Diana Remembered

I deluded myself into thinking she was happy during her honeymoon ...

When I learned later that she was miserable after finding evidence just before her wedding day that Charles still loved and desired Camilla, I began to feel sorry for her. These photos, in which she looks so content and beautiful are false. Later on she admitted she was desperately unhappy and throwing up in the loo after meals. The poor girl was in love with Charles and he only married her because Mommy and Daddy told him to.

Diana was known as a style icon, but there were times when she could look a bit disheveled and dowdy. I never minded. I loved the way she connected with people and walked boldly into the crowds to shake hands or accept flowers.

She was a genuinely involved mother ...

... and to this day her boys speak of their enormous love for her.

She was human and possessed human foibles. Those who were close to her spoke of her temper and her emotional traumas. But let's face it. Her marriage sucked. From day one she knew she had a rival in Camilla. Diana didn't take the situation lying down, however. At one party to celebrate the birthday of Camilla's younger sister, she approached Camilla and said:

"I want you to know that I know what you're up to with my husband. You've been a malignant presence throughout my marriage. I don't care any longer. You can have him if you want him. I just want him to leave me and my boys alone."

That speech took guts. (See Royal Horror Picture Show for another take on Camilla.) After her divorce, Diana came into her own, finding her public voice and lending her celebrity to good causes. She never looked more beautiful, in my opinion, than in the photos shortly before her death.



It's debatable whether the paparazzi were responsible for her death, for she courted them, encouraging them to follow her and giving them tips of her daily schedule and whereabouts. But media savvy as she was, she could not predict how relentlessly the press would hound her.

One can't help but think ... what if she'd survived that car crash? What if the French doctors had been able to save her?

This water monument in her memory in Hyde Park does not begin to replace the real life woman.

Had she lived she would have been proud of her sons, two strong tall men who, in a recent interview with Matt Lauer, spoke of how much they revere, respect, and love their mother.

In my opinion, the world has been a little less brighter since Diana left it. (I felt the same way after Jackie O died.) Here's Elton John singing Candle in the Wind at her funeral service.


Click here to return to the home page