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Biography of Diana, Princess of Wales

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Princess Diana (born Diana Frances Spencer; July 1, 1961–August 31, 1997) was the consort of Charles, Prince of Wales. She was the mother of Prince William, currently in line for the throne after his father, Diane's former husband, and of Prince Harry. Diana was also known for her charity work and her fashion image.

Fast Facts: Diana, Princess of Wales

• Known For: Diana became a member of the British royal family when she married Charles, Prince of Wales, in 1981.
• Also Known As: Diana Frances Spencer, Lady Di, Princess Diana
• Born: July 1, 1961 in Sandringham, England
• Parents: John Spencer and Frances Spencer
• Died: August 31, 1997 in Paris, France
• Spouse: Charles, Prince of Wales (m. 1981–1996)
• Children: Prince William (William Arthur Philip Louis), Prince Harry (Henry Charles Albert David)

Diana Frances Spencer was born on July 1, 1961, in Sandringham, England. Although she was a member of the British aristocracy, she was technically a commoner, not a royal. Diana's father was John Spencer, Viscount Althorp, a personal aide to King George VI and to Queen Elizabeth II . Her mother was the Honourable Frances Shand-Kydd.

Diana's parents divorced in 1969. Her mother ran away with a wealthy heir, and her father gained custody of the children. He later married Raine Legge, whose mother was Barbara Cartland, a romance novelist.

Diana grew up practically next door to Queen Elizabeth II and her family, at Park House, a mansion next to the Sandringham estate of the royal family. Prince Charles was 12 years older, but Prince Andrew was closer to her age and was a childhood playmate.

After Diana's parents divorced, her father gained custody of her and her siblings. Diana was educated at home until she was 9 and was then sent to Riddlesworth Hall and West Heath School. Diana did not get along well with her stepmother, nor did she do well in school. Instead, she found an interest in ballet and, according to some reports, Prince Charles, whose picture she had on the wall of her room at school. When Diana was 16, she met Prince Charles again. He had dated her older sister Sarah. She made some impression on him, but she was still too young for him to date. After she dropped out of West Heath School at 16, she attended a finishing school in Switzerland, Chateau d'Oex. She left after a few months.

After Diana left school, she moved to London and worked as a housekeeper, nanny, and kindergarten teacher's aide. She lived in a house purchased by her father and had three roommates. In 1980, Diana and Charles met again when she went to visit her sister, whose husband worked for the queen . They began to date, and six months later Charles proposed. The two were married on July 29, 1981, in a much-watched wedding that's been called the "wedding of the century." Diana was the first British citizen to marry the heir to the British throne in almost 300 years.

Diana immediately began making public appearances despite her reservations about being in the public eye. One of her first official visits was to the funeral of Princess Grace of Monaco. Diana soon became pregnant, giving birth to Prince William (William Arthur Philip Louis) on June 21, 1982, and then to Prince Harry (Henry Charles Albert David) on September 15, 1984.

Early in their marriage, Diana and Charles were publicly affectionate. By 1986, however, their time apart and coolness when together were obvious. The 1992 publication of Andrew Morton's biography of Diana revealed the story of Charles' long affair with Camilla Parker Bowles and alleged that Diana had made several suicide attempts. In February 1996, Diana announced that she had agreed to a divorce.

The divorce was finalized on August 28, 1996. Settlement terms reportedly included about $23 million for Diana plus $600,000 per year. She and Charles would both be active in their sons' lives. Diana continued to live at Kensington Palace and was permitted to retain the title Princess of Wales. At her divorce, she also gave up most of the charities she'd been working with, limiting herself to only a few causes: homelessness, AIDS, leprosy, and cancer.

In 1996, Diana became involved in a campaign to ban landmines. She visited several nations in her involvement with the anti-landmine campaign, an activity more political than the norm for the British royal family.

In early 1997, Diana was linked romantically with the 42-year-old playboy "Dodi" Fayed (Emad Mohammed al-Fayed). His father, Mohammed al-Fayed, owned Harrod's department store and the Ritz Hotel in Paris, among other properties.

On August 30, 1997, Diana and Fayed left the Ritz Hotel in Paris, accompanied in a car by a driver and Dodi's bodyguard. They were pursued by paparazzi. Just after midnight, the car spun out of control in a Paris tunnel and crashed. Fayed and the driver were killed instantly; Diana died later in a hospital despite efforts to save her. The bodyguard survived despite critical injuries.

The world quickly reacted. First came horror and shock. Blame was next, much of which was directed at the paparazzi who were following the princess's car and from whom the driver was apparently trying to escape. Later tests showed the driver had been well over the legal alcohol limit, but immediate blame was placed on the photographers and their seemingly incessant quest to capture images of Diana that could be sold to the press.

Then came an outpouring of sorrow and grief. The Spencers, Diana's family, established a charitable fund in her name, and within a week $150 million in donations had been raised. Princess Diana's funeral on September 6 drew worldwide attention. Millions turned out to line the path of the funeral procession.

In many ways, Diana and her life story paralleled much in popular culture. She was married near the beginning of the 1980s, and her fairy-tale wedding, complete with a glass coach and a dress that could not quite fit inside, was in sync with the ostentatious wealth and spending of the 1980s.

Her struggles with bulimia and depression shared so publicly in the press were also typical of the 1980s' focus on self-help and self-esteem. That she seemed to have finally begun to transcend many of her problems made her loss seem all the more tragic.

The 1980s realization of the AIDS crisis was one in which Diana played a significant part. Her willingness to touch and hug AIDS sufferers—at a time when many in the public wanted to quarantine those with the disease based on irrational and uneducated fears of easy communicability—helped change how AIDS patients were treated.

Today, Diana is still remembered as the "People's Princess," a woman of contradictions who was born into wealth yet seemed to have a "common touch"; a woman who struggled with her self-image yet was a fashion icon; a woman who sought attention but often stayed at hospitals and other charity sites long after the press had left. Her life has been the subject of numerous books and films, including "Diana: Her True Story," "Diana: Last Days of a Princess," and "Diana, 7 Days."

• Bumiller, Elisabeth, et al. “Death of Diana: Times Journalists Recall Night of the Crash.” The New York Times, 31 Aug. 2017.
• Clayton, Tim, and Phil Craig. "Diana: Story of a Princess." Atria Books, 2003.
• Lyall, Sarah. “Diana's Legacy: A Reshaped Monarchy, a More Emotional U.K.” The New York Times , 31 Aug. 2017.
• Morton, Andrew. "Diana: Her True Story - in Her Own Words." Michael O'Mara Books Limited, 2019.
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April 3, 2024

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Short Bio » Royal Family » Princess Diana

Princess Diana

Diana, Princess of Wales  was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, who is the eldest child and heir apparent of Queen Elizabeth II. She was the fourth child and third daughter of John Spencer, Viscount Althorp and the Honourable Frances Roche. In 1975, after her father inherited the title of Earl Spencer, she became Lady Diana Spencer. Her wedding to the Prince of Wales on 29 July 1981, held at St Paul’s Cathedral, reached a global television audience of over 750 million people. While married, Diana bore the titles Princess of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duchess of Rothesay, Countess of Chester, and Baroness of Renfrew.

As Princess of Wales, Diana undertook royal duties on behalf of the Queen and represented her at functions overseas. She was involved with dozens of charities including London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for children, of which she was president from 1989. She was celebrated for her charity work and for her support of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. The marriage produced two sons, the princes William and Harry, who were then respectively second and third in the line of succession to the British throne.

Diana remained the object of worldwide media scrutiny during and after her marriage, which ended in divorce on 28 August 1996. Media attention and public mourning were extensive after her death in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997 and subsequent televised funeral.

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Princess Diana

• Occupation: Princess
• Born: July 1, 1961 in Norfolk, England
• Died: August 31, 1997 in Paris, France
• Best known for: Becoming Princess of Wales when she married Prince Charles
• Nickname: Lady Di

• Diana's parents were married at Westminster Abbey. The queen attended their wedding.
• While a child she visited the nearby home of the royal family and played with the younger princes, Andrew and Edward.
• Prince Charles was thirteen years older than Lady Diana.
• She did not like people to call her "Di" even though she was often called "Lady Di", "Shy Di", or "Princess Di."
• Listen to a recorded reading of this page:

Timeline: Princess Diana's life and the events that made her who she was

Princess Diana is a larger-than-life figure in so many ways, and her biography contains moments large and small, public and private, royal and routine.

This timeline follows Diana from childhood to storybook royal wedding to parenthood and then, unfortunately, to a death that came far too soon.

1961:  Diana Frances Spencer, born July 1, was the fourth of five children born to John Spencer, the 8th Earl Spencer and his first wife, Frances Ruth Roche.

1967: The Spencers separate when Diana is six years old. The divorce would not be final until 1969, following a child custody battle won by her father. In later years, her younger brother, Charles, blames the split on the loss of their first son, John, who died within hours of his birth in 1960, and the difficulty of producing a male heir.

1969: Diana's mother marries Peter Shand Kydd, an Australian wallpaper heir, and is accused by Shand Kydd's ex-wife of being the "other woman" in their divorce. The couple moves to the remote Scottish Isle of Seil.

1970: Diana, age 9, enrolls at Riddlesworth Hall, an all-girls boarding school in Norfolk.

1973: Diana joins older sisters Jane and Sarah at West Heath Girls' School in Kent, where she shows talent in music and sports but not academics. Later, she fails her O-level exams twice, and leaves without the equivalent of a high school diploma.

1975: Diana, 13, is given the title of Lady after her grandfather dies and her father inherits the title Earl of Spencer and the Althorp estate.

1976: John Spencer remarries, this time to socialite and local politician Raine McCorquodale, Lady Dartmouth, with whom he remains until his death in 1992. Though Diana and her brother called their new stepmother "Acid Raine," Diana later reconciled with her prior to her 1997 death.

1977: Diana first meets future husband Prince Charles, who at the time was dating her older sister Sarah.

1980: During a summer weekend in the country, Prince Charles notices Diana. Later that year, he takes her sailing on the royal yacht and invites her to Balmoral, his family's Scottish retreat to meet his family.

January 1981: After tabloids report a premarital liaison between Charles and Diana, Prince Philip writes a letter to his son urging him to either propose or end the relationship. Charles interprets it as an order to propose.

Feb. 24, 1981: Charles and Diana go public with their engagement (and Diana debuts her famous sapphire-and-diamond ring). On the night she moves out of her London apartment, her protective officer warns her, "I just want you to know that this is your last night of freedom ever, in the rest of your life, so make the most of it."

March 9, 1981: Diana bucks royal practice by wearing a plunging black gown by Elizabeth Emanuel for her first major post-engagement outing, which is criticized for being inappropriate. Afterward, she is bothered by media reports that she still has "an ounce or two of puppy fat," further inflaming her resurgent eating disorder.

July 29, 1981: Less than a month after her 20th birthday, Diana weds Charles, 32, at St. Paul's Cathedral, which better accommodated their 2,500 guests than Westminster Abbey, the usual venue for royal weddings. Two more deviations from tradition: The omission of the word "obey" from Diana's vows (intentional) and the delay of their first kiss until returning to Buckingham Palace (unintentional).

Nov. 5, 1981, The palace announces Diana is pregnant with her first child.

January 1982: Diana falls down a staircase at Sandringham at the end of her first trimester, which she later admitted was a deliberate cry for attention from Charles.

June 21, 1982:  The couple's first child, Prince William Arthur Philip Louis, is born at London's St. Mary's Hospital, where his own children would be born three decades later.

March 1983: Together with Charles, Diana and 9-month-old son William embark on their first royal tour together to Australia and New Zealand.

Sept. 15, 1984: The couple's second son, Prince Henry Charles Albert David, aka Harry, is born. Charles, who wanted a girl, complains, "It's a boy and he's even got red hair." Diana later tells biographer Andrew Morton , "Something inside me closed off," killing whatever love she had left for him and cementing her belief "Charles had gone back to his lady," Camilla Parker Bowles.

Nov. 9, 1985: First lady Nancy Reagan orchestrates Diana's memorable dance with John Travolta at the White House.

April 1987:  At the peak of homophobia and fear of AIDS, Diana shakes hands with a man suffering from the disease without gloves at London's Middlesex Hospital. Her gesture is later described by journalist Judy Wade as "the most important thing a royal's done in 200 years" because it helped to dispel the misconception that the then-fatal illness could be transmitted by casual contact.

1989: During a 40th birthday party for Camilla Parker Bowles' sister, Diana dismisses her husband and confronts her rival about her ongoing affair with Charles . "I would just like you to know that I know exactly what is going on," Diana tells Camilla, warning her not to treat the princess "like an idiot." In tapes that would later comprise Andrew Morton's biography Diana: Her True Story, In Her Own Words , the princess counts it as one of her bravest moments. 

June 1991: Diana keeps a two-day vigil at the bedside of Prince William after he suffers a severe head injury at boarding school , requiring surgery. Meanwhile, Charles is castigated for keeping his plans that evening.  "What sort of father of an eight-year-old boy, nearly brained by a golf club, leaves the hospital before knowing the outcome for a night at the opera?” the Daily Express asks.

March 29, 1992: Diana's father, John Spencer, dies of a heart attack in London. Diana opposes Charles' offers to accompany her back from their Austrian ski vacation, believing him to be using her grief for a public-relations coup. However, the palace overrules her.

Aug. 20, 1991:  Diana cuts short her annual royal family summer holiday at Balmoral to return to London to be at the bedside of longtime friend Adrian Ward-Jackson, who dies of AIDS-related illness two days later. She had quietly been spending time with him over the last year and had even brought Prince William to meet him. 

May 1992:  Journalist Andrew Morton publishes Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words. Begun a year earlier, it consisted of no face-to-face interviews because she couldn't risk being seen as openly participating. Morton sent written questions via her friend Dr. James Colthurst, who recorded the interviews and ferried the tapes back to him.

August 1992: Britain's Sun newspaper reveals the "Squidgygate" tapes, alleged to be from a years-old phone conversation with alleged lover James Gilby, who referred to Diana by Squidgy, a pet name, he uttered dozens of times throughout the recording.

December 1992: Prime Minister John Major informs Parliament of the official separation of the Prince and Princess of Wales. The move comes a month after a disastrous official visit to South Korea , which forced the palace to realize it was time to end the charade.

January 1993: The "Camillagate" tapes surfaced, audio recordings of phone conversations between Charles and his lover, in which he expresses his wish to be her tampon .

December 1993: Diana announces her plan to retire from public life , at least for an indefinite period, and dramatically pares down her list of charity patronages.

Fall 1995: Diana meets Dr. Hasnat Khan, the Pakistani-born cardiac surgeon overseeing her acupuncturist's postoperative care and begins a secret, two-year relationship. He breaks up with her in the early summer of 1997 but unlike another lover James Hewitt, who later betrayed her with a tell-all book, Khan never reveals the intimate details of their time together . However, their relationship is turned into a widely-panned 2013 film starring Naomi Watts and Naveen Andrews.

Nov. 20, 1995: BBC's newsmagazine Panorama airs Martin Bashir's bombshell interview with Diana at Kensington Palace, which had been planned and carried out in secrecy. During the conversation, she discusses her past struggles with depression, bulimia and self-harm and admits to her own infidelities. But her most famous quote was in regards to the love triangle with her soon-to-be ex-husband and his longtime love, Camilla Parker Bowles: "Well, there were three of us in the marriage so it was a bit crowded."

August 1996: The terms of the royal  divorce are finalized . Diana is awarded a lump-sum settlement of $22.5 million in cash, as well as about $600,000 a year earmarked to maintain her private office in addition to receiving permission to continue living in their Kensington Palace apartment. She agrees to give up any future claim of being queen. However, she is stripped of the title Her Royal Highness and is henceforth referred to as Diana, Princess of Wales, seen as a petty move on the part of the palace.

Jan. 15, 1997: Diana walks through a minefield in war-torn Angola  to support the Red Cross' call for a ban on landmines and to showcase the de-mining work being done by one of the charities she patronized . Two decades later, her guide, Paul Heslop, recounted the nervous episode to the BBC :  "This poor woman was about to go into a live minefield, a dangerous area, in front of however many hundreds of millions or billions of people on the news, and I thought back to the first time I went into a minefield, and I was petrified."

Aug. 30, 1997:  A few months after her split with Khan, Diana and her new beau, Dodi Fayed, depart Paris' Ritz-Carlton Hotel after dinner to spend the night at his apartment. Their intoxicated driver, Henri Paul, later found to be three times over the legal limit, races through the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in an attempt to outrun the paparazzi. Shortly after midnight, he crashes their Mercedes into a cement pylon, killing himself and Fayed instantly. Diana and bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones are taken to the hospital.

Aug. 31, 1997: Diana succumbs to her injuries (mostly cardiac in nature) and is pronounced dead at 4 a.m. at Paris' PItié-St. Salpêtrière Hospital at age 36. 

Sept. 1, 1997: Charles accompanies his ex-wife's remains back from Paris, along with her older sisters, Sarah and Jane.

Sept. 6, 1997:  Millions around the world watch Diana's funeral procession and service at Westminster Abbey. Later that day, her remains are transported home to her family's estate at Althorp, where she is buried.

Biography Online

Achievements of Princess Diana

Diana was a shy 20-year-old woman when she became engaged to Prince Charles and was thrust into the media spotlight. Through her marriage to Prince Charles, she joined one of the most famous families in the world and became an object of intense media interest. Diana’s personal difficulties are well documented. However, to appreciate the accomplishments of Princess Diana we should not focus on these human weakness, which without exception, are common to us all.

“Everyone needs to be valued. Everyone has the potential to give something back if only they had the chance.”

– Princess Diana

At times Princess Diana resented the intrusion of the media into her private life. But at other times, she realised the importance of the media in highlighting important social issues. Diana played a significant role in de-stigmatising people who were HIV positive. At the time there was a lot of fear that HIV could be passed on through touch alone. Princess Diana allayed many of these prejudices by being photographed embracing people who had the disease. Another campaign which Diana thought incredibly important was the campaign to ban landmines. She supported a ban on landmines because they are responsible for so many post-conflict deaths and injuries. Often it is young children who are most affected by the legacy of landmines. Princess Diana was the most high profile figure to support the ban on landmines. Pictures of her walking through an old landmine site in Angola were displayed around the world. Her role is thought by many to be crucial in the passing of the Ottawa treaty banning the use of landmines.

Princess Diana was a unique royal; by engaging in her charity work on a deeply personal level she became a real “people’s princess”. People from around the world could identify with her. In particular they appreciated her heart-centred approach to life. She was not just appreciated in her home country the UK, but around the world. She captured the heart of America and received much support and encouragement even from American newspapers.

“After giving her time and property to charities and causes ranging from the treatment of AIDS to the abolition of landmines, her destiny is clear. She will never be the queen of England, but she will be the queen of our hearts.”

– Newsday, July 7th, 1997

Spiritual Teacher Sri Chinmoy wrote:

“Princess Diana Yours is a temple-heart of sympathy, Self giving and oneness delight”

Citation:  Pettinger, Tejvan . “Achievements of Princess Diana”, Oxford,  www.biographyonline.net  23rd May, 2010 Updated 3rd October 2017

Diana: Princess of Wales by Mario Testino

Diana: Princess of Wales by Mario Testino at Amazon.

Princess Diana: Her Life Story, 1961-1997

Princess Diana: Her Life Story, 1961-1997 at Amazon

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How Princess Diana's tell-all biography by Andrew Morton came to be

This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is at risk of suicide please call the  U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline  at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741 or go to  SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources  for additional resources.

Princess Diana had a story that everyone wanted to hear — and no one could tell it better than she could. In the decade since marrying Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, the royal had skyrocketed to global fame, and had also experienced the difficulties of being part of her new family.

The title of Andrew Morton’s bombshell book “Diana: Her True Story In Her Own Words" is literal.

As Season Five of “The Crown” shows, Diana contributed directly to the creation of the book — though that fact didn’t emerge until after her death in 1997 at the age of 36 .

When the book came out in 1992, it was initially published under the title, "Diana: Her True Story," and became a bestseller.

The book went into detail about the royal's life before becoming Princess of Wales and gave a private perspective on Diana’s public life: Her unhappy marriage , her husband’s relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles and Diana’s struggles with an eating disorder . 

During the initial publication, Morton and Diana alike denied she was part of the book’s sourcing, per Frontline . Morton said he was accused of lying, recalling the experience in a 2017 interview with the Belfast Telegraph .

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“I knew it was all true, because the words came out of Diana’s own mouth. But it was frustrating that I was getting lambasted. I thought journalists might have got the nods and winks in the text about how I got the quotes from Diana. But most of them were asking how dare I write it,” he said. 

In 1997, Morton revealed who, exactly, had been sharing all those details: Diana herself. A revised version, entitled "Diana: Her True Story In Her Own Words," contained an 18,000 word transcript of the tapes Diana recorded and passed along to Morton.

“The story is based on a lengthy, tape-recorded interview with Diana, supplemented by her family and friends,” Morton wrote in the foreword of the memoir’s revised version, published in 1997.

This methodology sets the book apart from the many other books written about Diana . "This his biography is unique in that the story contained in its pages would never have appeared had it not been for the wholehearted cooperation of Diana, the late Princess of Wales,” Morton wrote. 

Read on for more about the creation of the memoir — and the fallout of going public. 

The biography was Diana’s way of sharing her story 

Speaking to NBC News in 2004, Dr. James Colthust — who acted as a go-between for Morton and the princess — shared that the book was Diana’s idea.

According to Colthurst, who met Diana during a skiing trip when she was 19, writing the book was a way to share her side of the story.

“I think it was a gradual realization by her that she needed to have some control over what was said … and that wasn‘t going to be possible in a newspaper. It was better, in fact, to do that through a book. And really that was a decision that she gradually came to over some months,” Colthurst said.

In the introduction to the revised version book, Morton wrote that, amid her crumbling marriage, Diana was in a “genuine predicament.”

Her task? “To give the public an insight to her side of the story while untangling the legal, emotional and constitutional knots that kept her tethered to the monarchy.” 

Diana felt herself a “prisoner trapped inside a bitterly unfulfilled marriage,” and felt “shackled to a whole unrealistic public image of her royal life” and to “an unsympathetic royal system.”

For Diana, a book was the solution. Charles later contributed to his own book. He admitted to infidelity in a 1994 interview with Jonathan Dimbleby , who later wrote a book with his cooperation.  

The princess hand-picked Morton for the job, not the other way around 

In “The Crown,” Diana gets wind of a book by Morton, and decides to contribute. But historical accounts say that Diana picked Morton herself to write the book. 

Colthurst explained to NBC, “He had done some books on her, and she felt they were sympathetic, although they were quite lightweight in the subject matter.”

Diana felt that, since Morton was young — he was about 39 in 1992 — he might be more “sympathetic” to her. 

A 1997 story in the New York Times backs up Colthurst’s account: “Mr. Morton said he was asked to become the conduit for her story after Diana learned he was preparing a biography of her. A friend of hers summoned him to a working-class pub in the northwest London suburb of Ruislip and reported her interest, saying she had been impressed by his fairness in articles and books he had written during his years as the royal correspondent for two national tabloids."

Morton and Diana never met, instead communicating through tapes delivered by James Colthurst

Speaking to NBC, Colthurst explained how the process worked. He would “peddle in” to Kensington Palace with a briefcase, containing Morton’s questions in a briefcase in the bicycle basket.

“Initially, I sat and I read out the questions, but that was too slow for Diana. She snatched the questions away from me and then clipped the microphone on to herself and the tape recorder was on and away she went,” Colthurst said. 

Colthurst then delivered the tapes back to Morton. “I was never face-to-face with Diana, so that we could give her deniability,” Morton said in 2017 to the Belfast Telegraph .

The publisher had to be convinced Diana's allegations were real

In the book "The Diana Chronicles," Tina Brown recounted the lengths Diana went to convince publishers her stories were true — especially regarding her marriage.

Morton's publisher Michael O'Mara wanted proof "besides Diana's word" that Camilla Parker Bowles was linked to Charles.

"Diana stole a cache of Camilla's love letters to Charles from the Princes' briefcase at Balmoral and allowed her publishers to peruse them as evidence. The team was instantly persuaded that the affair was real," Brown wrote.

What, exactly, does the book say?

A lot! Below, find some of the revelations.

She recounted their engagement

Diana gave a play-by-pay of how Charles proposed after about 13 meetings.

"He said: ‘Will you marry me?’ and I laughed. I remember thinking: ‘This is a joke’, and I said: ‘Yeah, OK’, and laughed. He was deadly serious. He said: ‘You do realize that one day you will be Queen.’ And a voice said to me inside: ‘You won’t be Queen but you’ll have a tough role.’ So I thought: ‘OK’, so I said: ‘Yes.’ I said: ‘I love you so much, I love you so much.’ He said: ‘Whatever love means.’ He said it then. So I thought that was great! I thought he meant that! And so he ran upstairs and rang his mother."

Diana said her eating disorder began the week after her engagement

Diana pinpointed the exact moment that "triggered" her bulimia.

“It was all very strange, I just felt miserable. My husband put his hand on my waistline and said: ‘Oh, a bit chubby here, aren’t we?’ and that triggered off something in me,” she explained. “And the Camilla thing, I was desperate, desperate. I remember the first time I made myself sick. I was so thrilled because I thought this was the release of tension.” 

She spoke to her mental health struggles and suicide attempt

Diana said she when she "threw" herself "down the stairs" during her pregnancy with William: “Charles said I was crying wolf and I said I felt so desperate and I was crying my eyes out and he said: ‘I’m not going to listen. You’re always doing this to me. I’m going riding now.’ So I threw myself down the stairs."

Diana said she attempted suicide a second time.

“I was running around with a lemon knife, one with the serrated edges. I was just so desperate,” Diana recalled, not specifying the date when this occurred. “I knew what was wrong with me but nobody else around me understood me. I needed rest and to be looked after inside my house and for people to understand the torment and anguish going on in my head. It was a desperate cry for help. I’m not spoiled — I just needed to be allowed to adapt to my new position.”

She spoke to the queen about her marriage problems

Diana said she and her mother-in-law had a conversation about her marriage to Charles.

"'I’ll never let you down but I cannot say the same for your son.’ She took it quite well,” Diana recalled telling the queen. “She indicated to me that the reason why our marriage had gone downhill was because Prince Charles was having such a difficult time with my bulimia. She told me that.” 

And her confrontation with Camilla

According to the book, Diana confronted Camilla about her relationship with Charles in the '80s.

"I said to Camilla: ‘I’m sorry I’m in the way, I obviously am in the way and it must be hell for both of you, but I do know what is going on. Don’t treat me like an idiot,'" Diana recalled saying.

Diana and Charles separated in 1992

The book was published in June. Months later, in December, the Prince and Princess of Windsor announced their formal separation. 

The book has been revised twice since its first publication

After Diana’s death, Morton revealed that Diana was his primary source in an expanded 1997 edition. In 2017, for the 20th anniversary of her death, Morton published another expanded edition taking into account William and Harry’s lives . “I think my book is basically about appreciating and understanding the life of the woman we lost,” Morton told the Belfast Telegraph.

The 2017 documentary contains footage from the tapes

The expanded version, published in 1997, included an 18,000 word transcript of Diana’s tapes. For another immersive look at “her own words,” the 2017 documentary “Diana: In Her Own Words” contains audio footage that Morton used to write his memoir. 

Elena Nicolaou is a senior entertainment editor at Today.com, where she covers the latest in TV, pop culture, movies and all things streaming. Previously, she covered culture at Refinery29 and Oprah Daily. Her superpower is matching people up with the perfect book, which she does on her podcast, Blind Date With a Book.

The Final Years of Princess Diana

Before her untimely death in 1997, the People's Princess was determined to forge her own path.

Diana's marriage to Charles dissolved

On December 9, 1992, Prime Minister John Major announced to the House of Commons that Charles and Diana had separated. It wasn't a big surprise: estrangement between the two had been evident, and a recent book by Andrew Morton, entitled Diana: Her True Story , had detailed her unhappiness (Diana denied involvement with the book but had in fact cooperated).

Yet the separation placed Diana in an awkward position, as it was Charles who had the defined role as heir to the throne. Though she remained extremely popular, and she'd always be the mother of a future king, she was no longer considered a true member of the royal family.

She was on a quest for normality

In 1993, Diana successfully headed a Remembrance Day service in Northern Ireland, among other duties. But she also remained an object of tabloid fascination — in November, photos taken of her exercising in a leotard appeared in the Daily Mirror . On December 3, she announced she was temporarily stepping away from public life and its "overwhelming" media attention.

Soon afterward, wanting more privacy and normality in her life, Diana also relinquished her police protection. From 1994 onward, she usually had no official bodyguard. Paparazzi, who loved the fact that Diana was unguarded, began to take more and more photos — a practice that continued right up to the night of her death.

As Charles' camp tried to boost his reputation, Diana was seen as emotionally volatile

Today Diana's reputation shines, but critical stories often appeared about her. In 1994, the press stated she'd been making nuisance phone calls to the home of a married man. And the publication of Princess in Love revealed details about Diana's affair with army officer James Hewitt.

People in her husband's camp were also determined to bolster Charles' reputation, making him the subject of a positive biography and documentary to celebrate his 25th anniversary as Prince of Wales in 1994 (though an on-camera admission of adultery didn't help the prince). For some, Diana and Charles were a zero-sum game: Diana had to be seen as emotionally volatile in order to explain Charles' actions. All this made Diana determined to reveal her side of things once more.

She did a secret TV interview to tell her truth

Many friends cautioned Diana not to get on the wrong side of the royal family, and the princess knew the establishment wouldn't approve of an on-camera interview. But she struck a deal with BBC's Panorama, and on November 5, 1995, interviewer Martin Bashir and crew came to Kensington Palace to talk to Diana (she'd given her staff time off to maintain secrecy). She didn't tell Buckingham Palace what she'd done until less than a week before the interview was scheduled to air.

On November 20, the program was seen by 23 million people in Britain. In it, Diana talked about her marriage, infidelity, bulimia and depression, and stated, "I'd like to be a queen of people's hearts, in people's hearts, but I don't see myself being Queen of this country." She also questioned Charles's ability to rule. The interview did boost the princess's popularity, but it also precipitated a final exit from the royal roost.

READ MORE: Was Princess Diana a Commoner Before Marrying Prince Charles?

Diana and Charles officially divorced just one year before her death

In December 1995, the Queen wrote to Charles and Diana to say it would be better if they divorced. The pair agreed to do so in February 1996, and their marriage officially ended on August 28, 1996.

Diana ended up receiving a lump sum payment of £17 million and shared custody of Princes William and Harry . However, though she would still be known as the Princess of Wales, she no longer had the title "Her Royal Highness." She'd been fully kicked out of the royal family.

READ MORE: How Princes William and Harry Are Carrying out Princess Diana's Legacy

She found love again

While her divorce was happening, Diana had a bright spot in her life: She'd fallen in love again. In 1995, she met Dr. Hasnat Khan, a cardiac surgeon who was tending to the husband of a friend. Through him, Diana experienced some of the normality she'd always craved — she got to order drinks at a pub and stand in a line. According to one friend, the princess noted, "You meet such interesting people queuing!"

Diana may even have hoped to marry Khan. She traveled to Pakistan to meet his family and saw them when they visited England. But her lover was devoted to his medical career, and the spotlight that came with Diana would be a huge burden. The relationship ended in the summer of 1997.

About two months after their split, Diana began dating Dodi Fayed , who was also involved in the car crash that took their lives.

READ MORE: Why Princess Diana Risked Her Life for Humanitarian Causes in Africa

Diana devoted her time to support worthwhile causes

Diana continued to support humanitarian causes following her divorce. In January 1997, she traveled to Angola with a BBC film crew to bring attention to the problem of landmines, which remained across the country following a civil war.

During her trip, Diana spent time with landmine victims and visited a prosthesis clinic. She also walked across a cleared minefield (still a dangerous decision, as mines could have been left behind). And when photographers complained they didn't have the shots they needed, she walked through the field again.

Diana's celebrity brought attention to an important cause. After she died, 122 governments signed the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty in December 1997. The impact of just one trip highlights again what a tragedy her early death was, and how much more she could have done for the world.

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Princess Diana

• Born July 1 , 1961 · Park House, Sandringham, Norfolk, England, UK
• Died August 31 , 1997 · Paris, France (road accident)
• Birth name Diana Frances Spencer
• The People's Princess
• Princess Di
• The Queen of Hearts
• The Princess of Hearts
• England's Rose
• Height 5′ 10″ (1.78 m)
• Princess Diana was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, and the mother of Prince William and Prince Harry. Diana's activism and glamour made her an international icon and earned her an enduring popularity. Diana was born into the British nobility and grew up close to the royal family on their Sandringham estate. She did not distinguish herself academically, but was talented in music, dance, and sports. Diana came to prominence in 1981 upon her engagement to Prince Charles, the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II, after a brief courtship. Their wedding took place at St Paul's Cathedral in 1981 and made her Princess of Wales, a role in which she was enthusiastically received by the public. The couple had two sons, the princes William and Harry, who were then second and third in the line of succession to the British throne. The couple separated in 1992, soon after the breakdown of their relationship became public knowledge. The details of their marital difficulties became increasingly publicized, and the marriage ended in divorce in 1996. As Princess of Wales, Diana undertook royal duties on behalf of the Queen and represented her at functions across the Commonwealth realms. She was celebrated in the media for her unconventional approach to charity work. Her patronages initially centered on children and youth but she later became known for her involvement with AIDS patients and campaign for the removal of landmines. She also raised awareness and advocated ways to help people affected with cancer and mental illness. Considered to be very photogenic, she was a leader of fashion in the 1980s and 1990s. Media attention and public mourning were extensive after her death in a car crash in a Paris tunnel in 1997 and televised funeral. Her legacy has had a deep impact on the royal family and British society. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Tango Papa
• Spouse King Charles III (July 29, 1981 - August 28, 1996) (divorced, 2 children)
• Children Prince Harry Prince William of Wales
• Parents Earl John Spencer Frances Shand Kydd
• Relatives Princess Charlotte of Wales (Grandchild) Prince Louis of Wales (Grandchild) Charles Spencer (Sibling) Sarah McCorquodale (Sibling) Jane Fellowes (Sibling) Prince George of Wales (Grandchild) Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor (Grandchild) Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor (Grandchild)
• Blonde hair, often short
• Statuesque, model-like figure
• Once referred to Queen Camilla as a rottweiler.
• Told an intimate friend that, while walking down the aisle in Saint Paul's Cathedral, she thought about turning back like "Elaine" did in The Graduate (1967) .
• She was a close friend of Michael Jackson and Elton John . "Candle in the Wind", John's song about Marilyn Monroe , was changed to fit her, and performed by him at her funeral. Coincidentally, both women died at age 36.
• When Diana went to the LA Fitness Centre in Isleworth, the owner Bryce Taylor planted a camera and caught her exercising in a leotard. The photos were sold for over £100,000 to The Mirror. They printed them saying they were exposing the lapse in royal security, but Diana didn't buy the explanation and took them to court. They reached an out-of-court settlement. This incident impelled Diana to withdraw from public life.
• Invited Supermodel Cindy Crawford to Buckingham Palace for dinner, when Prince William of Wales had a secret crush on the model.
• [interview in "Panorama" magazine, 1995] There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.
• Any sane person would have left long ago. But I cannot. I have my sons.
• I'd like to be a queen in people's hearts but I don't see myself being queen of this country.
• My role is about 80% slog and 20% fantastic.
• If I'm going to comfort the suffering, I have to understand what they've been through.

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A look back at the life of Princess Diana

Born July 1, 1961, Diana Spencer was the daughter of Edward John Spencer and Frances Ruth Burke Roche. As a child, she was shy but developed a love of music and dance, according to Biography.com .

She had an aristocratic upbringing, becoming Lady Diana after her father inherited the title of Earl Spencer in 1975. It's believed she even played with Prince Andrew and Prince Edward as a child.

In 1977, she became acquainted with Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, who was 13 years older than her. Soon after, she finished school, moved to London and became a kindergarten teacher. Throughout the late 1970s, Charles' courtship of Diana was of huge public interest and extensively documented by the media.

When the two were married on July 29, 1981, it was dubbed the "wedding of the century." An estimated 750 million viewers all over the world tuned into the ceremony on television.

Diana and Charles had two children. Prince William, born in 1982, is second-in-line to the throne. Prince Harry was born in 1984. Though Diana and Charles divorced in 1996, she continued to be considered a member of the royal family, according to her Buckingham Palace biography .

The princess was a fashion and glamour icon, but she also became known for her worldwide philanthropy efforts. She championed causes including homelessness, disabilities, HIV/AIDS, the welfare of children and opposition to the use of land mines. During the final month of her life, she was doing charity work, visiting land mines in Bosnia.

Her personal life also continued to be in the public spotlight, including her romance with Egyptian film producer Dodi Al-Fayed. The couple was visiting Paris on the night of August 31, 1997 when their car was pursued by the paparazzi, resulting in a high-speed crash. Al-Fayed and the driver, who was found to have a high level of alcohol in his system, were killed, and Princess Diana died later from her injuries. She was 36.

As the news spread, flowers piled up outside of Buckingham Palace. The world mourned for the princess, with 2.5 billion people watching her funeral on television.

Within days, supporters established the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund . Over the years it has raised more than $179 million for the causes that Diana loved.

Related Topics

• PRINCE CHARLES
• ROYAL FAMILY
• PRINCE HARRY
• PRINCE WILLIAM
• U.S. & WORLD

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