Queen of hearts: why Diana remains popular 23 years after her death
'09.12.2020'
Source: Wonder
Princess Diana died on 31 August 1997 in a car accident in Paris. However, interest in her personality does not subside today. Why does the story of the princess still resonate in the hearts of fans of the royal family? Wonderzine.
From the very beginning of Diana's relationship with Prince Charles, the public's attention to her person was overwhelming (and even bordered on harassment). This interest does not fade to this day - Princess Diana remains one of the most talked about women in the world, books are written about her life, fashion collections are devoted to her and films are made.
“When I started my social life, twelve years ago, I understood that the media can be interested in what I do. I understood that their attention would inevitably be focused on both our private and public life. But I had no idea how overwhelming this attention would be. I didn't know how much it would affect both my social responsibilities and my personal life, "Princess Diana began her speech at a dinner at the Headway charity organization in 1993, in which she announced a partial suspension of public duties.
Likewise, her son Prince Harry and Meghan Markle did the same earlier this year, announcing a change in their role as "senior members of the royal family."
So, on November 15, the fourth season of the series "The Crown" was released, which touches on one of the most high-profile episodes in the history of the royal family of the twentieth century - the marriage of the princess and the Prince of Wales. The show portrays the couple's personal life in the most vivid colors (so much so that the UK Minister of Culture urged Netflix to warn of fiction in the TV series "Crown") and became a catalyst for new discussions about Princess Diana. We decided to find out why the story of the princess does not cease to be relevant in 2020.
"The People's Princess" is perhaps one of the most popular and boring epithets applicable to Diana and very succinctly characterizing the reason for her popularity. It is difficult to say that she was really "from the people" - the princess came from the Spencer family, one of the largest aristocratic families of Great Britain, and her grandmothers, for example, served as maids of honor to the Queen Mother, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth - but still many young British could not help but see themselves in it.
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Diana's parents divorced when she was only seven - this event greatly influenced the future princess, and in part they can explain the fact that the marriage of Diana and Charles lasted so long, despite the many years of disagreement (she later said that she did not want to experience these sensations again). Eighteen-year-old Diana lived in London and shared an apartment with three friends, and supported herself with the help of various and not always skilled part-time jobs - from cleaning and teaching dance to babysitting in kindergarten.
Diana was the first royal bride to have a real paid job before her marriage. Her story is reminiscent of a fairy tale about a "beautiful princess" - we can say that, having become engaged to Charles (according to all canons, their acquaintance happened quite by accident), at that time already a twenty-year-old nanny fulfilled the common dream of her generation by marrying a prince.
“At that time I was fat, squat, did not wear a make-up and did not have a special mind. But I made a lot of noise - and Charles liked it, ”- recalls the phrase of Diana in the famous book by Andrew Morton“ Diana. Her true story. "
For Charles, Diana was a breath of fresh air - according to journalist and former Royal Correspondent of The Guardian Stephen Bates, the marriage of the thirty-three-year-old Prince of Wales and twenty-year-old "cheerful and full of life" Diana was seen as a huge coup.
“Like Meghan Markle, she had to revive the image of the royal family, make it glamorous and be proof that they were not stifling nerds at all,” says the journalist.
One of Diana's first innovations was the wedding vow, from which the princess excluded the traditional promise of "obedience to her husband", thereby stirring up the public - later Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle followed her example.
As soon as she started her duties, Diana continued to go against many established rules of the royal protocol: for example, the princess chose an engagement ring with a sapphire from the catalog of the Garrard jewelry house (this meant that anyone could order exactly the same - if there were sixty thousand dollars), Diana gave birth to her sons at St. Mary's Hospital (while the royal family was home-delivered) and chose their names herself.
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In addition, the princess insisted that William and Harry go to school on an equal basis with other children of their age, and did her best to raise them as more or less ordinary teenagers, never tired of reminding them that they are in a better position than many other children - which means they must help them.
Subsequently, the innovations inspired princes William and Harry to continue these "traditions": their children were also born in hospitals, and little Prince George and Princess Charlotte have already gone to school (we are sure that Prince Archie will follow them).
During official visits, Diana refused to wear gloves (according to the rules, members of the royal family must avoid any physical contact, if we are not talking about relatives) and took important steps towards overcoming stigma against HIV and AIDS: in 1987, the princess became the first representative of the royal families who shook hands with an HIV-positive patient without a glove, while the virus was little understood and even among nurses there were many myths, such as that it is transmitted by touch.
“HIV does not make people dangerous to those who want to shake hands or hug them. Some heaven knows how much they need it, - argued Diana. "What's more, you can safely share homes, jobs, playgrounds and toys with them."
Subsequently, Prince Harry, who continued his mother's work, expressed admiration for her act.
“She knew that AIDS was one of the most neglected topics in society at the time, and that misunderstanding of this relatively new disease was associated with homophobia, creating a dangerous situation for patients. Therefore, taking the hand of a thirty-two-year-old HIV-positive patient in front of the cameras, she was well aware of how important this act was. She used her position as Princess of Wales - the most famous woman in the world - to challenge anyone willing to inform themselves, find compassion and lend a helping hand to those in need, rather than pushing these people away. " - said the prince in an interview.
The princess was and remains the focus of many relevant topics today - but perhaps the most important of them was the issue of mental health. As it turned out later, due to extreme pressure from the press, rumors about her husband's romance with Camilla Parker-Bowles and his critical attitude to Diana's appearance (“One day my husband put his hand on my waist and said:“ Oh, it seems there’s a little plump, isn't it? “And this phrase became a trigger,” she recalled), Diana fought with bulimia and depressive disorder for many years. In addition, she resorted to self-harm - the most famous case of a princess self-harming was deliberately falling down the stairs - while she was pregnant with Prince William.
“When no one is listening to us or we feel that no one is listening to us, all sorts of things start to happen. For example, we may feel such colossal pain on the inside that we try to hurt ourselves on the outside - all because we need help, but we do not know how to ask for it. <…> Yes, I inflicted bodily harm on myself. I didn’t love myself, I was ashamed because I could not cope with the pressure, ”Diana later said openly in a famous 1995 interview with journalist Martin Bashir for the Panorama program.
According to the princess, she “was probably the first person in the royal family to suffer from a depressive disorder and did not hide her condition,” which is why she repeatedly faced misunderstanding and bias from relatives. Biographer Andrew Morton compared her fate with the heroes of Kafka, whose life was like a bad dream - judging by the events described in his book, the princess was repeatedly subjected to gaslighting and victimblaming, and, as she herself told in an interview with Martin Bashir, in the family behind her the label “morally unbalanced” was entrenched, which completely devalued her experiences.
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Diana became the first member of the royal family to openly raise such a personal topic as mental health - and despite the fact that in November of this year, Diana's brother Charles Spencer said that Bashir won her trust through deception (and we do not support unethicalness in these matters ), it is hard to deny that this conversation, along with Andrew Morton's book, was a huge step towards overcoming the stigma surrounding mental disorders. Diana has repeatedly spoken about the importance of therapy - the topic of mental health has become one of the most important vectors of public work for Prince William and Harry, as well as Kate Middleton, who founded the Heads Together organization, which aims to raise awareness of mental health issues and raise money for new research in this area.
Looking back, Time magazine called her candid interviews "the most important and most underrated legacy", which is worth mentioning: "It would not be an exaggeration to say that thousands of people decided to change their lives just because Diana started talking about hers."
