12 times
And he became the initiator of their wedding.
11. Her wedding dress broke all records
The ivory wedding dress created by designer duo David and Elizabeth Emmanuel made history. More than 10 thousand pearls were used to embroider the dress, and the train was almost 8 meters long. By the way, this is the longest train among all princess wedding dresses.
12. Diana deliberately left out part of her wedding vows
Instead of the traditional promise to “obey” her husband, Diana vowed only to “love him, comfort him, honor him and protect him, in sickness and in health.”
13. She was the first royal to give birth in hospital.
Before her, representatives of the royal family practiced only home births, so Prince William became the first future monarch to be born in a hospital.
14. She practiced parenting methods that were unconventional for the royal family.
Princess Diana wanted her sons to live ordinary lives. “She made sure that William and Harry experienced everything: Diana took them to the cinema, made them stand in lines, bought food at McDonald's, rode roller coasters with them,” said Patrick Jephson, who worked with Diana in for six years.
15. She had many famous friends
Diana was friends with Elton John, George Michael, Tilda Swinton and Liza Minnelli.
16. ABBA was her favorite band
It is known that Diana was a big fan of the Swedish pop group ABBA. The Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William paid tribute to Diana by playing several ABBA songs at their 2011 wedding.
17. She had an affair with a bodyguard
Barry Mannaki was part of the royal security team, and in 1985 he became Princess Diana's personal bodyguard. After a year of service, he was removed due to his too close relationship with Diana. In 1987, he crashed on a motorcycle.
18. After the divorce, her title was taken away from her
Princess Diana has lost her title "Her Royal Highness". Prince Charles insisted on this, although Queen Elizabeth II was not against leaving Diana the title.
19. She invited Cindy Crawford to Kensington Palace
Diana invited supermodel Cindy Crawford to tea to please Prince Harry and Prince William, who were then teenagers. In 2017, on the anniversary of Diana's death, Cindy Crawford shared a throwback photo of the Princess of Wales on Instagram. “She asked if I could come and have tea with her the next time I was in London. I was nervous and didn't know what to wear. But when I walked into the room, we immediately started chatting as if she were a regular girl,” Crawford wrote.
20. She is buried on her family's island
Diana is buried at the Spencer family estate of Althorp in Northamptonshire. The estate has been in the Spencer family for over 500 years. The small island also houses a temple on the Oval Lake, where anyone can pay tribute to the princess.
Diana, Princess of Wales (English Diana, Princess of Wales), née Diana Frances Spencer, since 1975 Lady Diana (English (Lady) Diana Francis Spencer, July 1, 1961, Sandringham, Norfolk - August 31, 1997, Paris) - since 1981 by 1996 the first wife of Prince Charles of Wales, heir to the British throne. Popularly known as Princess Diana, Lady Diana or Lady Di. According to a 2002 poll conducted by the BBC, Diana was ranked third on the list of the hundred greatest Britons in history.
Diana Frances Spencer was born on July 1, 1961 at the Royal Estate of Cendrigham in Norfolk. She was the third daughter of the future Viscount and Viscountess Althorp. Diana's father, Edward John Spencer, served in the court of King George VI. Her mother, Frances Ruth, was the daughter of Lady Fermoy, a lady-in-waiting to the Queen Mother.
The father was in for deep disappointment. For him to continue the most noble, with seven hundred years! - the nobility of the family required, of course, an heir, and then a daughter was born again. The family already had two daughters, Sarah and Jane. The girl was given a name only a few days later. She will become her father's favorite, but that will happen later. And soon their son Charles was born.
Diana spent her early childhood years in Sandrigham, where she received her primary education at home. Her first teacher was governess Gertrude Allen, who also taught Diana's mother. Diana's early childhood was filled with happiness; she grew up as a kind and sweet girl. The children received an upbringing more typical of old England than of the mid-twentieth century: strict schedules, nannies, governesses, pheasants for dinner, long walks in the park, horse riding. Diana did not work out with horses - at the age of eight she fell from a horse and was badly injured; after three months of treatment, Diana fell out of love with horse riding forever.
The Spencer estate borders the royal estate of Sandringham. The Spencers are well acquainted with the royal family and are part of the court circle. So the girl, in accordance with aristocratic traditions, received a proper upbringing.
The Spencer mansion from the Green Park side of the capital.
Her life was overshadowed by the discord of her parents (Lady Speser left four children with her father, going to another man whom she loved), and their secret rivalry. Her parents' divorce had a particularly serious effect on Diana: she withdrew into herself and began to be afraid to appear in public. And she told her nanny: “I will never get married without true love. If you are not completely confident in love, you may have to get a divorce. And I never want to get a divorce.” Soon a stepmother appeared in the house, who disliked the children.
Diana's education continued in Sealfield, at a private school near King's Line, then at Riddlesworth Hall preparatory school. At the age of twelve she was accepted into the exclusive girls' school at West Hill, in Sevenoaks, Kent. Soon Diana became everyone's favorite among both teachers and classmates. Although she did not show much diligence in the intricacies of science, she loved sports games and dancing.
She became "Lady Diana" in 1975, when her father assumed the hereditary title of Earl. During this period, the family moved to the ancient ancestral castle of Althorp House in Nottregtonshire. In the winter of 1977, shortly before leaving to study in Switzerland, sixteen-year-old Lady Diana meets Prince Charles for the first time when he comes to Althorp on a hunting trip. At that time, the impeccably brought up, intelligent Charles seemed to the girl only “very funny.”
Her education ended at the age of 18, she was unable to pass the exams for the basic elementary course even on her second attempt. From a prestigious Swiss boarding school - after begging her parents to take her away from there, Diana moves to London to start an independent life. At first she lived with her mother, took cooking classes and ballet classes. And soon she - using the inheritance she received from her great-grandmother - bought a small apartment on Colgern Court. Like many people who have a home but no money to maintain it, Diana shared an apartment with friends. She worked part-time for her rich friends, cleaning apartments and babysitting children, and then went to work at the Young England kindergarten.
The Prince of Wales, by the time he met Lady Spencer, was an established, quite mature man, who had received an excellent education and had charming manners. He seemed too withdrawn and reserved, perhaps. Diana may not have taken him seriously at first - he was courting her sister Sarah. But one moment decided her entire fate.
She was sitting on the hay one summer day. Invited guests wandered around the estate. Among them was Prince Charles. He came up and sat down next to him, turning off the path. They were silent for some time. Then Diana, overcoming her shyness, spoke first, expressing sympathy to the prince for the death of his grandfather, Earl Mountbatenna, who was killed by terrorists recently..." I saw you at a service in the church - she said... You walked down the aisle. You looked so sad face! You seemed to me so suffering and lonely... Someone should take care of you too...".
All evening, the Prince of Wales did not leave Diana a single step, showering her with such signs of respectful attention that it became clear to everyone: he had chosen. Diana, as always, was charmingly embarrassed and blushed, lowering her eyes. Literally the next day the press started talking about it, photojournalists began hunting for Lady Di, her photographs appeared in magazines and newspapers.
In February 1981, the press service of Buckingham Palace officially announced the engagement of the Prince of Wales and Countess Diana Frances Spencer. On July 29, 1981, the wedding took place in St. Peter's Cathedral in London. Thus ended the romance of the century, which opened a new page in the history of England and the entire Windsor dynasty.
It was a very complex marriage of two extraordinary and bright personalities... No matter what they write or say, there was a huge mutual attraction between the two of them. It was difficult for the princess to adapt to the external isolation of the royal family, the impenetrability of emotions, coldness, flattery and naked hypocrisy. She was different. She was timid in front of everything new, unfamiliar, and sometimes got lost. She was only twenty years old. She was young and inexperienced. She was preparing to become a mother. She was not afraid of open emotions, tears, outbursts of spiritual warmth. She tried to give a piece of this warmth to everyone around her... They often did not understand her and shied away from her like she was the plague...
She knew from her own experience what a lack of attention to emotional openness in the family meant. She tried not to repeat her parents' mistakes in her... But it was so difficult for her to build her own world in the family that soon after a difficult birth (her first son, Prince William, was born on June 21, 1982), she fell into depression. The first signs of rapidly progressing bulimia, a disease of the digestive system, appeared. Prince Harry was born two years after his first child, on September 14, 1984.
From the very beginning, she tried to ensure that her children lived as simple, ordinary lives as possible. When it came to the primary education of her sons, Diana opposed William and Harry being raised in the closed world of the royal house and they began to attend preschool classes and regular school. On vacation, Diana allowed her boys to wear jeans, sweatpants and T-shirts. They ate hamburgers and popcorn, went to the cinema and to the attractions, where the princes stood in a general queue among their peers.
In the early 90s, a blank wall of misunderstanding grew between the most famous spouses in the world, in particular due to Charles’s ongoing relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles (later, after the death of Diana, who became his second wife). In 1992, the tension in their relationship reached its climax. She tried to take revenge on him in a purely feminine way, hence the unsuccessful romance with Hewitt, which even the queen gave up on, and her flirtation with James Gilbey. She was looking for a soul to whom she could entrust all her wounds and tears and could not find it. She was betrayed by everyone - lovers, doctors, astrologers, girlfriends, secretaries, relatives and relatives. Even the mother, who told the press all the secrets of Lady Di’s childhood and minor shortcomings. She was left alone. Only her children were faithful to her - two adoring and adored sons.
Five suicide attempts by Princess Di. This was discussed a lot and at length, but we’d better trust her herself: “My soul was screaming for help! I needed attention...”. She will tell you later. She will judge and evaluate everything herself: “We were both guilty, we both made mistakes. But I don’t want to put all the blame on myself. Only half...”. And no less mysterious words spoken to his sons William and Harry: “I still love your father, but I can no longer live with him under the same roof.” The marriage broke up in 1992, after which the couple lived separately, and ended in divorce in 1996 on the initiative of Queen Elizabeth II.
The princess increasingly went into search of the spiritual meaning of life and charitable causes. She founded hundreds of foundations in the country and around the world for children and the sick, the homeless and lepers. She chose a spiritual mentor for herself - Mother Teresa and walked next to her, following her philosophy of help: “Do not allow even one to remain unhappy after meeting you!”
Hundreds of children called her their guardian angel. She supported and founded projects for opening cancer centers for terminally ill patients in all countries of the world, including here in Russia. Few people remember her visit to Moscow in 1995. She took one of the Moscow children's hospitals under her protection. Forced to change the policy of entire states in relation to the most terrible weapons, which so easily enriched hundreds of dirty souls - anti-personnel mines.
With what pain she said in almost her last interview: “I have always been and will be only a humanitarian figure, I only want to help people as much as I can, that’s all... The world is sick with a lack of philanthropy and compassion more and more.. "Someone needs to come out here and love people and tell them that." Shortly before her death, in June 1997, Diana began dating film producer Dodi al-Fayed, the son of Egyptian billionaire Mohamed al-Fayed, but apart from the press, this fact was not confirmed by any of her friends, and this is also denied in the book of Lady Diana’s butler, Paul. Barrel, who was a close friend of the princess.
On August 31, 1997, Diana died in Paris in a car accident along with Dodi al-Fayed and driver Henri Paul.
At Diana's funeral, both boys behaved with the calm dignity of grown men. Their late mother would no doubt have been proud of them. On that sad day, among many other mournful images, many remembered the wreath leaning against the coffin. On it was a card with one single word: “To Mom.” Princess Diana was buried on September 6 at the Spencer family estate of Althorp in Northamptonshire, on a secluded island in the middle of a lake.
In 2006, the biographical film “The Queen” was shot, which describes the life of the British royal family immediately after the death of Princess Diana.
She tried to say. Even with your Death. She tried to love to the end. And be needed. She was lively and kind, warm, bringing light and joy to people. She was sinful in some way, but she did a lot more than others who were seemingly sinless and paid for her mistakes at a high price, loneliness, tears and general betrayal and misunderstanding.
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