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| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| 079cbec | Soon they would be together forever, the subterfuge and deceit ended. It was nearly time to let the world into their secret. The night before the engagement announcement, which took place on February 24, 1981, she packed a bag, hugged her loyal friends and left Coleherne Court forever. | Andrew Morton | ||
| e4d3f23 | The quest of the handsome prince was complete. He had found his fair maiden and the world had its fairytale. In her ivory tower, Cinderella was unhappy, locked away from her friends, her family and the outside world. As the public celebrated the Prince's fortune, the shades of the prison-house closed inexorably around Diana. For all her aristocratic breeding, this innocent young kindergarten teacher felt totally at sea in the deferential hi.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| c2f42a7 | The crowds made it painfully obvious who was the new star of the show--the Princess of Wales. Charles was left apologizing for not having enough wives to go round. If he took one side of the street during a walkabout the crowd collectively groaned, it was his wife they had come to see. "I seem to do nothing but collect flowers these days," he said. "I know my role." -- | Andrew Morton | ||
| 6eb9bc2 | The girl who would only appear in school plays if she had a non-speaking part was now centre stage. It took, by her own admission, six years before she felt comfortable appearing in her starring role. Fortunately for her the camera had already fallen in love with the new royal cover girl. However nervous she may have felt inside, her warm smile and unaffected manner were a photographer's delight. For once the camera did lie, not about the b.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| b417453 | At 9.03 pm on June 21, 1982 Diana produced the son and heir which was cause for national rejoicing. When the Queen came to visit her grandchild the following day her comment was typical. As she looked at the tiny bundle she said drily: "Thank goodness he hasn't got ears like his father." The second in line to the throne was still known officially as "Baby Wales" and it took the couple several days of discussion before they arrived at a name.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| cce13de | Carolyn Bartholomew who visited her at Kensington Palace three days after William was born recalls: "She was thrilled with both herself and the baby. There was a contentment about her." The mood was infectious. For a time Charles surprised his friends by his enthusiasm for the nursery routine. "I was hoping to do some digging," he told Harold Haywood, secretary of the Prince's Trust one Friday evening. "But the ground's so hard that I can't.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| 68bcf05 | While Diana looked to her husband for a lead and guidance, the way the press and public reacted to the royal couple merely served to drive a wedge between them. As in Wales, the crowds complained when Prince Charles went over to their side of the street during a walkabout. Press coverage focused on the Princess; Charles was confined to a walk-on role. It was the same later that year when they visited Canada for three weeks. As a former memb.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| 47f1e62 | She had become reconciled to the idea of an eternal shadow; she discovered that, far from being a threat, her bodyguards were much wiser sounding boards than many of the gentleman courtiers who fluttered around her. Police officers like Sergeant Allan Peters and Inspector Graham Smith became avuncular father figures, defusing tricky situations and deflating overweening subjects alike with a joke or a crisp command. They also brought her mot.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| bf82bd9 | In her desperation she consulted Penny Thornton, an astrologer introduced to her by Sarah Ferguson. Diana admitted to Penny that she couldn't bear the pressure of her position any longer and that she had to leave the system. "One day you will be allowed out but you will be allowed out as opposed to divorcing," Penny told her, confirming Diana's existing opinion that she would never become queen." | Andrew Morton | ||
| 3af9e25 | At the same time High Society was still buzzing about her impromptu performance on the stage of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden with the ballet star Wayne Sleep. They had secretly choreographed a routine to Billy Joel's song "Uptown Girl" using her drawing-room at Kensington Palace as their rehearsal studio. Prince Charles watched the Gala performance from the royal box oblivious to his wife's plan. Two numbers before the end she left .. | Andrew Morton | ||
| f725dba | By Thursday the news had leaked out and a group of photographers waited for her outside the hospital. "People thought Diana only came in at the end," says Angela. "Of course it wasn't like that at all, we shared it all." In the early hours of Thursday, August 23 the end came. When Adrian died, Angela went next door to telephone Diana. Before she could speak Diana said: "I'm on my way." Shortly after she arrived they said the Lord's Prayer t.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| 9cd9049 | Several days after the original accident in June 1991, William was recovering sufficiently well to allow the Princess to fulfill a commitment to visit Marlow Community Hospital. As she was leaving, an old man in the crowd collapsed with an attack of angina. Diana rushed over to help rather than leaving it to others. When the Prince saw the media coverage of her sympathetic actions, he accused Diana of behaving like a martyr. His sour respon.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| aff48d1 | The dramatically different manner in which the couple responded to William's injury publicaly underlined what those within their immediate circle have known for some time, the fairy-tale marriage between the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer is over in all but name. The breakdown of their marriage and the virtual collapse of their professional relationship is a source of sadness to many of their friends. This much discussed union which.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| 046ef7e | Amid the wreckage of their relationship there are still friends who feel that the rage and jealousy Diana feels towards her husband is reflection of her innermost desire to win him back. Those observers are in a minority. Most are deeply pessimistic about the future. Oonagh Toffolo notes: "I had great hopes until a year ago, now I have no hope at all. It would need a miracle. It is a great pity that these two people with so much to give to .. | Andrew Morton | ||
| 69b3fb3 | While their normal working relations are pervaded by an atmosphere of intrigue and competitive resentment, Diana still feels a sense of responsibility towards her husband. When he returned to public duties last year following a lengthy recuperation from his broken arm he intended to make a bizarre "statement" regarding the intense speculation surrounding his injury. He instructed his staff to find a false arm with a hook on the end so that .. | Andrew Morton | ||
| 354ef76 | The constant needle and edge in their working relationship is matched by a cloak of secrecy the warring offices throw around their rival operations. Diana had to use all her guile to tease out information from her husband's office before she flew to Pakistan on her first major solo overseas tour last year. She was due to stopover in Oman where Prince Charles was trying to woo the Sultan to win funding for an architectural college. Curious b.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| 4ceb853 | In the summer of 1979 another boyfriend, Adam Russell, completed his language degree at Oxford and decided to spend a year travelling. He left unspoken the fact that he hoped the friendship between himself and Diana could be renewed and developed upon his return. When he arrived home a year later it was too late. A friend told him: "You've only got one rival, the Prince of Wales." | Andrew Morton | ||
| e4c4b2c | She found some solace in her love of dancing inviting the West Heath school pianist, the late Lily Snipp and Wendy Mitchell, her dance teacher, to Buckingham Palace to give her private lessons. For forty minutes Diana, dressed in a black leotard, went through a routine that combined ballet with tap dancing. During those momentous days Miss Snipp kept a diary which gives a first-hand feeling of the misgivings felt by Lady Diana Spencer as t.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| df40034 | During the weekend she drove to nearby Cowdray Park to watch the Prince play polo for his team, Les Diables Bleus. At the end of the game the small house party trooped back to Petworth for a barbecue in the grounds of the de Pass' country home. Diana was seated next to Charles on a bale of hay and, after the usual pleasantries, the conversation moved on to Earl Mountbatten's death and his funeral in Westminster Abbey. In a conversation whic.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| 54f62db | She went water skiing while Prince Charles went windsurfing. Stories that she lightheartedly tipped him off his surfboard do not ring true of Diana who was totally in awe of him. Indeed she felt "fairly intimidated" by the atmosphere on board the royal yacht. Not only were his friends so much older than herself, but they seemed aware of Prince Charles's strategy towards her. She found them too friendly and too knowing. "They were all over m.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| 7e6b5ff | On one occasion she agreed to pose for photographs on the condition that she would then be left alone. Unfortunately during the photo session the light was behind her and made her cotton skirt seem see-through, revealing her legs to the world. "I knew your legs were good but I didn't realize they were that spectacular," Prince Charles is reported to have commented. "And did you really have to show them to everybody?" | Andrew Morton | ||
| 850792d | Rules necessary for axioms. Not to demand in axioms any but things perfectly evident. | Blaise Pascal | ||
| 241b51c | The best books are those, which those who read them believe they themselves could have written. | Blaise Pascal | ||
| 227c9c7 | Sandringham, the royal family's winter fortress, was also surrounded by the media. The House of Windsor, protected by police, press secretaries, and endless private acres, showed less composure than the House of Spencer. The Queen shouted: "Why don't you go away?" at the crowd of hacks while Prince Charles heckled: "A very happy New Year, and to your editors a particularly nasty one!" Prince Edward is even said to have fired a shotgun over .. | Andrew Morton | ||
| d501379 | While Diana and her mother started planning guest lists, wardrobe requirements and the other details for the wedding of the year, the media vainly attempted to discover her hiding-place. The one man who did know was the Prince of Wales. As the days passed, Diana pined for her Prince and yet he never telephoned. She excused his silence as due to the pressure of his royal duties. Finally she called him only to find that he was not in his apar.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| 370e07d | She joined in a singsong in the sailors' mess, playing "What shall we do with a drunken sailor?" after drinking from a can of beer. "We were all tickled pink," recalls one sailor. One moonlit night they enjoyed a barbecue in a bay on the coast of Ithaca. It was organized by the yacht's officers, who did all the cooking. After they had eaten a Royal Marine accordionist came ashore, song sheets were handed out, and the night air rang to the s.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| 842f00f | It was another watershed event for a woman who had for so long believed herself worthless, with little to offer the world other than her sense of style. Her life in the royal family had been directly responsible for creating this confusion. As her friend James Gilbey says: "When she went to Pakistan last year she was amazed that five million people turned out just to see her. Diana has this extraordinary battle going on in her mind. 'How ca.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| 813c8ee | Diana has embraced the personal and social issues generated by AIDS with candour and compassion. As her brother, Charles says: "It's been good for her to champion a really difficult cause. Anybody can do your run-of-the-mill charity work but you have to be genuinely caring and able to give a lot of yourself to take on something that other people wouldn't dream of touching." He saw those qualities at first hand when he asked an American frie.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| 8bed228 | It was her concern and commitment to a friend which last year involved her in perhaps the most emotional period of her life. For five months she secretly helped to care for Adrian Ward-Jackson who had discovered that he was suffering from AIDS. It was a time of laughter, joy and much sorrow as Adrian, a prominent figure in the world of art, ballet and opera, gradually succumbed to his illness. A man of great charisma and energy, Adrian init.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| 5dfc801 | When Diana was unable to visit, she telephoned the apartment to check on her friend's condition. On her 30th birthday she wore a gold bracelet which Adrian had given to her as a sign of their affection and solidarity. Nevertheless, Diana's quiet and longstanding commitment to be with Adrian when he died almost foundered. In August his condition worsened and doctors advised that he should be transferred to a private room at St Mary's Hospita.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| e3be6d9 | Such is their mutual antipathy that friends have observed that Diana finds her husband's very presence upsetting and disturbing. He in turn views his wife with indifference tinged with dislike. When a Sunday newspaper reported how the Prince had pointedly ignored her at a concert at Buckingham Palace to celebrate the Queen Mother's 90th birthday, she remarked to friends that she found their surprise rather odd. "He ignores me everywhere and.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| d3d1b32 | The mood in 1984 was not helped by the fact that she was pregnant with Prince Harry. Once again she suffered badly from morning-sickness although it wasn't as bad as the first time. When she returned from a solo engagement in Norway, Diana was still in the early stages of pregnancy. She and the late Victor Chapman, the Queen's former assistant press secretary, took turns to use the lavatory on the flight home. Characteristically he was suff.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| 36233e2 | As a close friend commented: "She seems to dread Charles's appearance. The days when she is happiest is when he is in Scotland. When he is at Kensington Palace she feels absolutely at a loss and like a child again. She loses all the ground she has built up when she is on her own." The changes in her are physical. Her speech, normally rapid, energetic, coloured and strong, degenerates instantly when he is with her. Diana's voice becomes mono.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| bb9c0b3 | When Prince Charles arrived home from a recent private visit to France she found his presence so oppressive that she literally ran out of Kensington Palace. Diana phoned a friend who was grieving over the death of a loved one. She could sense that her chum was crying and said: "Right I'm coming over now." As her friend recalls: "She came instantly for me but when she arrived she was visibly unsettled. Diana told me: "I'm here for you but I'.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| 098d148 | During a recent lunch with a close friend who is also the mother of two young children, Diana told of an incident which underlines not only the current state of her relationship with her husband but also the protective nature of her son William. She told her friend that the week that Buckingham Palace decided to announce the separation of the Duke and Duchess of York was understandably a trying time for her. She had lost an amicable compani.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| 8abd54e | So who is the woman who excites Diana's feelings? From the moment photographs of Camilla fluttered from Prince Charles's diary during their honeymoon to the present day, the Princess of Wales has understandably harboured every kind of suspicion, resentment and jealousy about the woman Charles loved and lost during his bachelor days. Camilla is from sturdy county stock with numerous roots in the aristocracy. She is the daughter of Major Bruc.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| 5d73991 | Diana has frequently discussed her concerns about Camilla wither friend James Gilbey. He has provided a sympathetic ear as Diana poured out her feelings of anger and anguish about Camilla. He believes that she is unable to put out of her mind the one-time relationship Camilla enjoyed with Prince Charles. He says: "As a result their marriage is a charade. The whole prospect of Camilla drives her spare. I can understand it. I mean what the he.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| b020622 | She is attracted to outsiders precisely because she feels so alienated from the royal system. As James Gilbey says: "She gets on much better with them than the men in grey because they are tied up with preserving a system which she feels is outdated. There is a natural built-in confrontation there. They are trying to uphold something and she is trying to get out." Her astrologer Felix Lyle observes: "She has a soaring spirit and optimism wh.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| bf8c4ec | As their uncle, Earl Spencer, says their characters are very different from the public image. "The press have always written up William as the terror and Harry as a rather quiet second son. In fact William is a very self-possessed, intelligent and mature boy and quite shy. He is quite formal and stiff, sounding older than his years when he answers the phone." It is Harry who is the mischievous imp of the family. Harry's puckish character ma.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| 7ebe4fd | Ironically, during that time, Charles and Diana enjoyed the happiest period of their married life. The balmy summer months before Harry's birth was a time of contentment and mutual devotion. But a storm cloud hovered on the horizon. Diana knew that Charles was desperate for their second child to be a girl. A scan had already shown that her baby was a boy. It was a secret she nursed until the moment he was born at 4.20pm on Saturday, Septemb.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| 393ef78 | Diana's world may be characterized as an unstable equilibrium; the unhappiness of her marriage balanced by the satisfaction she finds in her royal work, particularly among the sick and the dying; the suffocating certainties of the royal system matched by her growing self-confidence in using the organization for the benefit of her work. Her thinking about her royal position changes by the month. However, while the graph of her progress shows.. | Andrew Morton | ||
| 1fc3c9c | Although she has a tendency to be overly impressed by those with academic qualifications, Diana admires people who perform rather than pontificate. Richard Branson, the head of Virgin airlines, Baron Jacob Rothschild, the millionaire banker who restored Spencer House, and her cousin Viscount David Linley who runs a successful furniture and catering business, are high on her list. "She likes the fact that David has been able to break out of .. | Andrew Morton | ||
| 9765c62 | Berry and three other old Etonians, James Bolton, Alex Lyle and Christian De Lotbiniere, were the brains behind "Ski Bob" travel. This was a company, named after their Eton housemaster Bob Baird, which had been formed when they discovered that they were too young legally to book holidays themselves. So these young entrepreneurs started their own company and within the twenty-strong group, which mainly compromised old Etonians, the greatest .. | Andrew Morton | ||
| a53c103 | The men in her life were clean-cut, well-bred, reliable, unpretentious and good company. "Diana is an Uptown girl who has never gone in for downtown men," observes Rory Scott. If they wore a uniform or had been cast aside by Sarah so much the better. She felt rather sorry for Sarah's rejects and often tried, unsuccessfully, to be asked out by them. So she did washing for William van Straubenzee, one of Sarah's old boyfriends, and ironed the.. | Andrew Morton |