Lady D: the life of one of the most controversial members of Britain’s Royal family
Beautiful, smart, charming, loving, and rebel: this is how we all know Princess Diana. It’s been more than 20 years since her death, which occurred after a car accident in 1997, and the aim of this article is to sum up the most important events in her life, in order to understand why she became famous and loved by so many people all around the world.
Diana Spencer was born in a noble family in Sandringham in 1961 and grew up close to the royal family, getting to know Prince Charles when she was still very young. At the age of 20, she received Charles’ proposal of marriage and, as you know, she accepted to become the Princess of Wales. Their wedding took place at the end of June 1981 and just some months later, Diana announced her first pregnancy. At the time, the royal couple had already had some issues with their marriage. Right after the birth of William, Charles and Diana’s firstborn, the family left the UK and embarked on their first royal tour in Australia and New Zealand, during which Diana enjoyed a big success. Just a few years later, the royal couple announced Diana’s second pregnancy, after which, Diana visited America, where she danced with John Travolta at the White House. At that point, she had conquered everyone’s heart all around the world, possibly becoming the most loved member of the royal family.
Diana was also involved in many social events and manifestations: she became the symbol of the fight against HIV and AIDS after she shook hands with a man suffering from this virus, without wearing gloves. In this way, she helped to raise awareness about this illness. She was also on the front line in the battle against the use of landmines. The enormous participation by the Princess in these social issues made her a controversial member of the royal family since her behaviour was quite unusual for a royal. Over time, Diana became more isolated and less accepted by the other royals, while her success throughout the world was growing.
At the same time, her marriage with Prince Charles turned out to be extremely unhappy. As a matter of fact, in an interview with the journalist Andrew Morton, she said that her marriage was too crowded since they were not two, but three. Indeed, Prince Charles had an affair with Camilla Parker Bowels. Lady D also revealed she suffered from depression and had an eating disorder while leaving at court. In 1996, Diana and Charles officially divorced. After the separation, Lady D announced she wished to retire from public life since the relentless paparazzi were extremely annoying and had invaded her privacy more than once. In the meantime, Charles and Camilla Parker officialised their relationship. After that, the princess herself tried to turn the page and go on with her life, even if, she eventually admitted, it was hard because her sons still were the heirs of the throne of Britain and so she felt a lot of pressure on her shoulders. Following the separation, Prince Charles insisted on removing the style of ‘’Her Royal Highness’’ from Diana, even though the Queen wanted to let the princess continue to use it.
In the year between the divorce and Diana’s death, the Princess and Charles lived their lives separately. Lady D returned to Kensington Palace, where she had stayed with her ex-husband right after the royal marriage. She started dating a British-Pakistani surgeon, Hasnat Khan, but they eventually ended the relationship at the beginning of summer 1997, also because Diana’s mother strongly disapproved of the fact that her daughter was dating a Muslim man. This made Diana’s relationship with her mother pretty much nonexistent. As a matter of fact, when Diana died, she had not spoken to her mother in four months. After the breakup with Khan, Diana was invited by a close friend, Dodi Fayed, to spend the summer with his family in South France. Lady D and Dodi eventually became a couple, but their relationship lasted just a month. As a matter of fact, on 31st August 1997, the two and their driver died in a car accident which occured in a tunnel in Paris.
Everyone was shocked by the news because no one expected to lose one of the most popular celebrities of the time that soon. Thousands and thousands of people left flowers, candles and cards outside Kensington palace. After Diana’s death, the Queen herself paid tribute to her in a live television broadcast, but many people still criticised the way the Royal Family had behaved with Diana both before and after the divorce. It goes without saying that Diana’s funeral was one of the most viewed events ever in the history of the United Kingdom . After all she was probably the most loved members of the royal family, the one that firstly changed the terms, trying to adapt the millenial tradition of the Crown to the modern times.
