Diana year of birth. Princess Diana - biography and personal life. ... and family matters
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Princess Diana is a stronghold of purity and an example to follow. She has a number of behaviors familiar to the royal family, and her style is still being copied. However, we want to talk not so much about Diana, Princess of Wales, but about Diana Francis Spencer - a woman not so well known to us outside of the royal image.
We are in AdMe.ru learned about the other, more human and dramatic side of Lady Dee's life. Two motives invariably intertwined in her fate: the desire to give happiness and the impossibility of becoming happy herself. This is what the facts we have discovered speak of.
One of the first to draw attention to the problem of AIDS and debunk myths about this disease
At the opening of the UK's first AIDS ward, Princess Diana defiantly took off her gloves and shook hands with each patient. This gesture was intentional: Lady Dee tried to dispel the myths about those infected with AIDS, which at that time were stigmatized. Subsequently, she visited sick children many more times, transferred funds to aid funds, and also did not shy away from personally communicating with HIV-infected people.
Since childhood, she was not a favorite of her mother
Diana Spencer was not wealthy enough to neglect her work. The entire inheritance of Earl Spencer was passed down through the male line, which is why Lady Dee, who had not yet married, unlike her sisters, earned as much as she could. She cleaned friends' houses, taught dance lessons to teenagers, worked as an assistant nanny and kindergarten teacher.
Worried about weight and got bulimic before marriage
After 13 meetings with her future husband and the decision to get engaged, Lady Diana became seriously concerned about her weight and began to fall into unhealthy states. It all started with a thoughtless phrase from the groom, and ended with an eating disorder - bulimia. By the time of the wedding, the girl's waist had decreased in girth by 20 centimeters, she "melted from February to June." Diana's condition was also affected by endless jealousy: she saw how Charles secretly exchanged gifts with his first love, Camilla.
The honeymoon was not a fairy tale, but a horror
“By this point, my bulimia was completely out of control. The attacks were repeated 4 times a day. Whatever I could find, I immediately ate, and after a couple of minutes I was sick - it exhausted me.
Princess Diana
“In a protective vest, I tried to walk along a deliberately cleared lane and I can say that it is very scary. And what about those who have neither vests nor miners, who have to risk their lives every time they go for water, those who are simply forced to live among minefields ?!
Princess Diana
In one of the cities of Angola, a few days before the arrival of the princess, teenagers playing football were blown up on a field that was not completely cleared of mines. It was on such a field that Lady Diana walked, wearing a bulletproof vest and a protective mask against bullets - this is how she spoke in support of the movement against anti-personnel landmines.
Problems in marriage pursued everywhere: from bed to social events
After the wedding and honeymoon spent together, it became obvious that Charles and Diana, who was 13 years younger than him, had nothing to talk about. The girl had specific, if not limited, tastes in literature, was not interested in her husband's hobbies and ridiculed his piety. In matters of love, as Lady Di admitted, the prince “did not have a need”: for 7 years they retired three times a week, which seemed to her insufficient, and then this was gone.
She hugged leprosy patients she visited in India
Along with the myths about HIV-infected, Princess Diana tried to dispel rumors about people with leprosy. She first visited them at Mother Teresa's leper colony in India and hugged each one before becoming patron of The Leprosy Mission.
Cheating as revenge on her husband
An unhappy marriage and a husband in awe of another woman pushed Princess Diana to try to find out what true love is. Many men are attributed to her lovers: from a riding instructor to a heart surgeon. The most famous is the bodyguard Barry Mannaki - it was about his dismissal and, as the princess herself believed, that she recalled the rigged death, calling it the biggest blow of her life.
Regularly visited children with cancer
The beautiful Princess Diana, who passed away so suddenly and tragically... People still remember and love her. The biography of Princess Diana sheds light on why she became an ideal for many people. Her story is an illustration of the collision of a person with such a powerful force as the royal family, duty, monarchy.
In the list of one hundred great Britons, Princess Diana surpassed Darwin, Newton and even Shakespeare, taking third place after Churchill and Brunel. Who is she? And why is the death of Princess Diana still a matter of controversy? What kind of difficulties met on the way of the wife of the heir to the throne of Great Britain? How did she manage to earn such respect from citizens in order to bypass Shakespeare himself?
Aristocracy
The Princess of Wales (nee Diana Spencer) was married for fifteen years to Prince Charles, the son of the Queen of Great Britain. Her birthday is July 1, 1961. On this day in the county of Norfolk, a girl was born in the family of Viscount Althorpsky, who was waiting for an unusual fate. She was the third daughter in the family (older sisters - Jane and Sarah).
Later, Diana's parents had a son, Charles. Three years after her birth, at the baptism of Charles, fate had already crossed the little Spencers with the English queen: she became Diana's godbrother.
Life at Sandrigham Castle, where Diana spent her childhood, would have seemed like paradise to most people: six servants, garages, a swimming pool, a tennis court, many bedrooms. Ordinary aristocratic family. The girl was also brought up in full accordance with the traditions.
Perhaps the kindness and generosity of adult Diana is a positive consequence of such an upbringing and, of course, the result of the influence of her paternal grandmother, whom the future princess loved very much. She helped the needy, did charity work. When the princess was still just Diana, her biography had already been replenished with a sad page: the divorce of her parents hit the girl at the age of six. The children stayed with their father.
From childhood, Diana preferred dancing (she studied ballet at the boarding school) and swimming, she had success in drawing. Diana struggled with the exact sciences, but she liked history and literature. Her achievements in ballet aroused the admiration of others.
London and adulthood
At 
After leaving school, Diana decided to live in London on her own. She worked in low-paid places: a nanny, a waitress. At the same time, she studied driving, and later cooking. The girl did not abuse alcohol and did not smoke, did not like noisy entertainment, spent her free time in solitude.
Then Diana went through the competition for the position of a ballet teacher for elementary school students, but a shin injury soon put an end to this activity. Then she went to work as a kindergarten teacher, and also worked as a housekeeper for her sister.
Life in London was distinguished by both the girl's great employment and pleasant, light and cheerful entertainment. She had her own apartment, which her parents gave her. She lived there with her friends, they often had tea parties, played pranks like children, played tricks on their acquaintances. For example, once a “cocktail” of flour and eggs was smeared on the car of a young man who did not arrive at the appointed time.
Acquaintance and marriage
“Don't expect too much from life, it leads to disappointment. Accept her for who she is, it's much easier to live that way."
Initially, the one who, in more than thirty years, will set a record for waiting for the British crown, entered Diana's life as a friend of her own sister Sarah. The story of the young Spencer and the thirty-year-old heir to the throne did not immediately begin.
Perhaps the prince himself would have preferred to remain free, but the position obliged. And he decided to choose his wife for purely rational reasons, knowing about the impossibility of divorce, but at the same time wanting to keep his lifestyle unchanged.
From the middle of 1980, the prince began to show increased attention to Diana. And after him, reporters began to show increased attention to her, and the boundaries of private life disappeared. Even then, Diana saw how close the Parker-Bowles family was to Charles.
Six months later, on February 6, 1981, the prince proposed to Diana. Diana began to immerse herself in the life of the royal court, which means that she had a need to look perfect, besides, she was now one of those who personified the monarchy. Then the style of Princess Diana began to take shape. She realized that her outfit should always satisfy the tastes of the most picky and be impeccable in any conditions.
At Buckingham Palace, she was deprived of everything: independence, privacy, the possibility of self-realization, sincerity - in fact, the status of the prince's bride deprived her of her freedom. Noisy gatherings with friends, spontaneity, a lot of communication and work - now all this is a thing of the past.
Fuel was added to the fire by all the new hints at the prince's close relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles. Andrew Morton, in his book about Diana, said that right on the eve of the wedding, she wanted to terminate the engagement because of the discovered bracelet, which was bought by the prince as a gift to Camilla.
July 29, 1981 Diana became a princess. Her husband, even during their honeymoon, gave cause for alarm. Princess Diana discovered photographs of Camilla, and then cufflinks, according to Charles, given to the one he once loved.
The story of Princess Diana turned into a tragedy. She developed bulimia nervosa. Her life in marriage was not sugar: her husband's attitude left much to be desired, and the inability to talk heart to heart with anyone made the situation hopeless. But these are the rules of the court, where duty is above all, and feelings must be in check. She had no one to turn to, she was left alone in front of the need to match the image of a beautiful princess and an exemplary wife in a situation of a love triangle.
The gradual disappearance of illusions
"Don't try to look serious - it won't help anyway"
The children of Princess Diana were to be brought up in the traditions of the English court - under the supervision of nannies and governesses. But their mother insisted that the sons should not be cut off from her and from a normal way of life. Princess Diana had a surprisingly strong stance on children and their upbringing. She herself breastfed them and actively participated in the process of their development and education.
As Diana herself later said, the queen, in conversations with her, spoke almost directly that, perhaps, Diana’s problems were not the result of an unsuccessful marriage, but an unsuccessful marriage was the result of the girl’s mental problems. Depression, purposeful self-harm, bulimia nervosa—couldn't they all be symptoms of the same disorder?
Diana got pregnant again. The husband wanted a girl, but on September 15, 1984, "Princess Diana's daughter" turned out to be a boy. Diana hid the results of the ultrasound until the birth of the child.
Did Princess Diana have lovers? It is noteworthy that the press and society looked at any friendship between the princess, and even just an acquaintance, as a reason for censure, and no one seemed to notice the obvious connection between Prince Charles and Camilla.
Full break
“There are more important problems than ballet. For example, people dying in the street"
The fairy tale of Princess Diana and Prince Charles ended before it began, but their tragedy lasted ten years. Her husband was not interested in Diana's inner life, her experiences and fears, she could not count on his support.
When Princess Diana found herself, she began to pay a lot of attention to people who were unlucky in life. She visited hospitals for the seriously ill, flophouses for the homeless, and the AIDS ward. Earl Spencer, Diana's brother, in a conversation with biographer Morton, spoke of the princess as a strong-willed, purposeful and firm person who knows what he lives for, namely, to be a conductor of good, using his high position.
Later, when William received a head injury, the whole world could observe the indifference of his father, who went first to Covent Garden, and then on an expedition related to environmental problems. How this resonated with the behavior of a mother who was ready to help many people!
Does the Lord keep the righteous?
“I want to be with those who suffer wherever I see them and help them”
Scandal, apparently, was inevitable. At the end of August 1996, the ill-fated prince and princess were released. After the divorce, Diana retained the title of Princess of Wales and received a large compensation (17 million pounds and 400 thousand every year).
The princess died in an accident at the age of 36: on August 31, 1997, there was a car accident in a tunnel. In the car was not only Princess Diana, but also Dodi al-Fayed, the son of an influential billionaire. Subsequently, Mohammed Fayed spent a lot of effort in order to shed light on the death of Princess Diana and his son. Many still believe that the tragedy was planned by the royal court to stop the "indecent" behavior of the princess.
A brief biography of Diana seems to be a story not about a princess, but about an ordinary woman whose life was far from simple. There is no doubt that Diana had a big, generous soul, and this woman deserves the brightest memory. After a hard day, Diana always told herself that she had done her best. About her earthly life, it seems, the same can be said. Author: Ekaterina Volkova
"They say it's better to be poor and happy than rich and unhappy. But what about a compromise - moderately rich and moderately capricious?" - Princess Diana.
Princess Diana Spencer She was born July 1, 1961, at Sandringham Manor in Norfolk. Diana was perhaps the most beloved and respected member of the British royal family, earning herself the nickname "The People's Princess". She was born into a family of English aristocrats - Edward John Spencer, Viscount Althorp, and Francis Ruth Burke Roche, Viscountess Althorp (later Francis Shand Kydd).
Both Diana's parents were close to the royal court, and in Edward's biography there was even an episode with his marriage proposal to Queen Elizabeth II, which she did not immediately reject, promising to "think about it." However, to the great dismay of Diana's father, Elizabeth soon met the Greek prince Philip, with whom she fell in love with no memory and whom she eventually married. However, despite unfulfilled hopes, Edward maintained warm friendly relations with Elizabeth, thanks to which the Spencers always occupied a special position at court.
Diana became the third daughter in the Spencer family, while her father desperately wanted to have a male heir. Therefore, the birth of another girl was a huge disappointment for both parents. "I should have been born a boy!" - with a bitter smile, Lady Di confessed many years later.
However, the heir did appear in the family, but by that time the relationship of the spouses had been so undermined by mutual discontent that the marriage soon broke up. Frances remarried the owner of the wallpaper business, Peter Shand-Kydd, who, although fabulously wealthy, did not possess a title, which caused the endless displeasure of her mother. A true aristocrat and devoted royalist, mother Francis could not believe that her daughter had left her husband and four children for some “upholsterer”. She confronted her daughter in court, and as a result, Edward received custody of all four children.
Although both parents did their best to brighten up the lives of children with trips and entertainment, Diana often lacked simple human attention and participation, and at times she felt lonely.
She received an excellent education at first in Riddlesworth Hall private school(Riddlesworth Hall), and then - in prestigious boarding school West Heath(West Heath School).
The title of Lady Diana Spencer was acquired when her father inherited the title of Earl in 1975. Despite the fact that Diana was known as a shy girl, she showed a genuine interest in music and dance. But, alas, the dreams of the future princess about ballet were not destined to come true, because one day, while on vacation in Switzerland, she seriously injured her knee. However, many years later, Diana demonstrated brilliant dancing skills by performing a number on the Covent Garden stage with professional dancer Wayne Sleep on the occasion of her husband's birthday.
In addition to dancing and music, Diana liked to spend time with children: she gladly took care of her younger brother Charles and took care of her older sisters. Therefore, after graduating from the boarding school for noble maidens in Rougemont, Switzerland, Diana moved to London and began to look for work with children. In the end, Lady Dee got a job as a teacher at Young England School in London's Pimlico area.
Generally speaking, Diana never shied away from any, even the blackest, work: she worked part-time as a nanny, a cook and even a cleaner. The apartments of her friends and older sister, Sarah, were cleaned by the future princess for $2 an hour.
Pictured: Lady Diana and Prince Charles
Since the Spencer family was close to the royal family, as a child, Diana often played with Prince Charles's younger brothers, Princes Andrew and Edward. In those days, the Spencers rented Park House - an estate that belonged to Elizabeth II. And in 1977, Diana's older sister, Sarah, introduced her to Prince Charles, who was 13 years older than the young lady.
As the heir to the British throne, Prince Charles has always been the focus of media attention, and his courtship of Diana, of course, did not go unnoticed. The press and the public were captivated by this quirky couple: a reserved prince who is a big fan of gardening and a shy young girl with a passion for fashion and pop culture. On the day the couple got married - July 29, 1981 - the wedding ceremony was broadcast on TV channels around the world. Millions of people watched the event, proclaimed the "Wedding of the Century".
Marriage and divorce
On June 21, 1982, their first child, Prince William Arthur Philip Louis, was born in the family of Diana and Charles. And 2 years later, on September 15, 1984, the couple had a second heir - Prince Henry Charles Albert David, known to the general public as Prince Harry.
Deeply shocked by the pressure that fell upon her along with marriage, and the relentless attention of the press to literally her every step, Diana decided to defend the right to her own life.
Pictured: Princess Diana and Prince Charles with their sons Prince William and Prince Harry
She began to support many charitable organizations, helping the homeless, children in needy families, and people suffering from HIV and AIDS.
Unfortunately, the fabulous wedding of the prince and princess did not become the beginning of a happy marriage. Over the years, the couple drifted apart, and both parties were suspected of infidelity. Being unhappy in marriage, Diana suffered from bouts of depression and bulimia. In the end, in December 1992, British Prime Minister John Major announced the separation of the couple, reading the text of the appeal of the royal family in the House of Commons. The divorce was finalized in 1996.
Diana's death and legacy
Even after the divorce, Diana remained still popular. She dedicated herself to her sons and was also involved in humanitarian projects such as the fight against land mines. Lady Dee used her worldwide fame to raise public awareness of pressing issues. However, her popularity had a downside: Diana's affair with the Egyptian producer and playboy Dodi Al-Fayed in 1997 caused a real stir and incredible hype in the press. As a tragic result, on the night of August 31, 1997, a couple in love died in a car accident in Paris, when the driver tried to break away from the paparazzi chasing them.
In the photo: Memorial in honor of Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed
at Harrods in London
Diana did not die immediately, but only a few hours later in a Paris hospital due to her injuries. Diana's lover, Dodi Al-Fayed, and his driver were also killed, and the security guard was seriously injured. Until now, there are many rumors around the death of Diana: it was even rumored that she was killed by the British special services at the direction of the royal family, who allegedly could not come to terms with the fact that the mother of the heirs to the throne had a relationship with a Muslim. By the way, Diana's mother, Frances, was also not enthusiastic about this relationship, once calling Diana a "whore" for "confusing with Muslim men."
The French authorities conducted their own investigation into the crash and found a high level of alcohol in the blood of the driver, who was subsequently recognized as the main culprit of the accident.
The news of Diana's sudden and absurd death shocked the world. Thousands of people wanted to pay their last tribute to the "People's Princess" at the farewell ceremony. The ceremony was held at Westminster Abbey and broadcast on television. Diana's body was later buried at her family estate, Althorp.
In 2007, 10 years after the death of their beloved mother, Diana's sons, Princes William and Harry, organized a concert dedicated to the 46th anniversary of her birth. All proceeds from the event were donated to charities supported by Diana and her sons.
Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton also paid tribute to Diana by naming their daughter, Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, who was born on May 2, 2015, after her.
The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund continues her efforts. Established after her death, the foundation provides grants to various organizations and supports many humanitarian initiatives, including organizing care for the sick in Africa, helping refugees, and ending the use of landmines.
The memory of the Princess of Wales and her good deeds still lives in the hearts of millions of people. And no other title in the world has such a high value as the title " Queens of human hearts forever assigned to Diana.
In the photo: Princess Diana devoted a lot of time to charitable work
Based on biography.com. Some of the photos are taken from biography.com.
Princess Diana died twenty years ago. Today, millions of people remember her as the queen of hearts and style icon. But talk about the possible causes of Diana's death does not subside. A few years ago, Scotland Yard published the results of an investigation into the tragedy. The driver of the car in which the princess was traveling was drunk and lost control, the passengers were not wearing seat belts. Many do not agree with the official version.
A security camera installed in the elevator of the Ritz Hotel captured Diana and her lover Dodi al-Fayed on the day of the tragedy. This is the last shooting where they are alive. The paparazzi knew that Lady Dee had stopped at the Ritz and were on duty at the door of the hotel. They also knew that the couple was going to go to Dodi al-Fayed's Parisian apartment, located near the Arc de Triomphe. And it was at this moment that Diana personally decided to leave the hotel not through the main entrance on Place Vendôme.
From that moment on, a whole round of oddities and inconsistencies begins, which for 20 years have been preventing us from understanding the causes and consequences of that fateful trip. Initially, Ken Wingfield, Dodi al-Fayed's personal bodyguard, was supposed to drive the car, but for unknown reasons, he generally remains at the Ritz Hotel, and Henri Paul, the head of security at the hotel where the lovers spent their last evening together, drove the car. In addition to Diana and al-Fayed, Trevor Rhys Jones, Diana's personal bodyguard, was driving the Mercedes.
Through the rue Cambon and the Place de la Concorde, the car sped through the streets. Paparazzi were circling right, left, behind and in front. At the entrance to the Alma tunnel, Henri Paul, who was driving at a speed of 160 kilometers per hour, suddenly saw a parked car, made a maneuver, lost control and crashed into the 13th column of the tunnel. Filmed at the scene of the tragedy, shots of a mangled Mercedes flew around the world.
The driver Henri Paul, whose blood alcohol level, as it turned out later, exceeded the permissible limits by 3 times, and Dodi al-Fayed died on the spot. The princess was taken to a military hospital, where she died a few hours later without regaining consciousness. The guard Trevor Rees-Jones, who received numerous injuries, survived, underwent several difficult operations, but even during interrogation a few years later he could not give any evidence. He lost his memory.
For 20 years now, the main dispute of all interested parties: was it still an accident or was the Princess of Wales killed? All these years there were interrogations, investigative experiments, trials, endless testimonies were collected, interviews and memoirs were published. For Ken Whorf, one of Diana's bodyguards, what happened in the Alma Tunnel is murder.
The driver, Henri Paul, had already been named an MI6 agent and was considered the culprit of the tragedy, until it turned out that the French police simply mixed up the test tubes with blood. Now it is not at all obvious that the driver of the Mercedes was drunk. As found out NTV columnist Vadim Glusker, the white Fiat Punto, which at the time of the tragedy was in the Alma tunnel and forced Henri Paul to make a fatal maneuver, disappeared after the tragedy. He was never seen or looked for again. Mohamed Al Fayed, the father of the deceased Dodi al-Fayed, has been conducting his own investigation all these years and is also convinced that this is a political assassination.
Mohammed Al Fayed, father of Dodi al-Fayed: “I believe that justice will prevail. After all, the jury who will have to deliver a verdict in this case are ordinary people. I'm sure Princess Diana and my son were killed. And the royal family is behind it.”
Mohammed al-Fayed calls the attitude of the royal family towards his son Dodi racism and hypocrisy. According to him, they did not even want to imagine that a native of Egypt, besides a Muslim, could become a kind of stepfather for the heirs to the throne, not to mention the fact that the princes could have an adoptive brother or sister. It is the possible pregnancy of Diana that is called another reason for her death. The Windsors allegedly could not allow this and involved the special services in the case.
But all these conspiracy theories have remained theories. As a result, only the paparazzi were brought to trial, who not only did not provide Diana with any help, but also took their terrible shots after the tragedy and then sold them for millions of dollars.
A monument symbolizing Franco-American friendship appeared in Paris in 1987. The torch is an exact replica of the one that adorns the Statue of Liberty in New York. He has nothing to do with Diana. Coincidence: the monument stood on the Alma bridge, the disaster happened in the tunnel.
All these 20 years, the authorities of Paris promised to erect a monument to Lady Dee or immortalize her memory in the form of a memorial plaque, then they gathered to name one of the squares after her. As a result, the torch remains the only memorial reminiscent of the Princess of Wales in Paris.
On July 1, Diana would have turned 55 years old. The famous princess became a breath of fresh air in the royal palace with her open demeanor.
When she married Prince Charles at St. Paul's Cathedral, the wedding ceremony (according to Wikipedia) was watched by 750 million viewers around the world. Diana was in the center of public attention throughout her life. Everything related to her, from clothes to hair, immediately became an international trend. And even after almost two decades since her tragic death, public interest in the personality of the Princess of Wales does not fade away. In memory of the popularly beloved princess, here are twenty-six little-known facts about her life.
1. Studying at school
Diana was not good at science, and after failing two exams at West Heath Girls' School at the age of 16, her studies ended. Her father intended to send her to study in Sweden, but she insisted on returning home.
2. Acquaintance with Charles and engagement
Prince Charles and Diana met when he dated Sarah, Diana's older sister. Sarah and Charles' relationship hit a dead end after she announced publicly that she did not love the prince. Diana, on the other hand, really liked Charles, and she even hung his picture above her bed at boarding school. “I want to be a dancer or the Princess of Wales,” she once confided to a classmate.
Diana was only 16 when she first saw Charles (who was then 28) hunting in Norfolk. According to the recollections of her former music teacher, Diana was very excited and could not talk about anything else: “Finally, I met him!” Two years later, their engagement was officially announced, then Sarah proudly declared: "I introduced them, I'm Cupid."
After leaving school and until the official announcement of the engagement, the young aristocrat worked first as a nanny and then as a kindergarten teacher in Knightsbridge, one of the most prestigious areas of London.
4. An Englishwoman among royal wives
No matter how surprising it may sound, but over the past 300 years, Lady Diana Frances Spencer was the first English woman to become the wife of the heir to the British throne. Before her, the wives of the English kings were mainly representatives of the German royal dynasties, there was also a Dane (Alexandra of Denmark, wife of Edward VII), and even the queen mother, wife of George VI and grandmother of Charles, was a Scot.
Princess Diana's wedding dress was adorned with 10,000 pearls and ended in an 8-meter train - the longest in the history of royal weddings. To support the English fashion industry, Diana turned to young designers David and Elizabeth Emanuel, whom she met by chance through the editor of Vogue. “We knew that the dress should go down in history and at the same time please Diana. The ceremony was scheduled at St. Paul's Cathedral, so something had to be done that would fill the center aisle and look impressive." For five months, the windows of the Emanuel boutique in central London were tightly shuttered, and the boutique itself was carefully guarded so that no one could see the creation of silk taffeta ahead of time. On the day of the wedding, it was delivered in a sealed envelope. But, just in case, a spare dress was sewn. “We didn’t try it on Diana, we didn’t even discuss it,” Elizabeth admitted in 2011, when the second dress became known.
6. Commoner's Sapphire
Diana chose a sapphire ring from the Garrard catalog for her engagement, rather than ordering it, as was customary in royal environments. The 12-carat sapphire, surrounded by 14 diamonds in white gold, was called the "commoner's sapphire" because, despite the price of $60,000, anyone could buy it. “Many wanted a ring like Diana's,” a Cartier spokesperson told The New York Times. Since then, the "commoner's sapphire" has become associated with Princess Diana. After her death, Prince Harry inherited the ring, but gave it to Prince William before his engagement to Kate Middleton in 2010. According to rumors, William took the sapphire from the royal safe and carried it in his backpack during a three-week trip to Africa before giving it to Kate. The ring is now valued at ten times its original value.
7. Oath at the altar
Diana, for the first time in history, arbitrarily changed the words of her wedding vow, deliberately omitting the phrase “obey her husband.” Thirty years later, this oath was repeated by William and Kate.
8. Favorite dish
Diana's personal chef Darren McGrady recalls that one of her favorite foods was cream pudding, and when he made it, she would often go into the kitchen and take the raisins off the top. Diana liked stuffed peppers and eggplants; when dining alone, she preferred lean meats, a large bowl of salad, and yogurt for dessert.
Some biographers claim that Diana's favorite color was pink, and she often wore outfits of various shades of it, from pale pink to deep crimson.
10. Favorite perfume
Her favorite perfume after the divorce was the French perfume 24 Faubourg by Hermès - a delicate solemn fragrance with a bouquet of jasmine and gardenia, iris and vanilla, reeking of peach, bergamot, sandalwood and patchouli.
Diana herself chose the names for her children and insisted that the eldest son be called William, despite the fact that Charles chose the name Arthur, and the youngest - Henry (so he was christened, although everyone calls him Harry), while the father wanted name your son Albert. Diana breastfed her children, although this is not customary in the royal family. Diana and Charles were the first royal parents who, contrary to established tradition, traveled with their young children. During their six-week tour of Australia and New Zealand, they took nine-month-old William with them. Royal biographer Christopher Warwick claims that William and Harry were very happy with Diana, as her approach to raising children was radically different from that adopted at court.
12 William Is The First Prince To Attend Kindergarten
The pre-school education of royal children was traditionally handled by private teachers and governesses. Princess Diana reversed this order by insisting that Prince William be sent to a regular kindergarten. He thus became the first heir to the throne to attend a preschool outside the palace. And although Diana, who was extremely attached to children, considered it important to create, if possible, the usual conditions for their upbringing, there were exceptions. One day for dinner at Buckingham Palace, she invited Cindy Crawford, because 13-year-old Prince William was crazy about the model. “It was a little awkward, he was still very young, and I didn’t want to look too self-confident, but at the same time I had to be stylish so that the child felt that he was in front of a supermodel,” Cindy later admitted.
13. The usual childhood of the heirs to the throne
Diana tried to show the children all the diversity of life outside the palace. Together they ate hamburgers at McDonald's, rode the subway and bus, wore jeans and baseball caps, went down mountain rivers in inflatable boats and rode bicycles. At Disneyland, like ordinary visitors, they stood in line for tickets.
Diana showed children the other side of life when she took them with her to hospitals and homeless shelters. “She really wanted to show us all the hardships of ordinary life, and I am very grateful to her, it was a good lesson, that's when I realized how far away many of us are from real life, especially myself,” William said in an interview with ABC News in 2012 .
14. Not a royal demeanor
Diana preferred round tables to large royal banquets, so she could interact more closely with her guests. However, if she was alone, she would often dine in the kitchen, which is completely out of character for royalty. “No one else did that,” admitted her personal chef Darren McGrady in 2014. Elizabeth II visited the kitchen of Buckingham Palace once a year, everything had to be cleaned to a shine by her solemn tour, and the chefs lined up to greet queen. If anyone else from the royal family entered the kitchen, everyone had to immediately stop working, put the pots and pans on the stove, take three steps back and bow. Diana was easier. “Darren, I want coffee. Ah, you're busy, then I'm on my own. Should you do it? True, she did not like to cook, and why should she? McGrady cooked for her all week and stocked up the fridge on weekends so she could reheat meals in the microwave.
15. Diana and fashion
When Diana first met Charles, she was very shy, blushing easily and often. But gradually she gained self-confidence, and in 1994 her photograph in a tight, low-cut minidress at an exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery blew up the covers of the world's tabloids, because this little black dress was a clear violation of the royal dress code.
16. Lady Dee against formalities
When Diana talked to the children, she always squatted down to be level with their eyes (now her son and daughter-in-law do the same). "Diana was the first of the royal family to communicate with children in this way," - said the editor of Majesty magazine Ingrid Seward. “Usually the royal family considered themselves superior to the rest, but Diana said: “If someone is nervous in your presence, or if you are talking to a small child or a sick person, sink to their level.”
17. Change in the Queen's attitude towards her daughter-in-law
The bright emotional Diana caused a lot of anxiety to the royal court, her manner of being in public did not at all correspond to how it was customary to behave to members of the royal family. This has irritated the queen more than once. But today, having crossed the threshold of her ninetieth birthday, looking at how people perceive her wonderful grandchildren, the sons of Diana - William and Harry - Elizabeth is forced to admit that they see Diana in them, her sincerity and love of life. Unlike their father and other members of the royal family, William and Harry always attract everyone's attention and are very popular. "It's probably all thanks to Diana in the end," the Queen says with a smile.
18. Diana's role in the AIDS approach
When Diana told the Queen that she wanted to work on AIDS and approached her to help fund vaccine research, Elizabeth advised her to do something more befitting. It must be admitted that in the mid-80s, when this conversation took place, they tried to hush up the problem of AIDS and not notice it, the infected were often treated as if they were plagued. Nevertheless, Diana did not back down, and largely due to the fact that she was one of the first to draw attention to the AIDS problem, publicly shaking hands with HIV-infected people and calling for funding for research, the attitude towards AIDS in society has changed, drugs have appeared that allow patients to lead relatively normal life.
19. Fear of horses
In all the aristocratic families of England, and especially in the royal family, horse riding is not only very popular, but also mandatory. The ability to stay in the saddle is taught from an early age, and this is included in the rules of good form even for the most impoverished baronets. Lady Diana, of course, was properly trained in riding, but she was such a clumsy rider and so afraid of horses that even the queen had to back down and stop taking her on horseback rides to Sadnringham.
20. "Refresher courses" for a young aristocrat
Despite the nobility of the Spencer family, to which Diana belonged, when she married Charles, she was still too young and inexperienced in palace protocol. So Elizabeth asked her sister, Princess Margaret, Diana's neighbor at Kensington Palace, to take her daughter-in-law under her wing. Margaret enthusiastically accepted this request. She saw herself in her youth in the young creation and enjoyed communication, sharing with Diana a love for theater and ballet. Margaret told who to shake hands with and what to say. They got along well, although sometimes the mentor could be quite harsh with her protégé. One day, Diana addressed the driver by name, although the strict royal protocol implies addressing the servants exclusively by their last names. Margaret hit her on the wrist and made a stern remark. And yet, their warm relationship lasted quite a long time and changed dramatically only after the official break with Charles, when Margaret unconditionally took the side of her nephew.
21. Deliberate violation of royal protocol
To celebrate Queen's 67th birthday, Diana arrived at Windsor Castle with William and Harry, carrying balloons and paper crowns. Everything would be fine, but only Elizabeth cannot stand either one or the other, and after 12 years of close communication, Diana should have known about this. However, she nevertheless decorated the hall with balloons and distributed paper crowns to the guests.
22. Official end of relations with Charles
Elizabeth tried to do everything in her power to save the marriage of Diana and Charles. This concerned, first of all, her relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles, Charles' mistress. By the unspoken order of the queen, Camilla was excommunicated from the court, all the servants knew that "that woman" should not cross the threshold of the palace. Obviously, this did not change anything, the relationship between Charles and Camilla continued, and the marriage with Diana was rapidly collapsing.
Shortly after it was officially announced in December 1992 that the royal couple had separated, the princess asked for an audience with the queen. But upon arrival at Buckingham Palace, it turned out that the queen was busy, and Diana had to wait in the lobby. When Elizabeth finally accepted her, Diana was on the verge of a breakdown and burst into tears right in front of the queen. She complained that everyone was against her. The fact is that as much as Lady Dee was popular among the masses, she was just as much an unwanted person in royal circles. After the break with Charles, the court unanimously sided with the heir, and Diana was isolated. Being unable to influence the attitude of the family towards the former daughter-in-law, the Queen could only promise that the divorce would not affect the status of William and Harry.
23. Diana and the Taj Mahal
During an official visit to India in 1992, when the royal couple was still considered a married couple, Diana was photographed sitting alone near the Taj Mahal, that majestic monument to a husband's love for his wife. It was a visual message that, being officially together, Diana and Charles actually broke up.
24. Divorce
Despite all the Queen's attempts to reconcile her son with her daughter-in-law, including her invitation to Diana for an official reception in honor of the President of Portugal at the end of 1992, or at Christmas 1993, the parties continued to speak unflatteringly and publicly accuse each other of infidelity, so that there was no restoration of relations could be out of the question. Therefore, in the end, Elizabeth wrote letters to them asking them to consider a divorce. Both knew that this was tantamount to an order. And if the princess in a response letter asked for time to think, Charles immediately asked Diana for a divorce. In the summer of 1996, a year before the tragic death of Lady Dee, their marriage was annulled.
25. "Queen of Human Hearts"
In her BBC interview in November 1995, Diana made several candid confessions about her postpartum depression, her broken marriage, and her strained relationship with the royal family. Of Camille's constant presence in her marriage, she said: “There were three of us. Too much for a marriage, isn't it?" But her most shocking statement was that Charles did not want to be king.
Developing her thought, she suggested that she herself would never become a queen, but instead expressed the possibility of becoming a queen "in the hearts of people." And she confirmed this fictitious status by conducting active social work and doing charity work. In June 1997, two months before her death, Diana put up for auction 79 ball gowns that had once appeared on the covers of glossy magazines around the world. Thus, she kind of broke with the past, and the $ 5.76 million received at the auction was spent on funding research on AIDS and breast cancer.
26. Life after divorce
Experiencing a break with Charles, Diana did not withdraw into herself and did not fence herself off from society, she began to enjoy a free life. Shortly before her tragic death, she met producer Dodi Al-Fayed, the eldest son of an Egyptian billionaire, owner of the Paris Ritz Hotel and the London department store Harrods. They spent several days together near Sardinia on his yacht, and then went to Paris, where on August 31, 1997 they were in a fatal car accident. There is still controversy over the true causes of the accident, ranging from a race with paparazzi chasing and the driver's blood alcohol content to a mysterious white car whose paint marks were found on the door of the Mercedes in which Diana died. The accident was allegedly the result of a collision with this car. And it doesn't matter that this mysterious car that appeared out of nowhere, disappeared into nowhere, and no one saw it. But for fans of conspiracy theories, this is not an argument. They insist that it was a murder planned by the British secret services. This version is supported by Dodi's father, Mohammed Al-Fayed, indicating as the basis Dodi and Diana's plans to get married, which did not suit the royal family at all. As it was in reality, we are unlikely to ever know. One thing is certain - the world has lost one of the best and brightest women of all time, who forever changed the life of the royal family and the attitude towards the monarchy in society. The memory of the "Queen of Hearts" will forever remain with us.