The Story of Diana: Part One

By: Paige Zinaman

A normal everyday woman turned philanthropist who became the “People’s Princess.” The story of Princess Diana of Wales is one that everyone across the world has heard about, her influence and compassion to help those whose voices were out sung by those of the voices of wealth made Princess Diana the princess every little girl wanted to become and the princess everyone adored. Still, to this day, when the name Princess Diana is uttered the world stops to listen.

In part of one of The Story of Diana we were given glimpses into the life of Charles and what his life was like before meeting Diana. In 1977, Prince Charles met Sarah Spencer, the older sister of Diana. It was at the point in Charles’ relationship with Sarah that he met sixteen-year-old Diana Spencer. It was when Charles’ relationship with Sarah started to fail so he started to look more into what a relationship with Diana would be like. It was then he knew Diana would be the perfect fit and that he would learn to love her. Their courtship started in a time that England was losing all hope in the Royals, riots were breaking out and cabbages were being thrown at each people on the streets. 1980’s England was in all rights going through a tough time until they learned of Lady Diana and they saw their hope and a future. The response to Diana grew and spread like wild fire as the paparazzi had found their new subject. Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, told the story of how Diana couldn’t really do anything without someone being there with a camera in her face to the point where Diana would talk to them and actually make it easier upon herself to go out in public even with hordes of cameras following her every move.

When it was announced that Prince Charles and Lady Diana were engaged it took the world by storm. People were setting camps outside places they knew Diana would be in order to catch glimpses of what the soon to be Princess would be wearing on the day of her wedding. Their engagement also captured the hearts of Americans who watched and anticipated the upcoming wedding just as much as the people of England. On July 29, 1981, Princess Diana wed Prince Charles in the most televised event in almost every country. People labelled this the “Fairytale Wedding of the age.”  Seven hundred and fifty million people watched at Prince Charles and Princess Diana wed and look so much in love which is what everyone wanted to see, “I remember being so in love with my husband…I just absolutely thought I was the luckiest girl in the world.” From those who were close or knew closely of Prince Charles and Princess Diana they tell of how they knew the marriage between the two may not last because of how young Princess Diana was noting that if anyone would have been looking without excitement they may have been able to see some of the issues that was happening on that day.

The blissful feeling after marriage was short lived as Diana felt oppressed and started obsessing over Camila, the woman who she knew Charles would always love. All along their honeymoon Diana knew that Charles was wearing the suit cuffs that came from Camila and seeing a picture of Camila slip from Charles’ diary didn’t help her worries and if Charles was really telling her the truth. They described Camila as the “Wicked Stepmother in Diana’s story from the very beginning.” And that even from the beginning there was the shadow of Camila always there and that they pitied Diana because they knew Camila had already become Charles’ mistress. They knew Diana was getting into a big game she didn’t even know a lot about.

Becoming the “People’s Princess” was something that separated Diana from other members of the Royal Family, including the Queen herself. The Queen was respectful of her subjects and would greet them as such but never would she extend her hand into the crowd. Diana accepted flowers from children would get down on their level and give them hugs and would extend herself into the crowd to greet the many people on the streets. Diana would go to the hospitals and sit with the patients and talk to them fully while others would walk in and greet them and then walk away. But the tour of Wales they did shortly after their return from their honeymoon was nothing like they’ve had ever seen stating that it just a massive amount of people with cameras and wanting to see Princess Diana.

When news broke that Princess Diana and Prince Charles were expecting their first child news outlets ate it up and became more intrusive than ever before. Newspapers were outlining her pregnancy and telling very personal information. When Diana and Charles went on a getaway there were reporters and photographers who went and would crawl around in the heat and mud just to get photos of Diana and her baby bump that were soon splashed upon every news outlet. There were tensions rising after the Bahama incident, once the first photo was posted to The Sun which resulted in action from Buckingham Palace but published another photo the very next day much to their dismay.

On June 21, 1982, the Royal couple had their first son Prince William. It was this birth that once again separated Diana from the Royal Family by having William at St. Mary’s Hospital in London instead of having the birth inside the palace. It was also common for most royal babies to be in the nursery, but it wasn’t the case for William who Diana took everywhere and that included breaking tradition and taking William on a tour to Australia with her and Charles. Charles would write letters back to his friends about how much fun he and Diana were having with William showing such tender moments between the family. At a walk about in Sydney all eyes were once again on Diana, reporters were yelling through the crowds as one side of the road was Diana and the other side was Charles and all cameras were on Diana when the press secretary would yell for reporters to cover Prince Charles as well.

It’s discussed that anyone who met Diana fell in love with her and it was all because of her charm and her compassion. Diana was her own person and lived by her heart and not her head. When asked people would say she is a star, but her own type of star. She was expressive and anyone could tell all they needed to by her “big blue eyes.” They would call Diana their own mega star and that every time she smiled at their cameras an electric shock would shoot through them. It wasn’t too long that Britain experienced what was called “Diana Mania” and it spread quickly with some quickly calling her a model and a movie star. The love that the people of Britain felt for Princess Diana was one built on her values and her as a person. The world adored Diana and John Travolta even danced together in during a tour to America.

When asked if Diana had it all, a lady told a news outlet that she thought Diana was a bird in a cage and when Diana was asked if she found it hard to adapted to her new role she would simply smile. Her whole life was plastered on covers of magazines and on the front pages of newspapers. At the time of Prince Harry’s birth people talked about how Prince Charles casually showed up at St. Mary’s just to see Harry and once Diana and Harry were home he left to go play polo something most fathers wouldn’t dare do. Reports said that Charles was upset because Harry had ginger hair and looked like the Spencers instead of Charles. It’s at this point people and media were beginning to see that Charles and Diana weren’t as happy as they seemed and noted how Diana always seemed to be alone and that Charles and Diana would have a big fight and would be crying taking Harry and William back to London with her. Charles didn’t like that Diana was more popular than he was and that Diana had emotions and wasn’t uppity and stiff like the Royals were. Diana started spoke about not being comfortable in her own shell and would go eat ice cream and then get sick. Some believe this was Diana’s cry for help and about how the unhappiness was showing.

Diana often spoke about how she thought of herself as an outsider and that is how she made connections to the people who felt they were outsiders as well and that is what attracted her to organizations that focused on helping others. As Diana’s role grew so did the organizations she wanted to work with including HIV because she had friends who were gay and it motivated her to work hard to fight for a change in the thoughts of people who thought HIV and AIDS could be spread by just a simple touch and just shook hands. This caused the view of HIV and AIDS to change. Diana knew what she was doing and used her celebrity to make a change.

Diana’s brother Charles stated that nothing was more important to Diana than her children. Friends said Diana wanted her children’s experience to be different from that of her own where Charles would introduce William and Harry to operas and symphonies Diana introduced them to fast food and Disney World and theme parks, keeping them grounded and give them a normal life. Diana took her children to school like any normal mother would, even with the hounding of the press who invaded William and Harry’s life no matter how much Diana wanted to control it. She hated when the media would get in the way of her being a mother in any way and she tried sheltering them as much as she could from the press. On one occasion, she took her children on holiday she confronted the photographers who had been following her and the children all day and asked for space and that she wanted to protect her children.

Once again stories were being printed that Charles and Camilla were back together again, causing Diana to say, “The worst day of my life was realizing Charles had gone back to Camilla.” But this didn’t stop Diana. At a party both Diana and Charles were invited to Diana confronted Camilla about her and Charles and told Camilia not to treat her as an idiot.

Part one of “The Story of Diana” showed a fierce woman who met a Prince and fell in love. She showed the world who she was and what she could do. But, ultimately, it ended with Diana’s life falling apart and the struggles that lay ahead.