PRINCESS DIANA : THE BELOVED PRINCESS OF WALES

23 years is such a long period to forget the impact someone had on society. But Princess Diana proved otherwise. It’s been 2long decades since her death but she lives in all of us even today. Diana as a person had ups and downs in her personal life. Critics seem to point out the negative influence she was as a mother, wife, and royal citizen. Before we jump to such conclusions, let’s look into the not-so-popular facts about Diana and her early life.

In her short life, Princess Diana made a legacy for herself as a humanitarian, mother, and friend. Diana, Princess of Wales, original name Diana Frances Spencer, was born on July 1, 1961, near Sandringham, England. Diana was the daughter of Edward John Spencer, Viscount Althorp, and Frances Ruth Burke Roche, Viscountess Althorp (later known as the Honorable Frances Shand Kydd). Her parents divorced when Diana was just 7, and her father won custody of the children.

Following her initial education at home, Diana attended Riddlesworth Hall School and then West Heath School. Although she was known for her shyness while growing up, she showed an interest in music and dancing. She became Lady Diana Spencer after her father inherited the title of Earl Spencer in 1975. After attending the finishing school of Chateau d'Oex at Montreux, Switzerland, Diana returned to England and became a kindergarten assistant at the fashionable Young England school in Pimlico. The Queen Mother was close friends with Princess Diana’s grandmother, Ruth Fermoy. She was one of Her Majesty’s ladies-in-waiting and later held the title Woman of the Bedchamber, which meant that she was the Queen’s right-hand woman and assisted with important social engagements. Princess Diana and Prince Charles were distantly related. Specifically, they were 16th cousins once removed, through King Henry VII.

She renewed her contacts with the royal family, and her friendship with Charles grew in 1980. On February 24, 1981, their engagement was announced, and her beauty and shy demeanor—which earned her the nickname “Shy Di”—made her an instant sensation with the media and the public. The couple married in St. Paul’s Cathedral on July 29, 1981, in a globally televised ceremony watched by an audience numbering in the hundreds of millions. During the vows, she called her husband “Philip Charles” instead of “Charles Philip,” mixing up his first and middle names. Their first child, Prince William Arthur Philip Louis of Wales, was born on June 21, 1982, and their second, Prince Henry (“Harry”) Charles Albert David, on September 15, 1984.

Diana rapidly evolved into an icon of grace, elegance, and glamour. Exuding natural charm and charisma, she used her celebrity status to aid numerous charitable causes, and her changing hairstyles and wardrobe made her a fashion trendsetter. Behind the scenes, however, marital difficulties between the princess and prince were growing.

Diana’s separation from Charles was announced in December 1992 by British Prime Minister John Major, who read a statement from the royal family to the House of Commons. Their divorce was finalized in August 1996.

After the divorce, Diana maintained her high public profile and continued many of the activities she had earlier undertaken on behalf of charities, supporting causes as diverse as the arts, children’s issues, and AIDS patients. She also was involved in efforts to ban land mines. To ensure that William and Harry had “an understanding of people’s emotions, their insecurities, people’s distress, and their hopes and dreams,” Diana brought her sons with her to hospitals, homeless shelters, and orphanages. To acquaint them with the world outside royal privilege, she took them to fast-food restaurants and on public transportation. Her compassion, personal warmth, humility, and accessibility earned her the sobriquet “the People’s Princess.

Diana whipped the British tabloids into a frenzy when she began dating Egyptian film producer and playboy Dodi Fayed in 1997. While visiting Paris, Diana and Dodi Fayed were involved in a car crash after trying to escape from the paparazzi early in the morning of August 31, 1997. Fayed and the driver were pronounced dead at the scene. Diana initially survived the crash but succumbed to her injuries at a Paris hospital a few hours later. She was 36 years old.While visiting Paris, Diana and Dodi Fayed were involved in a car crash after trying to escape from the paparazzi early in the morning of August 31, 1997. Fayed and the driver were pronounced dead at the scene. Diana initially survived the crash but succumbed to her injuries at a Paris hospital a few hours later. She was 36 years old.

News of her sudden, senseless death shocked the world. Queen Elizabeth II, who was criticized for not immediately responding publicly to Diana’s death, made a televised address from Buckingham Palace on September 5, in which she said: “No one who knew Diana will ever forget her. Millions of others who never met her, but felt they knew her, will remember her. I, for one, believe there are lessons to be drawn from her life and the extraordinary and moving reaction to her death. I share in your determination to cherish her memory.”

Diana’s life, and her death, polarized national feelings about the existing system of the monarchy (and, in a sense, about British identity), which appeared antiquated and unfeeling in a populist age of media celebrity in which Diana herself was a central figure.

PEARL SARA ABRAHAM

FIRST YEAR BCJ