Diana, Princess of Wales (UK)

[Brookie]

Somebody on local radio this morning said that the only reason Joan Rivers was invited to the wedding was to make Camilla look pretty by comparison.

In hindsight, Diana should have dumped Chuck's ass the minute she found out about Cowmilla. She probably would not have had a "glamorous", adulation filled adulthood, but she would be alive today.

I always used to envy her lifestyle until we all found out what the "real deal" was. IMO, she didn't have "mental problems" in the least. Picture yourself in her scenario: You're 19, in love with the next King and you think he's in love with you. You get courted, buy beautiful clothing and jewelry, and are touted as the girlfriend/fiancee/next Queen. You find out BEFORE you get married that you don't have a snowball's chance in hell because you now realize you're the trophy/token breeder and Cowmilla will always be in the background. You marry the idiot anyway; you are now showered with attention & adoration, you are envied by people who think you now have the perfect lifestyle - you live in a palace, you have a couple of great kids, you are beautiful, you have access to the best wardrobe on the planet, famous actors/politicians/heads of state etc. want to be around you, the best of everything on the planet - and all you want is for your husband to be in love with YOU, not his horse-faced mistress because even though you're now the Princess of Wales, you're still the same scared, unsure girl who was brought up in a broken home and had no good example of what a good marriage should or could look like. And your husband has already told you that he's NOT going to be the first Prince of Wales without a mistress, so you are well aware that you are priority #2 (and probably #3, behind contemplating running the country).

I'd be looking for a couple of outside diversions too. And yeah, a couple were married, but it's not like she could go to a pub or a concert and meet men ("Hi, I'm Diana and I'm the Princess. What's your sign?"). She was attracted to the men she was allowed to associate with, or who were privileged enough to associate with her. I really started to admire her when she started talking about what she'd been through - it took guts to buck the Royal Family and be her own person.

[Deleted]

Door said:

Joan Rivers was just on Larry King Live talking about the wedding. She went on and on about how fab C&C are, then said something to the effect of "Let's face it. Diana got around." She insinuated that it was Diana that caused Charles to stray, and wasn't it great that he could finally be happy?

I found that really... base. I mean, we all know that Charles and Camilla got together before Diana. Rewriting history isn't going to work. Especially if Joan Freaking Rivers is your mouthpiece.

Ugh. That is just tacky and disgusting. Way to bash a dead woman who can't defend herself, Joan! I can think of any number of things to call Joan right now, but I am too much of a lady to say them...

Brookie, word to your entire post. You said things much more eloquently then I could have.

Did Diana even have as many lovers as Charles had in his heyday? I think she was with James Hewitt for 3 or 4 years at least. Then she had what? Maybe 3 or 4 others? How many men have you had Joan?

How does Penny freaking Junor even find the time to bad mouth Diana when her lips are permanently stuck to Chuck’s ass? Massive hate, I have for her, yes!

[Aspasia]

Add the fact that the husband was a royal jerk to her most of the time according to a recent article by Patrick Jephson who worked for the couple. The drip, drip, drip of pyschological abuse, reinforced on the honeymoon by wearing cufflinks from his girlfriend and tucking her pictures in his diary. I wonder if she knew then that he had slept with Camilla the night before the wedding (so the story is told).

I am amazed at the about face of the tabs for the couple. It is nauseating. A common whooah is now the future Queen of England.

[Deleted]

Did Diana even have as many lovers as Charles had in his heyday? I think she was with James Hewitt for 3 or 4 years at least. Then she had what? Maybe 3 or 4 others? How many men have you had Joan?

According to Andrew Morton, she had about a dozen. They included a married art dealer, a Pakistani surgeon, a married or engaged? rugby player, a royal protection officer, a speech specialist and a fifty something Hollywood movie actor. And of course, Hewitt and Dodi... I forget the rest.

I think she was making up for lost time...

[zivvie]

Brookie, word to your entire post. A friend of mine, not a royal but who has spent time around (amongst?) them, said some interesting things.

First, someone in Diana's position (titled, a girl) was basically expected to marry someone of equal or greater standing and make titled/royal babies. That's it. Diana, from everything my friend said, from a very early age was never expected to go to college or have a real career, other than wife and mother. I think that's part of the reason why she was much more interested in celebrity and such fun stuff when she and Charles were first married. She had accomplished her goal, so it was time to have fun. After she had the kids and she and Charles were no longer together, she wanted to do more, contribute more, to the world. She didn't have the education to do more traditional work, like be an actual ambassador, and she knew that. But she did have the ability to bring attention to issues, like the elimination of land mines. I think that she was handed a shit sandwich in a beautiful box, and she did the best she could under the circumstances.

Second, my friend said that when Diana went to finishing school, she studied comportment. When I asked just what "comportment" meant, my friend said that Diana learned to walk around balancing a book on her head. I don't know how much of that was true, but given what I've learned about how little her parents cared for her education, I tend to think it was mostly true.

[Deleted]

You marry the idiot anyway; you are now showered with attention & adoration, you are envied by people who think you now have the perfect lifestyle - you live in a palace, you have a couple of great kids, you are beautiful, you have access to the best wardrobe on the planet, famous actors/politicians/heads of state etc. want to be around you, the best of everything on the planet - and all you want is for your husband to be in love with YOU.

See, that's the part I don't understand...

I'm not sure you can blame Charles for Diana's borderline personality disorder. I think it's something that was there anyway. Diana always had extremely short and intense emotional relationships, impulsive behavior such as binge eating and self-mutilation, suspicion and paranoia, persistent feelings of emptiness (the whole world loved her except ONE guy... geeesh!) and bouts of serious depression...

The girl DID have serious mental problems and the Palace should have had her checked for mental stability instead of virginity...

[Brookie]

Me too, Zivvie, me too. Shit sandwich in a beautiful box - what a great description. I think she did absolutely outstanding work having attention put on issues - much more so that Chuck ever did (I believe he brought attention to the organic vegetables he was speaking TO in his garden - and there was something about buildings or archaeology or something he got his power knickers in a wedgie about too - maybe somebody can refresh my memory about that). People respond to somebody with personality, with a smile, someone who listens, who bends down to accept a bouquet of flowers from a child. Diana became probably much more than Chuck bargained for - she forgot to remain the breeder/mouse/introverted shy person.

That and she had a wardrobe I'd kill for. There was one short, beaded, scoop-neck white thing (and I've Googled and can't find a photo of her wearing it) that given the present shape I'm in, I'd look like hammered shit in it, but man it was wonderful on her.

[Deleted]

I was never a big fan and I have People Magazine to thank for that. Just about the 50th time she appeared on their cover I decided I couldn't stand either of them anymore.

Having said that, however, I have to add that I was always amazed by her transformation. As others have said, she was painfully shy at first, and clearly in way over her head. Then -- I assume through sheer force of will -- she made herself over into this glamorous, jet-setting, fashion-savvy, celebrity-knowing, cause-espousing icon.

You know, this may sound like a strange comparison, but I often think of her and Julia Roberts as two of a kind, at least in certain ways. When JR was suddenly catapaulted into fame, remember the famous "deer in the headlights" look she always had? In pictures of her she was often ducking her head or smiling self-consciously. Then she disappeared for a couple years and came back as JULIA ROBERTS - SUPER STAH AND LOVIN' IT!

So, whatever neuroses can be attributed to either of them, they both managed spectacularly to play their hands to their advantage (at least in the public's eye, in Diana's case).

[roseland]

"gee, I'd love to marry the Prince of Wales, but I've just discovered that he's sleeping with a married woman named Camilla Parker-Bowles and the only reason he's marrying me is because he has to produce heirs, so I've decided to call off the wedding."

Dude, how awesome would it have been if she'd really done that? That would have made my decade.

Diana always had extremely short and intense emotional relationships, impulsive behavior such as binge eating and self-mutilation, suspicion and paranoia, persistent feelings of emptiness (the whole world loved her except ONE guy... geeesh!) and bouts of serious depression...

I don't know. I'm always a little suspicious of this laundry list. I mean, she was bulimic, she admitted that. But so are a lot of people who manage to have happy, healthy relationships. As for suspicion, paranoia, persitent feelings of emptiness and serious depression, well, hell, I think she was entitled considering the situation she was in. She was locked away, pretty much, from any real relationships. Her husband couldn't stand her and openly mocked her and her position, her in-laws barely tolerated her, she was surrounded by people who were either her employees or had something to gain from the friendship -- none of this was conducive to a happy, mental state. And all of these, except the bulemia, can be traced back to Charles.

On another note entirely, I never thought Diana was beautiful. she was average looking as far as I was concerned. I did like how she made herself over and the work she did for various charities. I think her touching that AIDs patient did more to alleviate people's worries about normal contact with people with AIDs than all the pamphlets that were ever printed.

[Deleted]

The thing that really bugged me about Diana was she didn't seem to appreciate all she DID have. I have read Morton's book and have seen a number of programmes on the CBC (that originated at Granada and the BBC) and they all are now saying she had some serious mental problems.

The girl had everything! More than the rest of us will ever have. Great looks, wonderful, healthy kids, a huge amount of money, an extravagant lifestyle, nannies, world adoration, people who really wanted to be her friend, access to everything from celebrities to energy healers. So ONE guy didn't love her. IT HAPPENS! Appreciate all the fabulous things you were given in life and be content with it. Be grateful!

If ONE GUY can cause you to have such misery, with sharp mood swings, feelings of loneliness, boredom and emptiness and impulsive behavior such as binge eating and self-mutilation -- and you still have this chronically and persistently YEARS after the divorce and years after you have had a few nice love affairs yourself, (the doctor, the Squidgie guy, Hewitt, her body guard, Dodi)... well then I do think you have some mental problems.