The Legacy of Princess Diana

The People's Princess. Princess Di. The Candle in the Wind. Diana Spencer.

I remember when I was a little girl, and my grandmother would buy every magazine that Princess Diana covered. To her, there was not a single person more elegant or vivacious than Princess Di.

My uncle had her face on tea towels that he never used.

My cousin had a poster of her walking through a minefield.

My mother book her biography.

I loved watching her in the news, hugging sick people, going to gala's, taking her sons to McDonalds. I remember taking my crayons out to draw her outfits and gowns.

The world was in love with her. Not just with her beauty, but with her heart and compassion.

I remember watching her funeral on tv and recording it on a VHS tape. My grandmother wore black for months, my uncle happened to be in London when it was happening and brought back so many souveniers.

For awhile, it seemed like the world might lose interest in her. Like any celebrity when they die, there's a surge of interest every couple years but it fades as soon as it came.

But with Diana, it never did.

Recently a friend of mine finally started watching the Crown on Netflix and when she got to the last season when Diana comes into the story, she asked me how much was real.

I have to be honest, from what I remember and read and seen in Documentaries, I don't think this show is as far from the truth as we think. You can see in news coverage of how happy Diana was in the beginning, how in love with the fairy tale she was sold, but then when she gets engaged to Prince Charles the fiery light in her eyes dies. You can how depression takes over her life, that's not something you can hide forever especially if you're one of the most hunted women on the planet.

I have no doubt that when her and Charles fought, she held her own and that was what drove him mad. He was so used to everyone around him just giving into his every whim no matter how it affected them, so when Diana would say 'no' to him, he'd get furious. Like a toddler getting put in time out.

I imagine the global hatred he and Camilla get is as close as we'll come to realize how hated Anne Boleyn was when Henry VIII married her.

No one forced Charles to marry Diana. He CHOSE her and then bitched and moaned saying how his family forced him to marry her. They have been recorded in saying that he could marry anyone BUT Camilla, but never in demanding he marry Diana. He proved time and time again that he was going to do whatever he wanted, I'm guessing they might've threatened him with removing him from the line of succession and unfortunately at that time he was dating Diana and that was the last straw.

It also probably helped she was 19 and what they considered 'impressionable'. They could mold her into whatever they wanted, they could train her in their ways and she would be grateful to be in their circle at all.

What they didn't expect was what inevitably happens when you push someone to the edge; they push back.

It doesn't matter what Charles does or Camilla; they will always be hated for how they treated her. Like a stupid girl who should do as she's told. They never cared how many times she tried to commit suicide, they only cared when the papers would call her a 'cutter'. They didn't care if she fucked the stable boy because their focus would shift off of their affair.

They repeatedly humiliated her. He would promise to love her and then turn around and sneak off with Camilla at a friend's house. He'd promise to leave her alone to her affairs if she left him alone, and he then turned around and snitched on her. She wanted a divorce, and he would tell her to get over herself as this was how royals acted.

It's a shame William is following his father's footsteps, as history will eventually repeat itself and I hope Kate Middleton is smart enough to recognize the signs. Harry, on the other hand, is his mother's son, Meghan was never going to be accepted and it was probably more convenient for the Crown to nail Meghan to the press page than for them to print about William's torrid affairs in the countryside.

Just some food for thought.