Princess Diana was the fourth child in the family. She has two older sisters and younger brother: Lady Sarah McCorquodale, Lady Jane Fellowes and younger brother Charles Spencer. She also had an older brother, John Spencer, who died shortly after birth.
Her parents divorced when Diana was 7 years old.
Diana grew up on the Sandringham estate, which belongs to the royal family.
She became known as Lady Diana after her father was given the title of Earl. The nickname “Lady Di” stuck to her even after her marriage.
Before marrying Prince Charles and becoming a princess, Diana worked as a nanny and teacher in kindergarten. Her wage was $5 per hour.
Diana's grandmother Ruth Roche was a lady-in-waiting and close friend of the Queen Mother Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.
Surprisingly, she could become a princess elder sister Diana Sarah McCorquodale. Sarah and Prince Charles had an affair in the late 70s. It was thanks to her that Lady Di met her future husband. “I introduced them. “I guess you can call me Cupid,” Sarah later said.
Before their engagement in 1981, the future spouses saw each other only 12 times. Diana was 19 years old, and Charles was 32. “Charles’ father Philip put pressure on his son and insisted on the wedding so as not to discredit the girl’s name,” said Susan Zirinsky, executive producer documentary film"Princess Diana: Her Life, Her Death, Her Truth."
Diana's wedding dress broke all records. The outfit was embroidered with 10,000 pearls, and the length of the train was almost 8 meters. The designers were married couple David and Elizabeth Emmanuel
The engagement ring with a 12-carat sapphire and diamonds was chosen from the Garrard jewelry catalog. And such an atypical step in the conservative at that time royal palace caused a lot of gossip behind my back. After all, most representatives royal family choose jewelry to order. Now the ring is on Kate Middleton's hand.
She broke with the royal family's wedding tradition by changing the bride's vows. So, instead of “loving, comforting and obeying her husband,” Diana promised to “love, comforting, respecting and supporting her husband.” Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle followed suit.
Diana became the first member of the royal family to give birth in a hospital. Before Prince William was born in 1982, heirs to the crown were born at home.
Lady Di was a big fan of the Swedish group ABBA. To honor her memory, Kate Middleton and Prince William played the quartet's songs at their wedding party in 2011.
A few months before her death, Princess Diana sold 79 dresses at a charity auction Christie. She sent all the proceeds to the fund to fight cancer and AIDS.
She called her eldest son "Wombat". According to the recollections of William himself, he got the nickname after a trip to Australia, where they met this local cute animal. She called Prince Harry "Ginger".
As a child, Diana dreamed of becoming a ballerina. She visited ballet class. But it prevented her from building a career high growth, which was 178 centimeters.
Among Diana's friends there were many world stars: Elton John, George Michael, Tilda Swinton and Liza Minnelli. She was also friends with the famous Hollywood couple Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn and came with their sons to their ranch in Colorado.
In an interview with the BBC, Princes William and Harry said that they adhere to one of the main versions of the tragedy, according to which it was journalists who provoked the fatal accident in Paris, and each of them should bear collective responsibility for the death of their mother.
Prince William: “Like a pack of dogs, they followed her everywhere. They tracked her down, spat at her, screamed, tried to provoke her into responding with anger, an emotion that would look good on camera.”
Prince Harry: “One of the worst: my mother and I were driving to the tennis club, and my mother was so tortured by guys on a motorcycle that she parked the car and chased after them. Then she came back to us and cried and couldn’t stop. It was terrible to see my mother so unhappy.”
A car with a drunk driver at the wheel, a security guard from the Ritz Hotel, Diana herself, who always, except for this one time, wore a seat belt, and her boyfriend Dodi al-Fayed walked away from the paparazzi at a speed of 195 kilometers per hour through a Paris tunnel. The driver lost control and their Mercedes crashed into a guardrail. Dodi and the driver died on the spot, the guard survived, Diana died in the hospital on the operating table that same night.
Prince Harry: “Those people who caused the car accident, the paparazzi, took pictures of her while she was sitting in the back seat broken car. She had horrific head injuries, but she was still alive, still breathing, and could see the same faces of her photographer tormentors who had beaten her to death. And now they were doing it latest pictures. And then they sold them to agencies for a lot of money.”
The press tried to shift responsibility for Diana's death onto Elizabeth II and Prince Charles. The queen herself was accused of organizing the car accident. More respectable publications scolded her for not publicly throwing ashes on her head enough.
Subjects reproached the queen for remaining in quiet Scotland when London was struggling and choking in hysterics. People wanted to see the grieving monarch in mourning at Buckingham Palace, but she was not there. She was in Scotland, seven hundred kilometers from London. These days, Elizabeth decided to be a grandmother, not a queen: she believed that it was more important to be with the little princes than with her nation, and she did not want to take them to London before the funeral and left them to mourn in peace and quiet.
Diana died on the night of August 31st. Charles, who was with the children at Balmoral Castle, wanted to wake up his sons and immediately tell them the news. But Elizabeth II forbade disturbing the last happy dream of their childhood.
Prince William: “All newspapers were removed from our sight, all televisions were turned off. We didn’t know there was such a huge reaction in the world to her death.”
Details in the story NTV correspondent Lisa Gerson.
20 years ago, on the night of August 31, 1997, Princess Diana died in a car accident in the center of Paris. She was so popular and beloved among the people that she earned the nickname “Queen of Hearts,” and her tragic death still haunts the British to this day. The circumstances of this car accident were so strange that they raise doubts about the official version of what happened.
On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana, several scandalous investigations were made public, causing a lot of noise not only in Great Britain, but also abroad.
The results of the official investigations carried out in France in the UK were identical: the accident occurred for several reasons. Princess Diana and her lover Dodi al-Fayed were chased by paparazzi, causing the driver of the car, Henri Paul, to speed. In addition, alcohol was found in his blood, and the seat belts were faulty. This version was later refuted: the driver was not drunk, and the results of the examination were deliberately or accidentally mixed up with others. It also seemed strange that 3 years after the accident, the same paparazzi who was accused of stalking Diana was found dead in a burnt car.
In the film, Diana said that she was in love with Charles, and on the day of their engagement, when asked by a journalist whether there were feelings between them, she answered without hesitation: “ Yes" And the prince said: “ You can say that" She was very offended by this then. And later she became convinced that her husband had loved another woman all his life - Camilla Parker Bowles. Even the birth of sons did not save this marriage. When Diana turned to the Queen for advice, she only said: “ I don't know what to do. Charles is hopeless" Divorce was inevitable.
She felt like an outcast at the royal court. " I was rejected, and therefore I considered myself unworthy of this family. I could start drinking, but it would be noticeable, and anorexia would be even more noticeable. I decided to choose something that would be less noticeable: harming myself rather than others."- admits Diana. She suffered from bulimia for some time, and then began having affairs. Diana told her teacher that the biggest shock in her life was the death of Barry Manaka, her bodyguard, who, in her opinion, was fired and killed after their affair became known.
Journalist Mikhail Ozerov, who spoke with Princess Diana 3 days before her death, claimed that she told him of her intention to go to Paris, despite the reaction of Buckingham Palace, of her desire to build life the way she wanted, and added: “ Don't pay attention to my outburst of emotions. Next time I'll be calmer. Or they will calm me down. It's unlikely that we'll see each other again».
Special services historian Gennady Sokolov conducted his own investigation and came to the conclusion that it was a staged accident, behind which the British secret services stood. Witnesses claimed that on the night of the incident they saw a bright flash in the tunnel, which could have blinded the driver, after which he crashed into a concrete bridge support. If Diana had been wearing a seat belt, she would have had a chance to survive, but the seat belts, according to Sokolov, were blocked. For some reason, the video cameras were not working in this tunnel that night. Immediately after her death, her body was embalmed - according to Sokolov, in order to hide Diana's pregnancy from the Muslim Dodi al-Fayed, whom she was supposedly going to marry. Therefore, the royal family had reasons to want her dead.
Egyptian billionaire Mohammed al-Fayed also conducted his own investigation, during which it turned out that Princess Diana called this period of her life the most dangerous and was afraid that the royal family would want to get rid of her. Mohammed Al-Fayed is confident that the death of his son Dodi and Princess Diana was a planned murder.
No one has ever proven the version that the royal family and British intelligence services were involved in Diana’s death. Over time in this mysterious story More and more questions are emerging, and still no one can say with certainty whether the death of Princess Diana was a tragic accident or the result of a planned crime.
Bridge over the tunnel where Princess Diana died
LONDON, August 31st. /Corr. TASS Igor Brovarnik/. Thursday marks 20 years since the princess died in a car accident. Welsh Diana(1961-1997). As a representative of Buckingham Palace told TASS, members of the British royal family, including its head Queen Elizabeth II, do not plan to take part in any official commemorative events on the occasion of this tragic anniversary.
“No official events related to the anniversary of the princess’s death are planned with the participation of members of the royal family. The royal family will spend this day privately,” Buckingham Palace reported.
Nevertheless, Diana's sons, Princes William and Harry, paid tribute to their mother on Wednesday at the White Garden memorial located near Kensington Palace, which was Diana's official residence until her death. The princes got acquainted with the composition of the garden, consisting of white flowers - tulips, daffodils and hyacinths, as well as palm trees planted around the perimeter of a rectangular pond.
At the same time, fans people's princess, this is exactly how Diana remained in the memory of millions of British people, despite rainy weather in London, photographs of her and flowers began to be brought to the gates of Kensington Palace, as was the case 20 years ago.
Then the people of the United Kingdom spent it in last way How national hero. More than 1 million people took to the streets of London to watch her funeral cortege, while half the country's population - more than 32 million people - watched the funeral broadcast on television.
Symbol of the era
Diana is rightfully considered one of the symbols of the late 20th century. A philanthropist, philanthropist and style icon, she charmed many people with her warmth, while straightforwardness was always her hallmark.
The princess was an active participant in the fight against AIDS, visiting HIV-infected people in hospitals, convincing the public that people with such a diagnosis should not be outcasts.
Diana was not afraid to shake their hands, although at that time there were many myths about this virus, and she also did not shy away from lepers. She opposed the spread anti-personnel mines, from which civilians often suffer.
"TASS/Reuters"
The People's Princess managed to visit Russia in June 1995, visiting the Tushino Children's Hospital in Moscow, where she was part of charitable assistance gave medical equipment. During her visit to the British Embassy in the Russian capital, she was awarded the International Leonardo Prize, which has been awarded to philanthropists and organizers of activities in the humanitarian field since 1992.
Without a doubt, Diana managed to change the old-fashioned appearance of the British monarchy and become the “queen of people’s hearts,” as she is still called in her homeland.
How did the princess die?
Princess Diana was the wife of Prince Charles, heir apparent British throne, from 1981 to 1996, but the couple began to live separately already in 1992.
Diana died in a car accident on the night of August 31, 1997 in Paris, in a tunnel under the Pont Alma. The driver of the car, Henri Paul, in which the princess was traveling, tried to break away from the paparazzi, and when entering the tunnel at a speed of 105 km/h, he lost control and collided with a column dividing the flow of traffic.
The victims of the tragedy were the princess herself, her lover Dodi al-Fayed and the driver. Only bodyguard Trevor Rhys-Jones survived the car accident. Dodi's father, Egyptian billionaire Mohammed al-Fayed, claimed that the accident was orchestrated British intelligence services at the direction of the royal family. In 2008, a British court rejected these accusations.
Was it an accident
British security specialist Alan McGregor earlier in an interview with The Sun newspaper suggested that the death of the Princess of Wales could not have been a tragic accident, but a planned murder, the preparation of which could have taken six months.
Collaborated with intelligence agencies Saudi Arabia McGregor was dissatisfied with the security measures at the Ritz Hotel in Paris, where Diana was staying with Dodi al-Fayed shortly before her death. "I saw so many security breaches in that hotel and a number of other strange things, so it was bound to happen sooner or later," he said.
“You could say that all the elements that led to her death were just a tragic coincidence, but part of me believes that the preparation process [of the murder] could have taken six months,” said a British ex-secretary officer.
McGregor wondered why such an important and high-status person as Princess Diana was entrusted to be driven by a chauffeur who worked at the hotel. “It had to be a specially trained driver or a security agent,” he stressed, also pointing out that the Mercedes in which the couple was supposed to leave was driven from a public hotel parking lot in violation of safety precautions.
“Diana often said that she feared for her life, and no one even asked why,” McGregor recalled.
Diana's last words
Former emergency services employee Xavier Gourmelon, who was one of the first to arrive at the scene of the accident, said in his first interview with the press that Diana was conscious for some time and could speak after the car accident. “We were very close and it took us less than three minutes to get to the accident site,” Gourmelon, 50, recalled.
"She was moving a little and I could see that she was alive. I saw that she had a minor bruise on her right shoulder, but other than that there was nothing significant. There was no blood at all," he said in a statement. interview The Sun.
Gourmelon told what happened after Diana was removed from the mangled Mercedes.
"I held her hand and told her to stay calm and not move. She said: 'Oh my God, what happened?' I gave her some oxygen, me and my team were with her after she was taken out of the car "It happened very quickly because we didn't have to cut the deformed body of the car," he noted.
After some time, 36-year-old Diana stopped breathing. "We are all trained to provide first aid medical care, I saw that she had a cardiac arrest and stopped breathing. I gave her a heart massage and after a few seconds she started breathing again,” the former rescuer shared his memories.
“To be honest, I thought she would live,” he said. “As far as I know, when Diana was in the ambulance, she was alive, and I hoped that she would live. But later I found out that she died in the hospital".
"I know now that she had serious internal injuries, but the whole episode is still in my head. And the memories of that night will remain with me forever. I had no idea at the time that it was Princess Diana. I found out about it “When they put her in the ambulance, one of the paramedics told me that it was her,” added Gourmelon, who took part as a witness in the investigation into the circumstances of the princess’s death in 2007.
People around the world are still debating what caused the accident that took Lady Di's life.
wikimedia20 years ago, on August 31, 1997, one of the most popular women in all of world history, Princess, died in Paris. Diana. If it weren't for that tragic accident, she would be 56 years old now. And who knows what this brilliant lady would be doing today, what role she would play in international arena and what influence it had on the heirs to the English throne. She was destined to remain the “queen of people’s hearts,” a mystery woman whose life and death are shrouded in mystery.
Are the paparazzi to blame?
The official version of Diana's death looks like this: the driver exceeded the speed limit, lost control and crashed into the thirteenth bridge support in a tunnel on the Parisian embankment. The passengers were not wearing seat belts. In addition to Diana, there were three more people in the car: the driver, the bodyguard and the son. Egyptian billionaire Dodi al-Fayed. The driver and Dodi died instantly, Diana died a few hours later on the operating table, the bodyguard remained disabled for life. According to him, he does not remember what exactly happened in the tunnel.
It was not possible to determine exactly what caused the accident, and it is unlikely that it will ever be possible. The CCTV cameras installed in the tunnel did not work that night for an unknown reason.
Not long ago the prince Harry stated that the paparazzi were indirectly to blame for the death of his mother, from whom the car with Diana fled at a speed of about 120 kilometers per hour. He emphasized that the people whose actions provoked the accident not only did not provide assistance to the dying woman, but also photographed her last moments. “She was still alive,” said the prince. And the journalists who photographed her dying made great money from these photos and made good progress in career ladder. Harry admitted that this was the hardest thing for him to come to terms with.
Paparazzi poisoned Diana's life for many years. By 1997, she had not lived with her husband for 5 years Charles and a year since I was officially divorced. The media attributed her to an affair with Dodi al-Fayed and even stated that Lady Di was pregnant from him. Journalists were hot on her heels. Many, like Prince Harry, believe that they are to blame for that accident.
Was the driver drunk?
The investigation into the Paris tunnel accident concluded that the driver was drunk. The dose of alcohol contained in his blood corresponded to several bottles of wine. Of course, in this state he could not drive the car normally.
But many researchers of Lady Di's death believe that the version of the driver's drunkenness does not stand up to criticism. Firstly, he had an ulcer and had not taken a drop of alcohol into his mouth for many years, and secondly, it later turned out that in addition to a lethal dose of alcohol, his blood also contained... large quantities carbon dioxide. However, the car did not burn after colliding with a support in the tunnel.
For a long time, fans of the princess considered the driver to be the culprit of her death. Until information appeared that French investigators had mixed up test tubes with tests and added the results of the wrong examination to the case. On the same night that Diana died, a man committed suicide in Paris. He got drunk and then locked himself in the garage and started the car. Hence the alcohol carbon dioxide in blood.
Secret service conspiracy?
Polls show that most of The British population does not believe that Diana's death was an accident. One of the most popular versions about true reasons her death is a conspiracy by the secret services. Allegedly, it was British intelligence agents who provoked the accident in the tunnel, using a fake car that fled the scene, a flash that blinded the driver, or a microchip that disabled the steering and brakes (different experts come to different conclusions).
Proponents of this theory also see the trace of the special services in the fact that Diana was taken for a very long time to the hospital and was not very skillfully “saved” on the surgical table. One of the British heart surgeons even stated that the mother of the heirs to the throne could have been saved if not for several fatal mistakes by French doctors.
The authors of the theory that the princess’s death was not accidental claim that the special services acted on the orders of one of the members of the royal family. Allegedly, Diana knew too much and threatened to make public information discrediting the British monarchs if she was not left alone. And she could have had plenty of such information. In addition, her affair with a Muslim and her intention to marry him cast a shadow on the heirs to the throne. And then there is information about pregnancy.
Whether Diana was actually expecting a third child or not is unknown. French doctors embalmed it before sending the body to London, making further research impossible.
Only 10 years after Diana’s death, her butler unexpectedly released the note to everyone. In it, Lady Di writes that she ex-husband wants to organize an accident with her, “for example, a car brake failure.”
After August 31
Diana's death came as a real shock to both her fans and those who were indifferent to her. Square in front Buckingham Palace filled with fresh flowers and toys. Lady Di's funeral live More than 2.5 billion people watched it. Songs dedicated to the deceased princess Elton John, group "Aquarium", Madonna,Lady Gaga. Films and books about the most popular representative of the royal family continue to be published to this day. It's as if the world still doesn't believe she's gone.
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