Rotten Mango - #224: Did Princess Diana Predict Her Own Death? - The Secrets Of Her Royal Marriage

Episode Date: December 28, 2022

Diana’s note in her diary read - “I am sitting here at my desk today in October, longing for someone to hug me, and encourage me to keep strong and hold my head high.” “My husband is planning an ‘accident’ in my car, brake failure and serious head injury in order to make the path clear for Charles to marry.” Diana predicted that her husband wanted her dead in a car accident so he could marry the true love of his life. She worried for her life. She felt someone was watching her, listening in on her, and keeping tabs on her. Less than a year later - Princess Diana was killed in a car accident. Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Welcome to this week's main episode of Rotten Mango. I'm your host Stephanie Sue. Have you guys been watching the Harry and Megan doc on Netflix? Nope. Okay. Well, I thought in honor of the dog coming out and everyone becoming obsessed with it, let's talk about Princess Diana, because there are so many references to Princess Diana throughout the dog, and it's just, it's a lot.

If you think the royal family is messy now, they've always been messy. It's just a whole thing. So banned books are kind of counterintuitive, because it makes everyone want to read them more. It's just a whole thing. So, band books are kind of counterintuitive because it makes everyone want to read them more. It's the strisoned effect. Attempts to suppress information often make the information receive intense publicity.

Once people are aware that some information is being kept from them, they are significantly more motivated to access and spread that information. Is there a lot of band books? Oh yeah. We've heard a list of them that you've probably heard of these titles, but band books include Slotterhouse 5 by Kurt Ronnigit, 1984 by George Orwell, The Catcher and the Rye, older books. I just can't imagine a new book being published and immediately being banned from major grocery stores, bookstores, and chains all across the United Kingdom.

But there was one. And it had people in a frenzy. What do you think the book was about? What do you think it was called? Maybe it had to do with the government? Were they watching us? Some story of a whistle blowing spy? Espionage?

Are you talking about this ban book today? Yeah, it's called... Oh my god. Diana. Her true story and her own words. It seemed like somebody didn't want Princess Diana to tell her own story. As always, full show notes are available at rotnaminglepodcast.com, but there is an incredible book on this case. I think there's a lot of books written about the royal family about Princess Diana, but this one is particularly special, because the author's main source for this book was Princess Diana herself. In a series of secret meetings, yeah, super secret meetings, she was still married to Prince Charles when she gave the author Andrew Morton her life story, her truth.

Because trust me once we get into it, you realize that yes, everybody loves Princess Diana now, but they really hated her back then. The press, the public, they didn't like her at all. In fact, they made her life a living hell. So she recorded audio clips for Andrew Morton, so she could show the world who she really was. He wrote her biography for her and it was called Diana, her true story and her own words by Andrew Morton. Now, just to give you an overview of the book, there's two versions out there. The first version was released when Princess Diana was alive, and this version used none of her direct quotes, because for her own safety, nobody could know that Princess Diana helped him write the book. But after her death, Andrew Morton released a second edition, and it was divided into three parts. Part one is Diana's interviews edited chronologically so basically it's Diana narrating her life

with some authors notes for a structure. Part two is Andrew Morton's written biography so this is like the first edition and then part three is the aftermath which was written after Diana's death to finish her story. Although it's never really finished because her legacy lives on. I really, really love the book. I mean, just by reading the transcripts of Diana, you can hear her soft, mesmerizing voice. You feel like it's just you and her in the room. I know that sounds kind of creepy, but you just can't help but feel for her for everything that she went through.

So I highly recommend everyone read this book, and I know it's less debated now, but it was hotly debated. Back then, the credibility of all of this. Some said it was pure make-believe, pure fiction. Some said Andrew Martin was a little scam artist. But Andrew Martin had the audio recordings of Diana answering his questions. He even sent the first book's manuscript to Princess Diana. And he has the copy that she sent back, where she made numerous handwritten corrections before it went into publication. On top of that, Diana wrote a letter to her father talking about how she was in the process

of writing a biography. She wrote, An author has done me a particular favor in now writing a book on me, as Diana, rather than as the Princess of Wales. I trust him completely and have every reason to do so. In the letter, she asked her father to send a family photo album to pick pictures for the book. And the biography includes photos never seen by the public before. And it said that Diana personally picked up the book, cover photo.

But we're gonna talk more about the book's credibility in a second. But with that being said, let's get into it. Diana had a note in her diary that read, I am sitting here at my desk today in October, longing for someone to hug me and encourage me to keep strong and hold my head high. This particular phase in my life is the most dangerous. My husband is planning a quote accident in my car. Break failure, serious head injury in order to make the path clear for trials to remarry. I have been battered, bruised, and abused mentally by a system for 15 years now, but I

feel no resentment. I am strong inside, and maybe that's a problem for my enemies. Thank you, Charles, for putting me through such hell and forgiving me the opportunity to learn from the cruel things that you have done to me. She literally writes that her husband, Prince Charles, is planning to kill her in a car accident, and less than a year later, she has found dead. There's a lot of conspiracies, there's a lot going on, so buckle up and let's get into it. Princess Diana, the Princess of Wales, Lady D, the Queen of Hearts, or just Diana, as she liked to be called, was born Diana, Frances Spencer, in Norfolk, United Kingdom. She wasn't born into the royal family,

she wasn't a princess at birth obviously, but the Spencer name held quite a bit of weight. Like the Spencer's are old, old money. Their roots could be traced back to the 15th century, where they were amongst the wealthiest sheep traders in all of Europe. Like this is an old money family. And since then, since way back then, the Spencer's had close links with the royal family. Diana's grandmother, Countis Spencer, she was the lady of the bed chamber, aka the lady in waiting to Queen Elizabeth's mom, who was also named Queen Elizabeth, so both of them are Queen Elizabeth, but the one that you're probably picturing is Queen Elizabeth the second. So this is William and Harry's grandmother, right?

But this is their great-grandmother that we're talking about. They just called her Queen Mother so that it wouldn't get complicated. She was the lady in waiting for the Queen Mother. You're like, what does that mean? It means a personal assistant, which, you know, it sounds like not a great title, but it means that you're so close to the Queen. You potentially could sway this person or influence the queen. It's kind of like her right hand woman to help her with

everything, even all the personal stuff. Diana's grandma was the lady and waiting for Queen Mother for nearly 30 years, and Diana's father served as an officer for the royal household to both King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II. So Queen Elizabeth II, aka the late Queen that just recently passed that we're all familiar with. So anyway, the Spencer's were obviously very close to the Royal Family, to the English monarchs, but just to give you an idea how close, the Spencer's lived in Park House, which is owned by the Royal Family, and the Spencer's were renting it out. And the Royal Family doesn't need tenants like they can have empty houses all over the

world. The royal family is estimated to be worth 28 billion dollars. So they don't need to rent out any vacation homes, you know, but they will, to people that they're close with, that's how close the Spencer's were to the Windsor's. Diana even called Queen Elizabeth, aunt little bit when she was a kid. So Queen Elizabeth had four kids, just to, you know, some background to refresh memories. Queen Elizabeth had Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward. So Prince Charles being Diana's future husband and now the King of England,

and Prince Andrew is most famously known nowadays for having allegedly deep ties with Jeffrey Epstein and Epstein Island. So yikes. Diana grew up hanging around Prince Andrew and Edward, the youngest of the two kids, and it sounds like the perfect privilege life, right? But it wasn't a happy childhood for Diana, mainly because most of her life she felt torn and unwanted. Her parents, John and Frances Spencer, they really wanted a son to carry on their family name. Diana's parent? Yeah. But instead they had two daughters, Sarah

and Jane. And their third pregnancy, they finally gave birth to a little boy. And it was like their whole dreams are coming true. This was their fantasy. This was their magical life that they were going to have together. All they wanted as a family, which I'm sure must have felt uncomfortable for their already existing daughters, but whatever, they wanted a son to complete their family. They named him John Spencer the second after John the dad, but unfortunately, after about 10 hours of being born, John the second passed away. Yet a congenital deformity and he passed. And look, it was devastating. It would have been devastating for any couple, but the the Spencer's were over the moon about

this baby. They were overjoyed at the idea of having a son. They felt like they were being blessed with a son. And now that son was cruelly taken away from them, it was hard. 18 months later, they gave birth again. Francis and John were so sure that we're gonna have another son. This was gonna be the universe or God's way of healing their pain. This was gonna be how they move on as a family. They were so positive they didn't even have a girl's name picked out. It didn't even register in their mind. It could be a girl.

So it was an absolute surprise when the doctor handed them their baby and she was a baby girl. Her parents were disappointed. They didn't even try to hide it. Not on the day of Diana's birth, and honestly, not even when Diana was a child, they didn't even try to hide it. They couldn't even bring themselves to name her. So for an entire week, Diana had no name. Diana said one of her first memories. It was more of a feeling than a memory, but she said, and I quote, I couldn't understand why I was perhaps a nuisance to have around.

Which in later years, I've perceived as being part of the sun, the child who died before me was a son, and both parents were crazy to have a son and heir, and there, there comes a third daughter. What a bore. We're gonna have to try again now. I've recognized that now. I've been aware of it, and now I recognize it, and that's fine.

I accept it. So Diana remembered that as one of her first memories, the feeling of being unwanted, a disappointment. Look, that's a heavy burden to carry around for a kid and it did not get better as she got older. The other older members of the Spencer family started to demand Francis to explain herself. You're like, what? So the older members of the family felt like Francis was at fault. Something was wrong with her body, and that's why she kept producing daughters. Which is so infuriating,

because not having a baby does not make someone less of a woman or more of a woman, and the sex of the baby is determined by the sperm cells. So blame your own son, thank you. The sperm cells. And I say sex because gender is what you identify as and sex is what you're assigned at birth.

Okay, but you get it. It's the sperm cells. And Frances, she's getting hounded by her in-laws. She's only 23 years old. And they're forcing her to visit clinic after clinic in London, having her submit to all sorts of invasive tests to find out what's wrong with her. I mean, it was a humiliating experience for her. Finally, after three years of this, and I'm sure Frances probably felt some betrayal from

her husband, like, how can you let your family talk to me like this? How can you let them drag me around like this? She finally gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Charles Spencer. And for a little while, it was happy, but at this point, Francis and John had so much strain and tension in their relationship that eventually the family would split. There was just too much pain. There was too much going on in the family.

Even the kids felt it. Charles was treated completely different from his sisters. First of all, he got a name as soon as he was born. And just to compare, Diana was christened at a local church, and her godparents were some random family members of the Spensors. It felt like a rushed obligation more than anything. To christen Diana, on the other hand, Charles was christened in style at the Westminster

Abbey with the Queen of England as his godparent. Yeah. Which aside note, Diana and her brother were super, super close, but the joy of having a son just was not enough to bandage the broken couple at this point. The Spencer parents they divorced. So Diana's around seven at this point. Rough. Prior to this, Diana lived and still lived even after the divorce like a very privileged

life, but she was never snobby or stuck up. Her family had money, she had nannies all the time, but the kids were raised to have really good manners. They were raised to not discriminate, to be honest, to take care of those that were less fortunate than them. Charles later said, we never understood the whole title business. I didn't even know that I had any kind of title

until I went to prep school and I got letters saying, the honorable Charles. We had no idea that we were privileged as children. We just accepted our circumstances as normal. Especially Diana. There was something just about her. She was poised, so gracious at a young age.

Even her family nicknamed her Dutch. Because she kind of had this Dutchist like attitude as a kid. Diana said, I always got along very well with everybody. Whether it be the gardener or the local police or whatever. I always got along very well with everybody, whether it be the gardener or the local police or whatever. I always went over to talk to them. My father always said, treat everybody as an individual and never throw your weight around. So that's what she did, like genuinely. She was the type to make you feel safe. If you were being bullied, she would be the type to sit with you at lunch. If you were feeling insecure

in a bikini, she would probably be the type to make you forget about it and jump in the water with you. That's kind of who she was even as a kid. For example, there was a police officer that everyone hated in the town. He had a bit of a reputation for being like a cranky aggressive dude, but Diana just felt like he was lonely. So she decided to give him her Christmas present. And he was so touched he burst into tears. And Diana said, I always felt very different from everyone else. Very detached. I knew I was going somewhere different, but I just had no idea where. So initially, after her parents divorced, Diana and Charles lived with their mom and London, and their mom's new boyfriend Peter, who was honestly great to the kids. Like, he spoiled them, he was a good pseudo-step father and my felt normal again until John Spencer their dad was like I want custody

out of nowhere so Diana and Charles were forced to move in with their father and they hated it especially Charles I mean he was really young he wanted stability he wanted that maternal love in his life and now now he's at his dad place, he doesn't feel like home, he misses his mom, he would cry all night long. And Diana, being close to her little brother felt so protective overhead, there is nothing she wouldn't have done for him. But she remembered, being so utterly terrified of the dark, like paralyzed at night, she would hear him crying in his room that he wanted his mommy, and instead of being able to get up at a bed Traveled down the long dark hallway to help her brother like she desperately wanted to she would just shiver in bed

She would cry herself to sleep at the anger that she couldn't be courageous enough to go comfort her brother So it wasn't great and the tension between the two parents was pretty rough Francis and John would argue nonstop over custody and visitation rights. Diana said she even saw her father slap her mother across the face once. And every weekend when Diana and Charles were allowed to visit their mother, on Saturday night, her mom would just cry. Diana would ask, what's the matter mom? I don't want to see you guys leave tomorrow.

Diana said as a nine year old, the whole thing was devastating. The parents were in this power struggle and the kids were just caught up in the middle of it. Diana said one of the hardest choices she had to make was one of her cousins were getting married. Diana was to show up wearing a pretty dress and she said and I quote, my mother gave me a green dress and my father had given me a white dress and they were both so smart the dresses and I can't remember to this day which one I got in, but I remember being totally traumatized by it,

because it would show favoritism. She didn't want to offend either parent, but the truth was, John Spencer wasn't even that interested in being a great father. Francis wanted to be a great mother, but John just kind of wanted custody to rub it in his ex-wife's face. Or maybe he was just too busy? I don't know, but whenever they were with their dad,

the kids were raised structurally by nannies, like dozens of them. And it wasn't even just the same dozen. They were constantly coming and going. No stability, no consistent figure in their lives. Diana recalled, we had so many changes of nannies because daddy was a very attractive divorcee and he was good bait for somebody. We tend to think that they came for that rather than for

looking after my brother and I. If we didn't like them we used to stick pins in their chair and throw their clothes at the window. We always thought they were a threat because they tried to take mother's position. They were all very young and rather pretty. They were chosen by my father. It was terribly disruptive to come back from school one day and find a new nanny. Not only did the nannies change frequently, but Diana never knew what kind of nanny the nanny would be. Some were kind, caring, warm, compassionate, others would discipline the kids at any chance that they got. One nanny beat Diana with a wooden spoon, or sometimes they would grab trials in Diana's heads and bring them together.

One nanny? Oh my god! This nanny laced the kid's food with laxatives as punishment. John the father didn't even notice that his kids were constantly complaining of stomach aches and stomach pains. It was Francis, their mom, who noticed and she started keeping an eye on the nanny and literally caught her red-handed putting laxative in the kid's food. So yeah, it was unpleasant to say the least. Diana described her childhood as unhappy, very unstable, she said, it was a very unhappy childhood. Parents were sorting

themselves out, always seeing our mom crying. Daddy never spoke to us about it. We can never ask questions. Too many changes over nannies, very unstable, the whole thing. Generally unhappy and being very detached from everybody else. At the age of 14, I just remember thinking that I wasn't very good at anything, that I was hopeless because my brother was always the one getting exams at school and I was the dropout. So you dropped out? Yeah, there was obviously a lot of pressure for Diana to do well in school.

She went to some of the fanciest private schools. I mean, she did a semester at a boarding school in Switzerland, one of the most prestigious ones. She said she never did well. Her older sister was a prefect. Apparently, that doesn't just exist in Harry Potter. And Diana was dressed. She felt like she was never good enough.

She tried but her sisters had always gotten better grades than her. You know, she tried other things. She mainly excelled at extra curricular, like acting, music, dancing, sports. She won medals for running, swimming, diving. She did love learning. She said, I liked all subjects. History fascinated me.

Tutors and stewards, I adored them. To think that these people lived X many years ago, I never anticipated that I would end up in the system, in the books. In English, I loved for the Pride and Pregida. I remember when I wrote essays, I wrote 10 times more than I should have. It just came out of the pen. Diana loved learning about people, the mind. She loved psychology, but even then she lived in her siblings' academic shadows. There was basically nothing Diana could do that a family member had

an already done and done better. So yeah, Diana loved to play the piano. She was good at it. But her grandma played at the Royal Albert Hall in front of the Queen Mother. You know? So suddenly being decent at piano wasn't that impressive to anybody. So it took a while for Diana to find something that she liked doing, something that she felt like she was good at. And we're going to get into it in a little bit, but first tragedy. When Diana was 15

years old, John Spencer, her father married Reyn, the Countess of Dartmouth. Yeah, fancy people. And Diana hated Reyn. Hated her stepmom. Okay, hate is your strong word that she probably would never use, but Diana considered Reyn a bully. So I have a theory, there are no reports of child abuse from reign. But I imagine she was an okay stepmom, but a horrible second wife. So it seems like she was very very nasty to Francis. And probably a lot of it had to do with John Spencer himself, putting his new wife against his ex-wife, selling her stories of how evil the first wife was, and how he had no blame in their breakup and how she was just horrible to live with. That type of thing.

It's just a theory because there's no evidence of rain being an evil stepmom, but she probably wasn't a great person to Frances. There is one thing that I did find a little bit peculiar though. Rain was obsessed with Christmas. The stepmom had this weird obsession. It's not like a holly jellie rocking around the Christmas tree obsession, but she had this weird system where the kids were only allowed to open whatever present she pointed at at random times throughout the day. Like there were snow Christmas morning opening

of the gifts like they had to wait for a weird imaginary time that rain would make up in her head. It was really weird. It drove the kids mad, but I would hardly call it abuse. At this point Diana eventually started spreading her wings. She's trying to find things that she's passionate about. There was this group at school that would visit geriatric homes and hospitals as part of extra curricular, which I mean let's be real. If you give a high schooler a chance to go to swim team, debate team, hang out with friends during their little team meetings, or go visit a nursing home every weekend where you're ripped from your friends

and you have to spend time with the elderly, most of them would choose debate team, but Diana loved it. She loved having tea with the elderly ladies. She just kind of had a bit of an old soul. That's what everyone describes her as. She always got along better with the older crowd. She loved being able to help them do their shopping, run errands for them. She just loved it. And it was selfish too, I'm sure, through helping others, Diana said that she found her sense of purpose and belonging.

She felt fulfilled. So at 16, she left school. And it's kind of unclear whether she graduated or dropped out. She briefly went to Switzerland, hated it, okay. She said it was claustrophobic. She learned how to ski, but it was just weird. She said it was a waste of the parents' money, so they whipped her back to England, and then at Charles' wedding. So Diana's younger brother's wedding, John Spencer and his new wife Reyn and his ex-wife Francis, they were all seated in the same row at Charles' wedding.

And Diana could see Rain, be so snarky to Francis the whole wedding, all these years, almost a decade of resentment and anger had boiled over in Diana blew up after the wedding. She said, why? Just for one day can't you be civil? For Charles is sick, for his wedding. But John and Rain were being nasty the whole time.

So she vented and she was like, what is wrong with you? And Rain snapped back. You have no idea how much pain your mother has put your father through. Diana was shocked. She said, pain? Pain? Rain, that's one word you don't even know how to relate to.

So at this point, Diana was helping the elderly as a job. And she said, in my job, in my role, I see people suffer like you've never seen. You call that pain, you've got a lot to learn. Diana remembered speaking her mind. And like, I love Diana for this. So when she was the Princess of Wales, there were a lot of people trying to get her to help promote them, you know, try to draw attention to them.

She loved promoting the research of AIDS, trying to find a cure for AIDS, and all these things. And there was this ballet company, the biggest one, the like, hey, can you promote theater and arts? And she basically was like, there are people dying, Kim. And she refused. What if comparing car insurance rates was as easy as putting on your favorite podcast? With Progressive, it is. Just visit the Progressive website to quote with all the coverages you want. You'll see Progressive's direct rate, then their tool will provide options from other companies so you can compare. All you need to do is choose the rate and coverage you like. Quote today at Progressive.com to join the over 29 million drivers who trust progressive.

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100%. I saved my soul just like everybody else does. Listen to and follow the set, an Odyssey originals documentary podcast series, available now in the Odyssey app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your shows. I'm not a big guy man, but I love being that 30 motherf***er. So you know Diana remembered speaking her mind and she said, I hate you so much, Rain. If only you knew how much we all hated you for what you've done. You ruined the house, you spent daddy's money, and for what? Francis would later say, it was the first time anyone had ever defended her.

And it was her daughter, Diana. Even though it put a huge strain on Diana's relationship with her own father, Diana and John didn't speak for six months after that. Eventually, they did patch things up, but there was still some of that residual tension for a little while. So finally, at 18 Diana moves to London, and she starts sharing an apartment with two of her friends. Honestly, she was such a regular girl.

Like nobody on the face of London, or England, or Earth, would think that in a year or two she would be the most photographed woman that's hounded by paparazzi and thrust into the spotlight. She was living such a normal life. She took cooking classes, worked a series of low-paying jobs, she was a preschool assistant, a kindergarten teacher, she tried her hand at doing some cleaning work, she hosted some parties, she tried being a dance instructor. She tried working as a nanny. Honestly, her life was overwhelmingly normal in Dullin, London. Not what you would expect from the soon-to-be princess of Wales. And around that time, she met Prince

Charles. But there were Charo friends, right? No. So she was childhood friends with his younger brothers. This was her first time actually meeting Prince Charles. But she, like, you know, it's not new to her to meet a royal, so it's not like she's gonna stay like, oh my god. In fact, Prince Charles was actually dating Diana's older sister, Sarah. Wow. And during this time, Sarah was struggling with an ED,

and the Spencer family was so worried about her, they actually started putting up these little incentives. They would tell her, you can't talk to Charles on the phone unless you eat dinner, unless you gain two pounds. This might be important later, but anyway. When Diana first met Prince Charles, there were no sparks flying.

For a few reasons. One, this is her older sister's boyfriend. Second, Diana is a teenager. Prince Charles was in his late 20s. And third, Diana was enamored by the royal family. She didn't think being part of the royal family would be fun. She actually thought it would be miserable. How old was she? She was 17 when she first met him. I believe. So there was no reason, you know, for her to be like,

oh my god, Prince Charles, right? And when she first met him, she muttered, God, what a sad man. Let me explain. Diana said, I've known the Queen since I was tiny, so there's no big deal. No interest in Andrew or Edward. Never thought about Andrew. I kept thinking, look at the life they have. How awful. And now living in London, Diana at 19 years old gets a random unexpected invite to Prince Charles's birthday party at Buckingham Palace. Charles is like 13 years older than her. She's barely 19 at this birthday party. She was a child. He is the literal heir to the English monarchy.

I mean, think about the power in Blacklands. But at this birthday party, he spots her and at this point, he had broken up with Sarah Spencer. And he's like, hey, do you want to come aboard the royal yacht with me and my friends for like a weekend trip? Dan, I was so confused. She didn't really know if it was okay to say no, or if she could say no. So she was like, okay, I guess.

The whole thing she said was odd and intimidating, but I guess it was a date. And they kinda started dating afterwards. For six months, maybe they saw each other a total of 13 times. And then Prince Charles called her and said, I have something very important to ask you. He didn't ask her the question over the phone, but Diana knew what he was talking about. It was clearly not romantic at all. Like all those romantic books and princesses falling in love and the prince is proposing? Yeah, no, he was calling her and was like, hey, I got something to ask you. But does she like him at the point after 13 dates?

Yeah, she liked him. Yeah. And he said, hey babe. I'm just kidding, he didn't say that. He's like, want to get hitched. Diana knew though. It was obvious what he was trying to hint at. She stayed up all night with her friends.

I mean, just confused out of her mind. She had seen this guy like a total of 12 times and she's thinking, what on hell is she going to do? Like, what on earth is going to happen? This is her first boyfriend. If you can even call it that. She's 19. She had gone on 13 dates and now she has to make the most important decision of her life because you don't just say no to princes when they propose to you. And if you do you better have a good reason I guess. And yeah marrying anyone? Huge life decision.

But once you're in this type of spotlight and you are about to marry the future king of England, there is no going back. Life as you know, it will change. So the next day, the two met up and Charles asked, were you marrying me? I'm so casual. Diana actually laughed and thought it was a joke

and she's like, yeah, okay. But Charles was serious. He told her grimly, you do realize that one day you will be queen. Okay, calm down. Diana said, in that moment, she heard a weird, like feeling, she had a feeling or like a small voice in her head. That pretty much said, you won't be queen, but you have a tough role. So I think what it was, and it gave me chills, but I do think that um Diana said that she had this special intuition at times and she just knew things would happen. And one thing that she always knew was that she had told her dad ever since she was young. She

felt like she was going to marry like an ambassador of sorts. This was going to be her way to help people. She felt like she was going to be in a serving role. That's incredible. Yeah, where she would serve the people. I mean, she had no idea she would marry the ambassador, the king of England, future king of England. Well, now the king of England, but I mean, she was so confused. So she sobered up. And she was like, I don't know if she said yes, out of love. I think there was love. But I also think there was this intuition of like, okay, I think this is the role I need to try. It's so fascinating. There definitely was no, I want to be a princess though. Like, that was not

even a part of it at all. So she sobered up and she told Charles that she would marry him and she said, I love you so much. And he responded, whatever love means. That was the guy's response. What? Yeah. Why the he even proposed. Oh, we'll get into that. So Diana would actually later tell TV reporters this and she said that, you know, we fell in love gradually. It wasn't very dramatic.

One blink and it would have been gone. So after that day, a full two weeks pass before the public heard about the engagement, which isn't a lot of time, especially not for Diana to say goodbye to her old life, because she was yanked from her old world and thrown to the press like they were a pack of hungry wolves ready for blood, and she said it was like fitting into a pair of shoes that were too big and too awkward for her to fill. Every day there was paparazzi at every corner, dozens of reporters camped outside her apartment, which by the way,

she was not given a heads up from anyone. Really, that this would be happening. I'm sure she knew to a degree that her life would change, but nobody warned her. Nobody gave her any pointers. Oh, yeah. That's so strange. So strange. Diana said that one guard that was appointed to her as a bodyguard said this, and she would

never forget his words. He looked at her and said, I just want you to know that this is your last night of freedom, ever in the rest of your life. So we are hearing a lot about this right now because of Harry and Meghan, but the royal family do something called we pay you pose. There's basically a deal between the press and the royal family. The royal family basically get to sustain their lifestyle thanks to taxpayers' money, and in turn they provide the public with entertainment and I guess like tourism to a degree. The royals are required to have some manufactured transparency in their private lives. So it's not like the Kardashians, which the Kardashians are totally manufactured transparency. Like you really think we know what's going on in their lives? probably not, but they kind of make you feel like they do.

We do, right? That's kind of the thing with the royals. Like they will leak favorable facts about the family and the media will write articles about them. They'll have, you know, agreed upon times, will there come out for like a paparazzi shoot? And back in Diana's day, people were obsessed with the British royal family. I mean, I think that they still are and maybe it's because we're in the US, we're not as attached to the Royal family, but it was worse back then in Diana's day. Like, it was a reality TV for them. Like, oh, Prince Charles, look who he's messing around with. Ooh, which one is he gonna pick to marry? It was like that. It's like free entertainment. And probably whoever Prince Charles was gonna marry everyone kind of wanted to hate her.

Because they could. I think that's the feeling. So the media quite literally descended on Diana. She would later say they had a job, but people did not understand they had binoculars on me the whole time. They hired the opposite apartment from ours, which was a library, and it looked into my bedroom, and it wasn't fair on the roommates. I couldn't put the telephone off the hook in any case that our family had emergencies in the night. The papers used

to ring me up at two in the morning. They'd say, oh, we're just putting up another story, can I confirm or deny it? With the media, I always made sure that I was going through just as the light was turning red, so that they were stuck at the light when she was driving. She's still living in the apartment? She would briefly until I got so bad she was moving it into the palace. Sometimes I cycled, they chased me everywhere. We're talking about 30 of them, not two. I was constantly polite, constantly civil, I was never rude, I never shouted.

I cried like a baby to the four walls though, I just couldn't cope with it. I cried because I got no support from Charles and no support from the palace press office. They just said, you're on your own. So I thought, fine. I think they imagined that Charles would help her. But Charles just don't care. Yeah, and he didn't.

Because I would imagine it's up to the person Mary, you know? And he's well versed in the press at this point. It's just so bizarre. So Diana's life turned upside down after the engagement. And even though she had never had a boyfriend prior to Prince Charles, she had an image at least of what she expected her husband to be like. Someone to lean on, someone to guide you, someone to rely on. Diana said, I had so many dreams as a young girl that I wanted, and hoped that this, that

and the other, that my husband would look after me. He would be a father figure. He would support me, encourage me, and say, well done, or, no, it's not good enough. But I didn't get any of that. I couldn't believe it. I got none of it. It was a role reversal. He ignored me everywhere, ignored everywhere and have been for a long time.

But if people choose to see that now, they are a bit late in the day. He just dismisses me. The worst day of my life was realizing that Charles had gone back to Camilla. So the Royal Wedding, the Royal Marriage, didn't even start off well. Even before the wedding, Diana had concerns about a particular female friend of Prince Charles. Let's talk about the current Queen consort, Camilla Parker Bowles. She was there since day one? Since day one. She was born Camilla Rosemary Shand, and she grew up privileged as well, but nowhere in years privileged as the Spencer family, which is a speculation on why they didn't

originally get married. She was wealthy. Her father was a businessman, but they didn't have that old money vibe. They didn't have the ancestry, the ties, the connections. It's like new money versus old money that overdone debate. She ran in the same circles as Prince Charles, though, so she does come from privilege. She must have been well-off, and it's widely reported that they met at a polo match. Which is like the booze you think I've ever heard.

But their biographer said that they met at a mutual friend's house, actually. That's a misconception. Regardless, they quickly became close friends. Eventually, they start seeing each other romantically. Everyone around them knew it. They were in love. They loved polo. They would play together.

They had the same sense of humor. They dated for two years before Charles had to join the Royal Navy. Now, there's a couple ways the story goes. One is that Prince Charles joined the Navy because, I don't know his mom told him to, they separated. Another one was that a prominent noble man lobbied for Charles to be sent overseas because he was trying to arrange a marriage between Prince Charles and his granddaughter and he thought that, you know, some time apart from Camilla would get her out of the picture.

Other sources say that Queen Mother, so Charles' grandma, Queen Elizabeth I, didn't like Camilla and wanted Charles to marry one of the granddaughters of her close friend, who happened to be Diana's grandmother. Because who Charles Mary's is the most important. That's Queen consort, that's a future Queen of England. So it is quite possible that Queen Mother wanted Prince Charles to marry one of the Spencer sisters, which made sense that he dated Sarah and then later Diana. Otherwise it was just kind of weird and it didn't seem like he was in into either of them. That's kind of the vibe. So while he was away in the Navy, Camilla moved on

and later went on to marry Andrew Parker Bowles, a guard's officer and lieutenant, and the couple would go on to have two kids and be married for 21 years, but allegedly during most of her marriage, she was seeing Prince Charles. Allegedly they broke up after Prince Charles went to the Navy. They start seeing each other again when he gets back after Charles had met, and Camilla was already married. Soon after Diana was engaged, she met Camilla, and the vibes were off, okay? I think her sneaky radars were going off, because Camilla seemed to know certain details about her relationship with Charles, like a female friend who knew too much it was

odd. But worse than that, Camilla seemed to know more about Diana and Charles' future plans before Diana was even filled on about these future plans by Charles. Imagine, this random female friend of your husband is like, oh yeah, you guys are going on vacation next week. You're like, what? Later that day, your future husband is like, hey, by the way, we're going on vacation

next week. What? And if that wasn't already obvious, Prince Charles wouldn't shut up about Camilla. I mean, the guy is not even trying to hide it. If Diana ever would talk about anything, he would gaslight her like, oh yeah, no Camilla blah blah blah. So Charles was engaged and the whole world wanted an inside scoop. And some paparazzi and reporters would reach out to his close friends to see if they would

provide a word, including Camilla. Now, nobody knew that he was seeing her, the pressress thought of her as Charles's friend. And he would tell Diana, poor Camilla Parker-Bells. I've had her on the phone tonight and she said there's a lot of press at her place, hounding her. She's having a very rough time. Diana would say, oh, how many press are out there? At least four.

Diana was confused, she thought to herself, my god there's 34 here at least! But she never said that. In fact, she never complained about anything almost never, because she thought that would gain her future husband's respect and love. Little did she know, Charles would never give that to her, because he was marrying her solely for his public image. He would never love her. That spot was reserved for Camilla.

Yeah, there's a lot of people who speculate on why Charles chose Camilla over Diana, and I really hate to be one of those women, but online there's kind of this confusion, which boggles my mind that this is even a topic of discussion, but people say, well, Diana is conventionally more attractive and younger. so widening, he liked Diana more. Okay, that's a really bad argument. But um, a lot of people said that sources who knew Camilla and Charles, she had a very different upbringing. So Camilla came from this nurturing family, a healthy household.

She was not someone that wanted to feel that fulfilled, I think. You know, she was already fulfilled. I don't think that she, how do I phrase this, right? I don't think she was nearly as ambitious as Diana. And ambitious makes it seem like Diana wanted to be the queen, but ambitious in like trying to find her identity. And I do think that maybe Princess Diana was a bit more needy in the sense that she just wanted to figure out her place in the world.

She wanted to help. She didn't know how exactly. She was a little bit lost and confused. You know, she yearned for guidance and support, but with Camilla, people said that it was very easy for Charles. She was just always around. She had a great sense of humor that meshed well with Charles. She was just always around, she had a great sense of humor that meshed well with Charles. She wasn't needy and she didn't have a lot of love from people. So that's important. People said Charles did not like Diana because eventually Diana would steal the spotlight.

Non-stop. Which I could see if you're a royal and you're like so used, I don't know, it's weird. I guess you want to feel like you're on top and your wife is a support, whereas with this relationship with Diana, Diana became like everybody's fascination. Whether they hated her, I loved her, she was the fascination. Like nobody cared about Prince Charles, it's gonna become really clear, it gets really weird. So anyway, Diana never explained how she found out about the affair. I can imagine maybe it wasn't like a singular aha moment,

but over time. She said in an interview, it was women's intuition. She put the pieces together. Camilla was also always around, physically or not. Prince Charles was always talking about her. Diana found letters between the two of them. She even heard Charles once say to Camilla over the phone. Whatever happens, I will always love you. Oh my god. At one point Diana found Prince Charles was gifting Camilla with a gold chain jewelry piece, a bracelet with a blue enamel disc that had G and F in twined. The letters stood for Gladys and Fred, and that's how Prince Charles and Camilla referred to each other in covert letters and phone calls, and that was their friends, because Prince

Charles and Camilla had mutual friends. They were all from the same friend group. Diana was not friends because Prince Charles and Camilla had mutual friends They were all from the same friend group Diana was not friends with them They were not even the same age group Prince Charles is like 13 years older than her So their friends would probably be like oh Gladison Fred were hanging out, but that's Camilla and Charles Wow, so everyone knew yes, they would blatantly say these things in front of Princess Diana, like everybody collectively gaslit Princess Diana. And she found out eventually. Yeah. Wow.

So Diana saw the piece about two weeks before her wedding to Charles, and for years, whenever Camilla was around, she couldn't help but notice the gold chain with blue and ammo disc around her wrist. I mean, this was a pretty vicious part of Prince Charles and Princess Diana's relationship. I know we throw around the word gaslighting, but I mean, she really was gaslit. Their friends with Lyda Diana's face about where Prince Charles was. Diana would find letters and Charles' desk, and they would just say things like, my most precious darling. Camilla would write to him, I hate not being able to tell you how much I love you. She wrote about how much she longed to be with Charles and how she was his forever.

She wrote, My heart and body ache for you. Charles and how she was his forever. She wrote, My heart and body ache for you. Yeah, but they claimed that they were just friends. Like, of course, would you not write that to your platonic friend? And one time when Charles was going away on a work trip before the wedding, Diana was in his office talking to him and the phone rang. It was Camilla. Diana wondered to herself. Shall I be nice or shall I just sit here? Oh my God. She decided to be nice and left her future husband to a conversation with his mistress before

he went away for work. And she cried all night in her room. Charles even had a designated unmarked car he used to drive to see Camilla. I mean, it was hardly a secret if we're being honest. Everyone in the inner circle, including Diana knew what was going on. I mean, she wasn't stupid. The only ones who didn't know were the press and the public, and in fact, even after Andrew Morton's biography was published, this is when Diana is alive. The public was up in arms. They refused to believe that the perfect husband Prince Charles could cheat on his wife Princess Diana, even though the affair had been going on for over a decade at this point. And then tampon gate happened.

I know you're like tampon gate. Okay, we're gonna come back to it, but it's a leaked phone call between Prince Charles and Camilla. It's about tampons, it's weird. Now back to the engaged couple before we get there. Because of all the press, Diana had a quit her job, moved into the home of Queen Mother,

and she lived up Buckingham Palace into the wedding. Diana was the first royal bride to have a paying job before her engagement. So there's that. She said about moving in. There was nobody here to welcome me. It was like going into a hotel. I don't think she's expecting like a parade, but imagine moving into your lawns. There's like, oh, welcome, like sit.

You know, here's your room. Let me know if you need anything. And the stress of everything, it pushed Diana. And she said, I knew the bulimia started the week after we got engaged. She said, my husband put his hand on my waistline and said, oh, a bit chubby here, aren't we? And that triggered something in me.

And then the Camilla thing, and I was just desperate, desperate. Diana would later say say she had never struggled with depression before her engagement, but the engagement marked a long period of loneliness, sadness and low self-esteem, and Belemia almost became a coping mechanism for Diana. She said, I remember the first time I made myself sick. I was so thrilled because I thought it was a release of tension. The first time I was measured for my wedding dress I was 29 inches around the waist. The day I got married I was 23 and a half inches. I had shrunk into nothing from February to July. I had shrunk to nothing. There were people trying to help but they were coming from Charles's side.

They weren't coming from my side. I shut my friends out because I didn't want to pull them in on it. My mother tried to give me valium. Someone else tried to take me off it. I actually never took it. But it was all very strange. There were so many forces pulling me and I didn't have a clue which way to turn. I didn't get any choice over the people that I met for therapy. I didn't have a choice on which doctor to go to. One of them drove me mad.

He seemed to be the one who needed help, not me. The other one would ring me at 6 o'clock and I'd have to explain to him the conversations I've had with my husband throughout the day. There weren't many conversations Just more tears than anything. And while all of this is going on Diana was expected to be the perfect fiance She had to make her first public appearance as the fiance at a charity ball and Diana said I remember my first royal engagement so well I remember walking into my husband to be study and him saying, you're not going to go in that dress, are you? I replied, yes I am, and he said it's black, only people in morning wear black. And I said, yes, but I'm not part of your family yet. Black to me was the smartest color you could

possibly have at the age of 19. Again, side note, she's 19, the rust into the spotlight like this and her partner who's 30-something, won't even give her some grace and guidance, not even support. She said, it was a real grown-up dress. I was quite big-chested then, and they all got frightfully excited. I learned a lesson that night. Side note. Diana didn't have a lot of clothes when she moved into Buckingham Palace, but she needed all

these formal dresses for her royal duties and engagements. She never had a stylist, she had nobody to guide her, she was 19, she had to go pick out dresses herself. Why in the world? Yeah, I think times have changed, they all have stylists now, but. So Charles kept telling her it was the color of funerals, but she stood her ground and it turned out to be horrendous. Not because of Diana and her choice, not because of that, but because the person there affinity

to go crazy for woman's bodies as if they're personally offended by a woman's body. Look, the dress is not super revealing, especially for our generation, but back in the day, I guess it was considered revealing. It's a strapless black dress, and she threw a very pretty black shower over it, and the media ripped her apart.

The daily mirror photographer said this. Diana was wearing a very low-cut dress, very low-cut indeed, because when she got out of the car, her breasts almost fell out over the top of the dress. Oh yeah, they almost totally fell out. Go clutch your pearls somewhere else because they did not. Diana said it was a horrendous occasion. I didn't know whether to go out of the door first. I didn't know whether your handbag should be on your left hand or your right hand.

I was terrified, really. At the time, everything was all over the place. I remember that evening so well. I was terrified, nearly sick. That was her first royal engagement, and from there it didn't get any easier. It got bigger and more grand and more tense, more high stakes, till finally, the most high stakes moment of all, the royal wedding. The royal wedding happened when Diana was just 20 years old. Yeah, also back then they like really wanted kings, future kings to marry Virgins, so she had to be super young.

It was held at the Grand St. Paul's Cathedral, and it was described over and over again as a fairy tale wedding. It was watched on TV by more than 750 million people. There were 600,000 spectators lined on the street hoping to catch a glimpse of the royal couple. Diana came out wearing this beautiful, impossibly huge wedding dress with this long train. I mean, it was magical. She was smiling. She was the picture of beauty and youth and she was so full of life, everyone would remember this day forever. The wedding was iconic for two reasons, even without that.

One, Diane accidentally said Charles' name wrong. Instead of calling him Charles' Philip in the Vows, she called him Philip Charles. I love that. And Diana refused to use the word obey. The traditional vowel included the phrase that the woman would love her high-spend comfort him on her and obey him in sickness and in health. She omitted the word Obey.

Which I love. Everyone thought the royal wedding was a success and plastered on every newspaper tabloid TV screen with Diana smiling at her wedding. So many little girls around the world watched wondering what it's like to be a princess like I want to grow up and be a princess one day. Diana said it was the worst day of her life. She said, I felt like I was a lamb to the slaughter and I knew it. The night before her wedding, she had a bad fit of bulimia, she ate everything up inside and then threw it all up. She felt so sick, she barely slept. The next day she walked down the aisle and all she could think about was Camilla

because Camilla was there wearing a pale gray color that looked practically white. Diana said, I knew she was there, of course. I looked for her. So walking down the aisle, I spotted Camilla. Pale Gray veiled pillbox hat. So I'd all. Her son Tom standing on a chair to this day, you know, vivid memory. Anyway, I got up to the top and I thought the whole thing was hysterical, getting married. In the sense that it was just like so grown up and here was Diana, a kindergarten teacher, the whole thing was ridiculous.

But even though it was the worst day of her life, Diana was happy to be marrying Charles. She thought she could make it work. She thought she could make him love her. She said, I remember being so in love with my husband that I couldn't take my eyes off of him. I just absolutely thought I was the luckiest girl in the world. He was going to look after me. Well, was I wrong on that assumption?

Diana truly had no support from anyone. She said, my mother let me down terribly with the wedding. She kept crying and being all valiant and saying she couldn't cope with the pressure. I tended to think that I was the one under pressure because I was the bride. So I didn't speak to her for three to four years afterwards. She drove me mad when I was engaged, mad mad. It was me that was being strong and her sobbing the whole time. My mom was very good-looking and she loved the buzz.

When I didn't include her in the wedding preparations, she got hurt and out came her valium. She's been on valium ever since. After the wedding, Diana and Charles went on a 14-day cruise around the royal yacht. As their honeymoon, Diana said, I just had tremendous hope in me, which was slashed by day two. We had to entertain all the top people on Britannia every night, so there was never any time on our own. Found that very difficult to accept.

By then the bulimia was appalling, absolutely appalling. It was rife four times a day on the yacht. Anything I could find I would gobble up and be sick two minutes later, very tired. So of course, that slightly got the mood swings going in the sense that, one minute I would be happy. Next, just blubbing one's eyes out. I remember crying my eyes out on our honeymoon. I was just so tired for all the wrong reasons, totally.

But she tried to connect with her husband. She sat Charles down and told him, you must always be honest with me. And so together, they sat down to open their diaries and literally lay their secrets bare. And would you look at that? As soon as Charles opened his diary, two photos of Camilla pop out. And the next day, they had a white tie dinner with the president of Egypt, and Charles took out cufflinks to wear.

Chanel cufflinks, two seas and twined. But for some reason, right when Diana saw it, she knew and she said, Camilla gave you those, didn't she? Yes, what's wrong with that? They're a present from a friend, a fight ensued. Because see for Charles, see for Camilla, you know, they thought they were being real clever. Diana ended the night crying.

She said it was horrible. She had nightmares all honeymoon long of Camilla. Diana admits, I was obsessed by Camilla, totally. And I didn't trust him. I thought every five minutes he was ringing her up, asking her how to handle this marriage. And on top of that, she was struggling with her new position as the Princess of Wales. She didn't trust him. I thought every five minutes he was ringing her up asking her how to handle this marriage. And on top of that, she was struggling with her new position as the Princess of Wales. She didn't like it. She said,

As far as I was concerned, I was Diana. The only difference was people were calling me maim now, your royal highness, they were curtsying. That was the only difference. But I treated everybody exactly the same. But people didn't treat her the same. It's interesting. They treated her like an authority figure, meaning they never got too close to her. They kept a professional distance, and on the other hand, even though they treated her like an authority figure, they didn't care to listen to anything that she had to say. It's just a really lonely place to be in for someone who just wanted love and attention from her husband. Like, it's not much to ask. Diana told her friends, one minute I was nobody.

The next minute I was Princess of Wales, mother and media toy, member of this family, and it was just too much for one person to handle. She became more depressed. Her bulimia worsened, but nobody knew how to handle it. They didn't know how to help her. So Diana was pretty open about her problem, and no one in the family could help. Charles was actually the nastiest one, her own husband. He was convinced that Diana was doing this for attention. If he saw Diana eating dinner, he would mock her. Is that going to reappear later? What a waste.

I can't believe this. I can't believe he's the king of England. And then he told everyone his marriage was strained because Diana was attention seeking and not eating or making up problems to get attention or crying wolf. He made himself the victim. So side note, Queen Elizabeth II, to Rest in Peace, she gets a lot of heat for not helping Diana with her ED and I do think that they had a relatively cordial relationship. So in fact, Diana always emphasized how much she respected the queen. And later at Diana's funeral, the queen would break royal protocol and bow her head over Diana's coffin as a sign of respect. I don't think that there was any bad blood between them, but

yes, the queen did know about Diana's bulimia, but she had no idea how to help. I think she just got some random therapists and doctors and tried to help that way, but it just didn't work. Some people use this as ammo to indicate that they hated each other and that the queen is somehow to blame for how Diana felt, but I think that they were cordial. At one point they even talked Charles together, so there's that. But anyway, during the marriage, Diana made at least four to five suicide attempts. Yeah, it was really tough. During one argument, Diana threatened to hurt herself and Charles accused her of crying wolf and stormed off. Now, I think that anytime someone threatens to hurt themselves in an argument, I agree that we can all say that's pretty toxic behavior, but I think she's fueled by the fact that

Charles is not, like he keeps thinking she's crying wolf on everything. Like that's enough to push anyone to do drastic things just to prove I'm not lying to you. I'm dead serious. So Diana had thrown herself down a wooden staircase in the heat of her emotions. She was pregnant with Prince William at the time. Queen Elizabeth ran over, shaking. She was horrified at what she had just witnessed. Another instance, Diana threw herself against a glass display cabinet at Kensington Palace. Another time she cut herself with a serrated edge of a lemon slicer, another time she sliced her wrist with a razor blade, another time

during another heated argument, she grabbed a pen knife on Charles' dressing table and cut her chest and thighs, she was bleeding profusely at this point, and Charles accused her of faking her problems while there's blood literally dripping everywhere. He made zero reaction whatsoever. Diana would later say, you know, they were desperate cries for help. I just needed some time to adjust to my new position. But Charles didn't seem to care what Diana needed, not at all. He had no sympathy for her.

He was in his 30s and he couldn't understand the struggles of a young woman who is struggling to find her identity, wanted love, support, and help, and had been thrust into this world and was not born into this world, had no guidance. He thought she was an attention-seeking faker. Meanwhile, the media is digging their claws into Diana. Andrew Morton, the author explained, essentially, royal men are judged by what they say, and they've got a lot of people writing their speeches for them.

And royal women are judged by how they look. So they tore apart every piece of clothing Diana ever wore. It's too revealing. Oh no, she looks like she's 60 now. She's wearing too much color for this occasion, was she so happy about? She's so bland, no color at all. Just non-stop. She can never get it right.

And if her outfit passed some arbitrary test made up by the press, they would screw it nice her body, calling her too skinny or saying she needed a nose job. I mean, her life was miserable. The only thing that got her through was getting pregnant with Prince William. It gave her purpose, it gave her something to focus on, but of course it wasn't easy. She had morning sickness, which was horrible, combined with her bulimia, which oddly nobody and the royal family had had morning sickness during their pregnancies, so Charles straight up thought she was faking it.

Diana said, I was a problem. They just registered Diana as a problem. She's different. She's doing everything that we never did. Why? Poor Charles is having such a hard time. Diana had to read about morning sickness in pregnancy books because nobody could even tell her that it was normal.

Diana had to keep doing royal engagements while pregnant, and it was a situation where she could never win. If she felt so sick that she still pulled through with the speech or whatever she needed to do, all she wanted desperately was for Charles for her husband to say, hey I'm proud of you for literally throwing up everything and still giving a speech. But nope, never. But if she wasn't up, she wasn't ready to give a speech because she was throwing up and dying, he would yell at her to stop faking it, to stop crying wolf.

Prince Charles only ever cared about his public image, which ironically is the very reason his public image is horrendous. So anyway, Prince has Diana gave birth to Prince William at St. Mary's Hospital in London, and for a while, he was happy. Side note, Prince Charles really wanted to name Prince William Prince Arthur, and he wanted to name Prince Harry Prince Albert. But Diana said in her own words, no thank you. Yeah, those are their middle names though.

Anyway, for a while it was peace, it was happiness, but soon everything was an argument, even where the children were going to get their education. Charles wanted private tutors for Prince William. Diana was like, I want my kids to grow up in the outside world, not in a hidden artificial environment of a royal palace. She wanted them to be normal. She was determined that they would never be deprived of cuddles and kisses. Diana was a very loving, attentive mother, but she was struggling big time.

She had postpartum depression. She found it hard to get out of bed in the mornings. And again, nobody knew what was wrong with her. She had to read about PPD in the maternity books. She became sensitive to Charles' mood swings or moods as they call it. Diana started overthinking all the time. She said her days were filled with tears and panic and she learned to bottle it up so that she didn't get into an argument with Prince Charles. And when Prince William was just a wee baby, the couple, Charles and Diana were invited to Australia,

and the prime minister of Australia extended his invite to baby Prince William, which Diana happily brought along, she couldn't pay the idea of being away from her son, and the media slammed her for bringing the child. They probably would have slammed her for not bringing her child too. But this Australian tour was a big, big deal for Diana. It was like a real hard crunch. She could feel it. It was like her moment to prove to herself that she was worthy of her title. She did say it was weird, you know? Because she didn't think that she was special enough to be getting an attention from the press. Diana felt like, you know, there's wars going on. There's bombings. And why am I front page? Because of something I wore? Like she thought it was so weird and bizarre, like, what?

Yeah. And she thought, okay, well, if you want to talk about people, there's so many talented people in this world. There's so many special people. Why are you guys pounding me every day? And she said, you know, meeting the public was also hard. Because they wanted a fairy princess to come and touch them and everything will turn to gold

and all their worries will be forgotten. Little did they realize that the individual was crucifying herself inside, because she didn't think she was good enough. And Charles started getting very jealous and anxious by then, because inside the system she was treated like an odd ball and she was, but the press loved her. Well they loved to either love her or they loved to hate her. They just loved her in the fact that they loved her. Well, they loved to either love her or they loved to hate her. They just loved her in the fact that they wanted her. One key moment in this Australian tour was the public I was shifting

to want news about Prince Charles, but mainly about Princess Diana. This one iconic moment in Australia, the press went crazy and they hounded the couple's car and all the paparazzi were on one side of the car. Princess Diana's car. Yeah. And I think that was another reason, again, Prince Charles just seemed to hate Diana for it. I think he knew that there was something special in her,

and he hated being upstaged by her. Maybe he tried to kill her spirit every time she started to feel better and independent, started to feel like herself. Maybe he couldn't handle the idea that she would shine bigger than him, that the public would fall in love with her. I think he hated it.

Diana would even say he was jealous. He took it out on me. I understand the jealousy, but I couldn't explain that I didn't ask for it. When they came back from their six week tour, I mean, she said, I was a different person. I was more grown up, more mature, and eventually Diana found her own footing. Nobody coached on how to talk to people or make public speeches, nobody really cared even on what she had to say, but she was patient. She stood by Charles' side, let him have his moments, she would be the one wrapping presents

every year, and Charles would be the one signing the cards, she was okay with it, she wanted their marriage to work. And then she got pregnant for a second time, and it was the happiest time that they'd ever had. And then when Prince Harry was born, the whole marriage went down the drain. Prince Charles desperately wanted a daughter, but they were having another son. And Prince Charles was utterly disappointed. He said when Prince Harry was born, his first words were, oh God, it's a boy.

And he's even got red hair. Red hair ran in Diana's family. And it just broke her heart that Prince Charles would say that about their child, their beautiful child. What's up with people who expect one gender and then gets pissed off? Yeah. I'm like, that's your child, you know that, right?

That's your own flesh and blood. Why are you so pissed? Like you know, when you give birth It's gonna be that like a 50 50 exactly. Yeah Why are you spissed? Yeah, when you know damn well this is very likely what's gonna happen? I also think when people get pissy that their child looks like their partner I'm like are you that big of a narcissist that you think you're so handsome That you want your child to look like you?

I've never met someone where I was like, wow, I hope their child looks exactly like them because there needs to be two of them in this world. What? I mean, it was clear that Charles was at least hoping Harry would look like himself, but instead, Harry took after Diana. And from that moment, Diana told her friends something inside me died. So I think what it was is like up until this point, it was Diana's not good enough. Diana, this Diana that and then I think that motherly intuition came out where she's like, this is my child. And he's upset at like my child for being born essentially like my child did nothing. This was the beginning of the end of their relationship, but they still had to

present to the world as this happy couple. They had this interview with Alistair Bernad, and in the interview, the couple looks like they're in love. Happier than ever. With two beautiful children that they love in a door, the fascinating part though. Diana is only 24 in the interview, and she is so well articulated and poised. She comes off so much older than her ear, years. She really is this old soul.

I mean, you can tell she's nervous, she's a little shy, but she comes across incredibly intelligent, but more than that, loving and passionate. You know, she and Charles talk about how they never argue. Even when Charles mentions, you know, we have the occasional argument. She looks over at him and fakes her presence as when? It's like the prize called Diana a domineering woman trying

to control her husband. And she jokes that the only thing she's changed on him is the occasional tie. And you're like, why did the press even think that? Apparently after meeting Diana, he stopped hunting as much and eating less meat. And they were like, oh my god, Diana's a horrible wife. Yeah, okay. Charles admitted it was his choice, but overall the whole couple, they come across very lovey-dovey, very secure in their relationship, but we now know that the interview is a lie. Diana said that she was basically bribed into the interview. The royal family seemed excited that an American network was going to interview them. Diana didn't want it.

So Prince Charles said, okay, I'll do it, but they came back and said,, no we want both of you or we don't want any of you. So Diana kept it grounded, she said, no. Then, ITN, the network picked it up and said, if your wife does it with you, we'll pay you such and such money. There was a bribe into the charity's trust, so not to us individually, so that's how it happened. It was very strange, I remember thinking, gosh I'm not flapping my arms about, I'm sitting here quite calmly. But if only the man, the interviewer, would be more receptive to what I'm saying. Every time he asked a question, he would then look at the next bit of his paper. There was no eye contact.

I thought it was hopeless, but my father-in-law said to Charles how impressed he was that I'd come across so calmly, which I had an appreciated at the time. It's very nice that he said that. So the world saw a poised, loving, young family, but they weren't even sleeping in the same room at the time. It's very nice that he said that. So the world saw a poised, loving, young family, but they weren't even sleeping in the same room at the time. And yeah, I'm sure their relationship problems didn't help, but also Prince Charles was a royal snorer. She said the snoring could be heard through two doors.

Four times a night I'd be woken up, and then it became a habit. You just got fed up and walked into his dressing room. And Charles was horrified at how underweight and weak Diana had become. She was constantly feeling faint and thankfully she didn't have any other symptoms from bulimia like brittle hair and nails, acid rotting her teeth, but she felt faint quite often. And again, instead of trying to help, he called her attention sinky and he didn't even hide his opinions from his own kids. So this is wild.

One day Diana took four-year-old William to the pool and he did something he wasn't supposed to do. So naturally she scolded him, but William looked at her and he said, you're the most selfish woman I've ever met. All you do is think about yourself. Look, no four-year-old ever has ever said those things just by thinking those things.

He must have heard those exact words, the exact phrase from somebody else. So Diana said, I was so stunned. I mean, this is seven years ago and I said, where did you hear that? And he said, oh, Papa said it. That's the one thing I've pried myself on if I may be so bold, is that I've never been

a selfish person. But Charles was always telling me I was being selfish and I sort of believed it. So yeah, it's no wonder Diana started to really distance herself from him. And allegedly, she started having her own affairs. I mean, can you blame her? It's not like he was ever faithful in their relationship.

It's like four to five years into the marriage, she allegedly started having affairs. And Charles had been having one throughout their entire marriage. The affairs are alleged, but let me run you through some of them. So allegedly, Diana was assigned a new bodyguard from the Royal Protection Squad, Barry Albert Maniquit, and he was allegedly her first lover. She never acknowledged that they had a romantic relationship, but he was killed in a motorcycle accident, and she said, I was only ever happy when he was around. The biggest blow of my life.

I think he was bumped off, but here we are. Yes, some people speculate that Barry's death was not an accident. Then Diana began her infamous affair with former household cavalry officer, James Hewitt. This guy is a piece of work. The two dated for a while and we know that they had an affair because he literally sold his story after they ended things. He gave a series of paid interviews to a reporter

who later went to write a book on it, titled, Princess and Love, and goes into intimate detail about their quote, passionate love affair. After Diana's death, James tried to sell the intimate letters she had sent him for millions of dollars. This guy is disgusting. Diana even condemned him when she was alive by stating, yes I adored him, yes I was in love with him, but I was very let down.

Side note, a lot of people whisper that Prince Harry's biological father is James Hewitt because James Hewitt is red haired, but Harry was already born and in school by the time that Princess Diana met James, and you really think that the royal family doesn't do paternity tests. Then allegedly, Princess Diana had an affair with James Gibly and a childhood friend of hers. And we don't know much about the affair because James had never been outspoken about it. But we do know they did have an affair because what they call Squigy Gate, a private phone call between Diana and James was leaked, and it's called Squigy Gate

because Diana refers to her lover as Squig and Squigy as like an endearing nickname, 53 times during the call. The call itself is not salacious or wild, it's a pretty tame conversation, but it's obvious that it's a conversation between lovers. And even though Diana never references Charles by name, she does complain about him. wild, it's a pretty tame conversation, but it's obvious that it's a conversation between lovers. And even though Diana never references Charles by name, she does complain about him.

She refers to him as her other half, or just as he. She said, it's just so difficult, so complicated. He makes my life real, real torture. That's about as juicy as the phone call gets. And then allegedly, Diana was involved with a married art dealer named Oliver, who was 16 years older than Diana, a good friend of Charles, but allegedly things ended when Oliver made it clear he wasn't going to divorce his wife for Diana. Now, allegedly she had a brief fleeing with a rugby star, there were rumors that she was seeing John Kennedy Jr., and that was just a rumor. So we got through the affairs. Let's get back to the timeline. Diana is hitting an all-time low. The press is going for her jugular, accusing her of having plastic surgery because her bulimia was so bad that she was rapidly losing weight, but breakfast seemed to be the only

meal that she could even keep down. There was one time she was touring Vancouver with Charles, she felt so light-headed, she had an eaten in days, she had maybe nibbled on a kick-cat bar, it was warm above 70 degrees she was exhausted. She put her arm around Charles's it was warm above 70 degrees, she was exhausted, she put her arm around Charles' shoulder and whispered, Diling, I think I'm about to disappear, and then slid down his side. People sighed, she was carried to a private room to recover, but Charles was pissed, he told her that if she was going to faint, she should do it in private.

Yeah, because people can usually hold it off for like an hour or two, and then he forced her to come to dinner that night, he said she must go. She must go tonight, otherwise there's going to be a sense of terrific drama. And they're going to think that something is really awfully wrong with her. So again, the only thing that he cares about is himself in his reputation. And ironically, this attitude is the very reason he now has a shit reputation. And then that year, Charles's brother, brother Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson. She went by Fergie, yeah that Prince Andrew, and everything changed when Fergie came into the picture.

Fergie had this big big personality. She was fun, outgoing, outspoken, and Charles kept telling Diana, I wish she would be like Fergie. God you're always so miserable. So Diana tried to be like Fergie. And it just led to scandal after scandal. Diana and Virgi attempted to crash Prince Andrews Bachelor Party dressing up as police woman, but instead they ended up sipping on champagne at a nightclub before returning home.

And technically the impersonation of police officers is a criminal offense and clearly they were having fun. It's like a bachelor party, but the media chewed them up. Then afterwards after the couple's wedding wedding they hosted a party at Windsor Castle. Fergie encouraged everyone to jump fully clothed into the swimming pool. That made the media chew them up. Diana went to a concert with Fergie and wore leather pants. The media crushed her. Throughout the year there were a series of more scandals like a staged mock fight on ice during a vacation, ski vacation. I mean, just people were appalled. But I think that a lot of people also started liking Princess Diana around this time.

Like the more the media was outraged, the more people were like, she's just having fun. What is wrong with you guys? They were seeing this like light start, light-hearted side to her and they were falling in love. One headline read, Princess Diana, Britain's attractive blonde, future queen, and most photographed woman, has an image problem. It's not that she's too thin or too fat or needs a nose job, or is drinking too much, or has any of the alleged ailments Britain's tabloids delight in reporting as facts, the 26-year-old mother of two is having too much fun. So a lot happened in the press, but Diana was really starting

to take charge of her life. Don't get me wrong, what was being published, still bothered her, she was constantly bullied, but she felt more in control of her life. She started getting help for her bulimia, a friend actually threatened her. You need to tell someone where I'm telling the press. She called a therapist, clicked with him, and he even told her it's not you. There's nothing wrong with you. It's your husband. And she thought maybe that's true, maybe it's not me. And then at Camilla's sister's birthday party Diana had a personal victory. This is how she told the story to Andrew Morton. Nobody expected me to turn up at Camilla's sister's birthday party. But again,

a voice inside me said, go for the hell of it. So I psyched myself up. I decided I'm not going to kiss Camilla hello anymore. I was going to shake hands with her instead. This was my big step. There are about 40 of us there and we all sat down and bearing in mind. They were all my husband's age. I was a total fish out of water, but I decided I'm going to try my hardest. I was going to make an impact. Then after dinner we were all upstairs and I was chatting away and suddenly noticed that there was no Camilla and no Charles upstairs So this disturbed me. I made my way downstairs and I know what I'm going to confront myself with They tried to stop me from going downstairs. Oh Diana don't go down there

I said I'm just gonna find my husband I would like to see him. It's been upstairs about an hour and a half So I was entitled to go down and find him. I go downstairs and there's a very happy little threesome going downstairs. Camilla trials in another man chatting away. So I thought right this is your moment. I joined in on the conversation as if we were all best friends and the other man said I think we ought to go upstairs now. So we stood up and I said Camilla I'd love to have a word with you if it's possible. She looked really uncomfortable and put her head down and I said to the man okay boys I'm just gonna have a quick word with Camilla and I'll be up in a minute.

And they shot upstairs like chickens with no heads and I could feel upstairs all hell of breaking loose like what she going to do. I said to Camilla, would you like to sit down? So we sat down and I was utterly terrified of her and I said Camilla, I would just like you to know that I know exactly what is going on. She said, I don't know what you're talking about, and I said, I know what's going on between you and Charles, and I just want you to know that. She said, oh, it's not a cloak and dagger situation. I said, I think it is. I wasn't as strong as I've liked, but at least I've got the conversation going.

She told me, you never let him see the children when he's up in Scotland. I told her, Camilla, the children are either at high grover in London. That's Charles' biggest fault, by the way. He never wants to see the children, but I never take them away. The other day, for instance, William said, Papa, will you play with us? Oh, I don't know if I have time. Famous quote, always happens.

So he doesn't get to gripe about that. Anyway, going back to Camilla, she said to me, you've got everything you've ever wanted. You've got all the men in the world falling in love with you, and you've got two beautiful children, what more could you want? I didn't believe her, so I said, I want my husband. Someone came down to relieve us, obviously, for God's sake, go down there, they're having

a fight, it wasn't a fight, it was calm, deathly calm. And I said to Camilla, I'm sorry I'm in the way, I obviously I'm in the way and it must be hell for both of you. But I know what's going on, so don't treat me like an idiot. So I went upstairs and people began to disperse. In the car on the way back my husband was over me like a bad rash and I cried like I've never cried before. It was anger, it was seven years of pent-up anger coming out.

I cried and cried and cried and didn't sleep that night. And the next morning when I woke up, I felt a tremendous shift. I've done something, said what I felt, still the old jealousy and anger swilling around, but it wasn't so deathly as before. And I said to him at the weekend three days later,

darling, I'm sure you'll want to know what I said to Camilla. There's no secret you may ask her. I just said that I loved you. There's nothing wrong in that. He said, I don't believe it. I said, that's what I said to her. I've got nothing to hide. I'm your wife and the mother of your children. That always makes him slightly twitch. When I say mother of your children, he hates being made aware of it. Why? I guess he hates this like lifelong connection. I guess he sees them as his children and only his.

I think this is when Diana really blossomed in her own person, but it was also the day of her countdown. She had less than 10 years to make her mark in the world, and I get goosebumps every time I read this quote from her. She said, However bloody you are feeling, you can put on the most amazing show of happiness. My mother is an expert at that. I've picked it up, kept the wolves from the door, but what I couldn't cope with in those

dark ages was people saying, it's her fault. I've got that from everywhere, everywhere, the system and the media started saying it was my fault. I was the Marilyn Monroe of the 1980s and I was adoring it. I've never sat down and said, hooray how wonderful! Never, because the day I do, we're in trouble in this setup. I am performing my duty as the Princess of Wales as my time is allocated. And if I go somewhere else, I go somewhere else. If life changes, it changes. But at least when I finish as I see it, my 12 to 15 years as Princess of Wales, I don't see it any longer, funnily enough.

She became Princess of Wales in 1981 and died 15 years later in 1997. I get goosebumps. She said this wash is Princess of Wales married to Charles. She said from day one, I always knew I would never be the next queen. No one said that to me, I just knew. But I think most could agree she would have been a very worthy queen. Diana was also getting very involved in activism, that's truly what she's most famous for. She worked closely with over 100 charities, regularly visited hospitals and terminally ill patients,

worked famously to promote education on AIDS. So this is during a time when closely with over 100 charities, regularly visited hospitals and terminally ill patients, worked famously to promote education on AIDS. So this is during a time when people thought that you could just get AIDS by touching someone with AIDS, and Diana went on camera to shake hands and hug those suffering with AIDS. To show people you have nothing to worry about. She said something along the lines of, there's nothing dangerous about hugging anyone with AIDS. In fact, you should hug them. They need it. Yeah, she even visited an AIDS hospital with

the first lady of the United States, Barbara Bush at the time, and Barbara said that she was quite impressed. A bed ridden patient burst into tears in Diana's sprung up to give him the most enormous hug. She really was starting to be the real royal, like the one that was serving people. Meanwhile, Charles broke his arm after a polo match at the hospital and he demanded the staff order him a prosthetic arm to wear for a second with a hook at the end so he can be capped in hook. The staff were horrified at the public implications of that, so Diana told them to say they ordered it and then say they lost it last minute, so she's doing free PR for her husband.

Diana was also known to go to hospitals, see families in need, families who were grieving, and just sit with them. A lot of the family said it was like an angel came to them because they were so thick in their grief, they couldn't even register this as Princess Diana. And she would just say, call me Diana. And she would keep them company, she tried to keep their spirits up. A family member was so comforted by Diana while a loved one was on support. They said, for someone who didn't know anything about us, she was real good at people. She could make quick decisions about them. She had a good way of keeping us calm and she was chatting with us as if we had known her our whole lives.

And after their loved one passed, they were touched to receive a handwritten letter from Diana for the funeral. Diana's work with leprosy, drug addictions, sexually abused children, people suffering from AIDS and suffering from homelessness. Her friend said this about her. I thought Diana was utterly beautiful in a very profound way. She had this inner spirit which shines forth, but she also had a sense of pervasive unhappiness about her.

I remember loving the way she never wanted me to be formal. And when her friend was sick and rushed to the hospital, he was suffering from AIDS. She couldn't find any flights that were soon enough. The royal jet couldn't go, so she drove seven hours with just her bodyguard to the hospital. She spent every waking moment with her friend until he ultimately passed. She just was really someone that you could count on. Later when she asked what she could change, if she could, she said,

I'd change a few things that I would go around the hospices, you know? AIDS, cancer, I'd do that full time. I don't find it exhausting. I'd change the queen's broadcast for Christmas, top of the list, makes me cringe so much. It upsets me to agree, there's no relating. What else could I change?

I'd have garden parties for all the disabled people and people in wheelchairs, which we just did before we got married. People who've never seen Buck and Impalace let alone bid on the grass, but they're not allowed too many wheelchairs because it ruins the grass. No one has ever said to me well done because I had a smile on my face, everybody thought I was having a wonderful time. That's what they choose to think. I made them happier thinking that.

So the press is ripping her apart, even calling her stock up selfish, controlling unfit to be future queen. They said she was a horrible wife. For while the press genuinely thought that Princess Diana was a horrible person and Prince Charles was this selfless, patient, understanding husband who was putting up with things no man should have to put up with, especially no future king. Literally every single move Diana made was criticized ruthlessly. That's how the media betrayed her, and eventually Princess Diana would be fed up.

I think injustice is one of the strongest emotions someone can feel. I think it's worse than resentment. When you get accused of a crime or an action you didn't commit, when people don't even know the truth of what's going on and they form their own hate-filled opinions about you, injustice is so suffocating and frustrating. And I think Princess Diana was done and over it. She didn't know how to control the media. She knew other members of the royal family had connections, they had methods, so Charles would conveniently mention something to a friend of his, and to his not-supprise it would

be front page the next day. Meanwhile Diana had zero influence on the press, but she had a doctor. Dr. James Cole Hurst, and this doctor had a friend, Andrew Morton, who happened to be a reporter. So one day, at a doctor's visit, Diana took a leap of faith in asked, Dr. Would Andrew like an interview? And I think both men were shocked, especially Andrew, because nobody reaches out to a random reporter like that. People avoid reporters like the plague, especially members of the royal family offering exclusive gossip that wasn't, did you know Prince Charles genuinely loves to volunteer? Did you know Prince Charles sneaks chocolates in for his boys after bedtime?

That's not tea. Like real news, real gossip, it doesn't happen. Andrew even wrote, princesses don't usually give interviews, especially when they're the most talked about in photographed princess of the age. These were the days before Prince Charles went on television to admit his adultery with Miss Parker Bowles. It was simply unheard of, but he jumped on the opportunity.

He thought he would be getting some royalty with a side of biscuits. Boom, explosive article, okay, goodbye. But he realized that now, Princess Diana was about to dish out enough material to write a biography. She had so much tea, she had so much to say, so much that nobody knew about so much

of what actually happened behind the scenes, and Andrew thought the only way to do it justice was to turn it into a book. But at this point, a few things were going on. Princess Diana was still married to Prince Charles and their relationship was hanging on to a single thread. They were virtually living separate lives, but she had staff hounding her. So it made it really hard for her to talk to Andrew Morton. If anyone ever found out she was talking to a reporter, especially Prince

Charles, many would imagine that he would do whatever it was in his power to stop it. So they had to come up with a plan. Princess Diana would go visit her doctor Dr. James. Andrew Martin would have given Dr. James a list of questions to ask Princess Diana, and he would tape record it all and Diana would just open up about her life in a series of emotionally charged confessions. Then Dr. James would take the tapes back to Andrew Martin, he would continue with more questions or follow up questions, and it said that they weren't super pushy to Diana about anything. They both told her if she ever felt uncomfortable just tell them and they won't touch on it. And she said, no, no, it's okay. So I think it's clear that Princess Diana wanted the world to know the truth.

Also the doctor who was in the middle of all this. So tense, so stressful. Yeah. And Dr. James actually said, I think these speeches meant a lot to her. He said, it was an area that she realized that she could put across her own message. It gave her a real sense of empowerment and achievement that an audience actually listened to what she was saying, rather than judging her clothes or her hairstyle. She used to call it very excited if there had been any coverage on TV or radio about the things she had done, delighted that she had even received praise or even acknowledgement for her thoughts.

I think it was really frustrating for her to be doing all of these things, you know, wanting to shed lights on all of these issues and everyone is just like, what did you see what she was wearing? And to add to that, she's not even allowed to share her story. Allegedly, the royal family started getting suspicious of Princess Diana and she started getting more paranoid. She would routinely sweep her room for bugging devices, she would use burner phones, she shredded every piece of paper that came onto her desk, she thought someone was going through

her trash to read what she was working on, she felt like someone was tapping her phone, listening to her conversations, and her fears were not unfounded. They weren't made up or dramatic. During this process, Andrew Morton's office was burglarized and ransacked. It didn't seem like a random burglary. It looked like the burglar was looking for something. Now what's interesting is that the one thing that Andrew wasn't allowed to write in the biography, publish in the book, with the one thing that we talk about freely now, and that's Charles' affair with Camilla Parker Bowles. His attorney advised

him that he could be sued for libel. So back then, nobody knew. Everyone assumed Prince Charles was a loving faithful husband, but Andrew Morton could do nothing about it. All he could write basically was that Charles 's secret friendship would cast a long shadow over the royal marriage. That was it. The biography was published and the emperor was instant. It was banned from most bookstores, most grocery chains. Nobody believed Diane actually worked with the author. They accused him of being a sleazy disgusting slime ball who's trying to make a quick buck.

And you're like, wait, Princess Diana could just easily confirm that she helped him, but she couldn't because her own safety was at risk now. So Andrew credited interviews with close friends and family as sources, which wasn't a lie. Andrew did talk to friends and family to supplement the book, but it wasn't until after Diana's death,

he was allowed to publish a revised version that included actual transcripts, and those audio recordings that he had in his possession were later used in a documentary called Diana in her own words. Is the new book band two or? No. So the audio recordings are real,

they're not just written about. You can hear her voice talking about these things. Do we know what happened when the book when published the first version? Yeah. What happened to her? Oh yeah. They were like, oh my god. How do you feel betrayed by your friends and family? No, I'm saying like how did Charles and the whole family treat her in the palace? Probably not. Probably the worst. Yeah, they were probably suspicious of her too. Yeah. Side note, there is one thing to note about the book.

Diana did not want to discuss her alleged affairs with the author. She admitted to these affairs later on, and so it's not that she was trying to present this story of how she was a loving wife and only her husband cheated. I think for her this was like a finally an eff you to the press who had been controlling the narrative for so long. I think it was just her own personal little victory and on top of that, I think if I can speculate, I don't think that she wanted these men to be hounded like she and everyone else was.

You know, I just don't see her being that type of person. So, they're not in the book, but I included in this episode just so we're not missing anything. But even after the book was published, Diana was forced to pretend to be happy with Charles. Even though they're living separate lives in this material is so explosive, they didn't even celebrate Diana's 30th birthday together because he wanted a raging party and she said, there's a war going on. The goal for, I'm not trying to have a party. And when Diana's father passed, the two were on a ski holiday and Diana wanted to fly

home alone and leave Charles to take care of the children, but he insisted on flying back with her, not for love, but because it was better for optics. He wanted to seem like a caring husband and she just felt so ick. This is the one time she wanted to grieve the way she wanted to grieve. And the only reason Charles was allowed to fly back with her was because the queen called and advised her to do this. And Princess Diana respected the queen. Two days later, Diana drove to her father's funeral and Charles came separately via helicopter. Her friend said she was grieving the death of her father.

She could at least be given the opportunity to behave in the way she wanted, rather than go through this whole masquerade. Just felt like a popularity contest, and only Charles was avidly competing. People were starting to get drawn to Diana, and Charles was upset. It's like he wanted to constantly upstage her. Diana was also really irked that Charles acted like the perfect super-present father to the kids, but he was never around. She always felt like a single parent and there he was snapping pics with the

press being called the perfect doding father. And then it happened. Tampon gate. Again, this is a leaked call that confirmed the affair of Prince Charles and Camilla was leaked in 1993, but the call itself took place in 1981. 1989, I'm so sorry. And in 1993. And in 1993.

Four years. Yeah. At this point, Camilla was still married and Prince Charles and Princess Diana were still married. So the whole thing was a huge scandal. The phone transcript starts with Charles saying, anyway, you know that's the sort of thing one has to be aware of and sort of feel one's way along if you know what I mean. Mmm, you're awfully good at feeling your way along.

Oh, stop. I want to feel my way along you all over you and up and down you in and out. Oh, Charles! Particularly in and out. Oh, that's just what I need at that moment. Is it? I know it would revive me. I can't bear a Sunday night without you. Oh, God. It's God. It can't bear a Sunday night without you. Oh God. It's God.

It's like the program. Start the week. I can't start the week without you. I fill up your tank. Yes you do. Then you can cope. Then I'm alright. What about me? The trouble is I need you several times a week. Hmm, so do I. I need you all week all the time. Oh God, I'll just live inside your trousers or something.

It'll be much easier. Camilla laughs. What are you gonna turn into a pair of underwear? They both laugh. Camilla says, oh, you're gonna come back as a pair of undies. Charles says, or God forbid a tampax. Just my luck. So they're both giggling that he wants to reincarnate into a tampon so he can be

inside her all the time, and Camilla laughs and says, you're a complete idiot, but oh, a wonderful idea. And Charles continues, my luck to be chucked down the laboratory and go on and on forever swirling round the top, never going down. Oh darling! Until the next one comes through. Or perhaps you could come back as a box. What sort of box? A box of tampax so you could just keep going. That's true. Repeating yourself.

Oh darling, I just want you now. Do you? Hmm, so do I. Desperately, desperately. Oh, I thought of you so much at YARB. Okay, there's more conversation after this in tampon gate, but that's like the juiciest part. So now you know why it's called tampon gate.

Just bizarre. So this- Recorded this. I don't know. So this coupled with the book, it kind of gave the royal couple an out and exit strategy. They both wanted out. They simply hated each other.

The queen was not fond of the idea. She didn't like the idea of a divorce for Prince William and Harry, but it just wasn't gonna work. Princess Diana even knew that Charles was out there leaking stuff to the press. She would tell his friend and his friend would be get to the press and she was so fed up, she told him one day,

why don't you save yourself a phone call and ring the papers direct? I mean, how does your relationship marriage come back after that? So a divorce was in the works and day by day Diana started becoming more and more paranoid. She didn't know who she could trust, now that the divorce was going on, she started using burner phones, shredding all her documents, sweeping her rooms for listening devices, and Princess Diana finally had an interview of her own.

She snuck TV crew into Kensington Palace where she finally opened up further. About her struggles, her bulimia, her PPD, her marriage, she finally spoke her truth. And she said her very famous words, there were three of us in this marriage. So it was a bit crowded. She also admitted to her having her own affairs. And personally, I think the interview was empowering.

I mean, but she had been tricked into doing it. So Martin Bashir, the asshole, the reporter, if you can even call in that. He got close to Diana's younger brother, Charles, and Diana was already paranoid that the royal family was spying on her and plotting something behind her back. Martin played into that by doctoring fake bank statements to make it seem like members of the Inner Circle were selling secrets to the British intelligence services.

This made Diana feel like she had to do this interview so that the public would know how she felt. Martin was found guilty of deceit in 2020, and recently, BBC finally apologized to Charles Spencer and paid massive sums to the victims of Martin's scam. So Martin basically claimed that charities and other people were spying on Diana and her brother, Charles, to get them, I don't know, maybe in jail,

to like get something bad to happen to them. And in 2021, both Prince William and Harry released statements blaming the BBC for contributing to Diana's fear, paranoia, and isolation at the time. So we hate him. But the interview did humanize Diana. She was vulnerable and honest, especially at a time

where mental health wasn't really talked about. And women around the world just, they resonated with her. And finally, the divorce happened, and the queen allowed her to keep her title of Princess of Wales. She was allowed to keep her apartments at Kensington Palace. She was awarded $22.5 million in cash and $600,000 annually. She was to share custody of her children. But about a year later, she was on vacation with her then boyfriend, Dodie Alphayed,

the eldest son of the former Herod's owner and billionaire in Paris. And after a dinner at the Ritz Carlton hotel that they own in Paris, or the Ritz hotel that they own in Paris, the pair were hounded by French paparazzi on motorbikes. While they were driving through a tunnel, to the car there was four people.

The bodyguard Trevor, the couple, their driver Henry Paul, who was the acting security manager of hotel Ritz in Paris that's owned by Dodie's father. They tried to get away from the pop garazzi and crashed into a pillar inside the tunnel. They all died except for the bodyguard. There were so many things that were off about this. For one, an autopsy later revealed that the driver of the car Henry Paul Paul, had a blood alcohol level that was three times the French legal limit. Conspiracy theorists later reviewed footage from the hotel before the four left in the car, and Henry didn't seem drunk.

But Henry was a known alcohol, so people are saying that the autopsy was doctored. But Henry was a known alcoholic, and sometimes they can seem less drunk than they are. So the initial investigation concluded that Henry was intoxicated, with his reckless driving being chased by paparazzi speeding the effects of alcohol mixed with his antidepressants, bad combination by the way, that was the reason for the crash. But the father of Dodie, the billionaire Muhammad, he accused British intelligence and the Duke of Edenburg for planning the car accident.

So it admits public outcry, a formal British investigation was launched and investigators concluded it was an accident. Diana was still alive after the initial crash and her last words were, oh my god, what's happened? She lost consciousness and died at the hospital. Now that's another thing. Conspiracy theorists have pointed out the time that it took to transport Diana to the hospital. The car accident happened between 120 and 126.

The call 2911 was recorded at 126. Diana didn't make it to a hospital till 2am. She was not transported to the nearest hospital. So conspiracy theorists think that this was compromising Diana's life on purpose. But the French authorities said that the nearest hospital was not equipped to help her, and she would have to be transferred anyway. There was speculation that she was pregnant when she died, and her autopsy showed no signs of pregnancy.

Some conspiracy theorists claim that she was involved to ensure that nobody could find out that she was pregnant, but experts say that in no way does embalming tamper with evidence of pregnancy. Those are the conspiracies, but there are some shady things I don't know. One, Diana was an avid seatbelt user. So the fact that she wasn't wearing one is just odd. And like as an avid seatbelt user myself, it's pretty habitual. Like you feel really vulnerable without a seatbelt. And at the side of the crash,

the entire tunnel had more than 14 CCTV cameras, yet there is no CCTV footage of the crash. Supposedly all the cameras were either facing away from the crash site or turned off because it was late. Huh. It's shady for sure, but ultimately Diana's death was pronounced an accident.

And so far, there is no concrete evidence to suggest otherwise. But the royal family went into full-on PR crisis mode after the death of Princess Diana, because even to this day people think one of them must have been involved, and I don't think that they were ever the same as a family, or even in the public eye. Prince Charles wasn't allowed to be seen with Camilla for years, and he recently married her in 2005, so they're married and he is king now and Camilla for years, and he recently married her in 2005. So they're married, and he is king now,

and she is queen consort. And a lot of people in the UK do respect her now. It took her a very long time to shed this image of the other woman, and I do think that there is a lot of fault between these two people, but it does seem like she's trying really hard to serve the people and to not cause any stirs or drama. I feel like we often use the word strong and empowered to describe notable women,

but like, what does that even mean? I feel like when Princess Diana was part of the royal family, she struggled to gain control of her life. She was insecure, she was lonely afraid, but I think that eventually she got fed up with her powerlessness. I mean, even though in the last few years, she was more paranoid than ever. She felt like someone was watching her. I feel like she was finally free to a degree. And I think just how you're able to control how you react to your circumstances is the ultimate power. In her last tape with Andrew Morn, Diana was asked what she thought would happen in the future. And she said, I think I'm going to cut a different path from everyone else.

I'm gonna break away from this setup and go and help the man on the street. I hate saying the man on the street it sounds so condescending. I don't know yet, but I'm being pushed more and more that way. I don't like the glamorous occasions anymore, I feel uncomfortable with him. I'd much rather be doing something with sick people, I'm more comfortable there. I was felt so different, I felt like I was on the wrong shell. I knew my life was going to be a winding road. I'd love to go to the opera, that would be a great treat, or a ballet, or a film. I like it as normal as possible. Walking along the pavement gives me a tremendous thrill.

I'm not bitter about that, but it would be quite nice to go and do things like a weekend in Paris. But it's not for me at the moment, but I know one day if I play the rules of life, the game of life, I'll be able to have those things I've pined for and they will be that much more special because I will be that much, much older and I'll be able to appreciate them that much more. That is the story of Princess Diana. Honestly, I didn't know anything about Princess Diana, but now I get it. Why everyone love her.

And yeah, like this story is touching me so much. She's not perfect, but she's open with that. And I don't know, she just feels so special. The fact that she grew up privileged and the fact that she just wants to find her footing, it's such a relatable pain. I don't know. What are your thoughts? Stay safe, and I'll see you guys on Sunday for the mini-sode. Bye!