princess diana biography

Biography of Diana, Princess of Wales

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Marriage to prince charles, divorce and life after.

• B.A., Mundelein College
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Princess Diana (born Diana Frances Spencer; July 1, 1961–August 31, 1997) was the consort of Charles, Prince of Wales. She was the mother of Prince William, currently in line for the throne after his father, Diane's former husband, and of Prince Harry. Diana was also known for her charity work and her fashion image.

Fast Facts: Diana, Princess of Wales

• Known For: Diana became a member of the British royal family when she married Charles, Prince of Wales, in 1981.
• Also Known As: Diana Frances Spencer, Lady Di, Princess Diana
• Born: July 1, 1961 in Sandringham, England
• Parents: John Spencer and Frances Spencer
• Died: August 31, 1997 in Paris, France
• Spouse: Charles, Prince of Wales (m. 1981–1996)
• Children: Prince William (William Arthur Philip Louis), Prince Harry (Henry Charles Albert David)

Diana Frances Spencer was born on July 1, 1961, in Sandringham, England. Although she was a member of the British aristocracy, she was technically a commoner, not a royal. Diana's father was John Spencer, Viscount Althorp, a personal aide to King George VI and to Queen Elizabeth II . Her mother was the Honourable Frances Shand-Kydd.

Diana's parents divorced in 1969. Her mother ran away with a wealthy heir, and her father gained custody of the children. He later married Raine Legge, whose mother was Barbara Cartland, a romance novelist.

Diana grew up practically next door to Queen Elizabeth II and her family, at Park House, a mansion next to the Sandringham estate of the royal family. Prince Charles was 12 years older, but Prince Andrew was closer to her age and was a childhood playmate.

After Diana's parents divorced, her father gained custody of her and her siblings. Diana was educated at home until she was 9 and was then sent to Riddlesworth Hall and West Heath School. Diana did not get along well with her stepmother, nor did she do well in school. Instead, she found an interest in ballet and, according to some reports, Prince Charles, whose picture she had on the wall of her room at school. When Diana was 16, she met Prince Charles again. He had dated her older sister Sarah. She made some impression on him, but she was still too young for him to date. After she dropped out of West Heath School at 16, she attended a finishing school in Switzerland, Chateau d'Oex. She left after a few months.

After Diana left school, she moved to London and worked as a housekeeper, nanny, and kindergarten teacher's aide. She lived in a house purchased by her father and had three roommates. In 1980, Diana and Charles met again when she went to visit her sister, whose husband worked for the queen . They began to date, and six months later Charles proposed. The two were married on July 29, 1981, in a much-watched wedding that's been called the "wedding of the century." Diana was the first British citizen to marry the heir to the British throne in almost 300 years.

Diana immediately began making public appearances despite her reservations about being in the public eye. One of her first official visits was to the funeral of Princess Grace of Monaco. Diana soon became pregnant, giving birth to Prince William (William Arthur Philip Louis) on June 21, 1982, and then to Prince Harry (Henry Charles Albert David) on September 15, 1984.

Early in their marriage, Diana and Charles were publicly affectionate. By 1986, however, their time apart and coolness when together were obvious. The 1992 publication of Andrew Morton's biography of Diana revealed the story of Charles' long affair with Camilla Parker Bowles and alleged that Diana had made several suicide attempts. In February 1996, Diana announced that she had agreed to a divorce.

The divorce was finalized on August 28, 1996. Settlement terms reportedly included about $23 million for Diana plus $600,000 per year. She and Charles would both be active in their sons' lives. Diana continued to live at Kensington Palace and was permitted to retain the title Princess of Wales. At her divorce, she also gave up most of the charities she'd been working with, limiting herself to only a few causes: homelessness, AIDS, leprosy, and cancer.

In 1996, Diana became involved in a campaign to ban landmines. She visited several nations in her involvement with the anti-landmine campaign, an activity more political than the norm for the British royal family.

In early 1997, Diana was linked romantically with the 42-year-old playboy "Dodi" Fayed (Emad Mohammed al-Fayed). His father, Mohammed al-Fayed, owned Harrod's department store and the Ritz Hotel in Paris, among other properties.

On August 30, 1997, Diana and Fayed left the Ritz Hotel in Paris, accompanied in a car by a driver and Dodi's bodyguard. They were pursued by paparazzi. Just after midnight, the car spun out of control in a Paris tunnel and crashed. Fayed and the driver were killed instantly; Diana died later in a hospital despite efforts to save her. The bodyguard survived despite critical injuries.

The world quickly reacted. First came horror and shock. Blame was next, much of which was directed at the paparazzi who were following the princess's car and from whom the driver was apparently trying to escape. Later tests showed the driver had been well over the legal alcohol limit, but immediate blame was placed on the photographers and their seemingly incessant quest to capture images of Diana that could be sold to the press.

Then came an outpouring of sorrow and grief. The Spencers, Diana's family, established a charitable fund in her name, and within a week $150 million in donations had been raised. Princess Diana's funeral on September 6 drew worldwide attention. Millions turned out to line the path of the funeral procession.

In many ways, Diana and her life story paralleled much in popular culture. She was married near the beginning of the 1980s, and her fairy-tale wedding, complete with a glass coach and a dress that could not quite fit inside, was in sync with the ostentatious wealth and spending of the 1980s.

Her struggles with bulimia and depression shared so publicly in the press were also typical of the 1980s' focus on self-help and self-esteem. That she seemed to have finally begun to transcend many of her problems made her loss seem all the more tragic.

The 1980s realization of the AIDS crisis was one in which Diana played a significant part. Her willingness to touch and hug AIDS sufferers—at a time when many in the public wanted to quarantine those with the disease based on irrational and uneducated fears of easy communicability—helped change how AIDS patients were treated.

Today, Diana is still remembered as the "People's Princess," a woman of contradictions who was born into wealth yet seemed to have a "common touch"; a woman who struggled with her self-image yet was a fashion icon; a woman who sought attention but often stayed at hospitals and other charity sites long after the press had left. Her life has been the subject of numerous books and films, including "Diana: Her True Story," "Diana: Last Days of a Princess," and "Diana, 7 Days."

• Bumiller, Elisabeth, et al. “Death of Diana: Times Journalists Recall Night of the Crash.” The New York Times, 31 Aug. 2017.
• Clayton, Tim, and Phil Craig. "Diana: Story of a Princess." Atria Books, 2003.
• Lyall, Sarah. “Diana's Legacy: A Reshaped Monarchy, a More Emotional U.K.” The New York Times , 31 Aug. 2017.
• Morton, Andrew. "Diana: Her True Story - in Her Own Words." Michael O'Mara Books Limited, 2019.
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Princess Diana’s Death

By: History.com Editors

Updated: November 13, 2023 | Original: August 3, 2017

Princess Diana —who married into British royalty, only to later be divorced from it—devoted herself to charitable causes and became a global icon before dying in a car accident in Paris in 1997. When she married Prince Charles in 1981, Lady Diana Spencer became the first Englishwoman to marry an heir to the throne in more than 300 years. Although their wedding was watched by millions worldwide, and their marriage produced two sons—both potential heirs to the throne—it is for her untimely death that Diana is perhaps best remembered.

Lady Diana Spencer: From Teacher to Princess

Diana was born on July 1, 1961, to Edward John Spencer and his wife Frances. At the time of her birth, in Britain’s peerage system, her father held the title of Viscount Althorp. Her parents were divorced in 1969, when she was eight, and her father won sole custody.

In 1975, when Diana was 14, her father inherited the title of Earl from his own father, who passed away that year. The title has been awarded since 1765, as the Spencers have been wealthy landowners in England for centuries.

Her family rented Park House, an estate owned by Queen Elizabeth II , Prince Charles’ mother. During Diana’s time as a child on the estate, she may have played with Charles’ younger brothers, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward. (Charles was 13 years older than Diana.)

Although she lost touch with him as a result of spending much of her youth attending prestigious boarding schools, Diana became re-acquainted with Prince Charles after moving to London to live and work in 1978. In the capital, she initially worked as a nanny before taking a job as a kindergarten teacher at the Young England School.

The courtship of Charles and Diana lasted several years before they were married at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London on July 29, 1981 . With the wedding, Diana was granted the title of Princess of Wales, as Charles’ official royal title was then the Prince of Wales. Charles ascended to the throne on September 8, 2022, after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

Prince Charles and Princess Diana had two sons—Prince William in 1982 and Prince Henry (Harry) in 1984. Their marriage, however, was an unhappy one marked by extramarital affairs. In 1992, they announced their separation, and they divorced officially in 1996.

Princess Diana’s Humanitarian Causes

Diana, who had developed an interest in music and fashion as a child, quickly became a global icon of popular culture as she developed relationships with a number of entertainment personalities, including singers George Michael and Elton John .

She was also admired because she used her fame to raise public awareness—and charitable funds—for issues that mattered to her. As a former teacher, she was a lifelong advocate for children and supported efforts to abolish the use of land mines.

She also advocated for AIDS -related causes (she was the guest of honor at the opening of the United Kingdom’s first dedicated HIV/AIDS unit in 1987), and she is credited with helping to change the public’s perception of those who suffer from the disease.

She famously shook the hands of a patient with AIDS, in front of the media, without wearing gloves, dispelling the notion that the disease is transmitted via touch.

After her divorce from Prince Charles was finalized, Diana’s relationship with Egyptian film producer Dodi Al-Fayed , the son of a billionaire and former owner of London’s iconic Harrod’s department store and the city’s soccer team Fulham F.C. Dodi is perhaps best known as the producer of the film Chariots of Fire .

The couple’s relationship quickly became the subject of tabloid fodder, and they were routinely harassed by the paparazzi wherever they went.

Death of Princess Diana

On the evening of August 31, 1997 , Diana and Al-Fayed were dining privately in the Imperial Suite at Paris’ famous Ritz Hotel. They had planned to have a quiet, romantic meal at the hotel’s restaurant—Al-Fayed had reportedly purchased a ring for Diana earlier in the day—but they had to leave after 10 minutes because they were being disturbed by the press and other patrons.

At 11:30 that night, as they left the hotel to return to Al-Fayed’s Paris apartment, they were hounded by paparazzi, despite the fact that significant security precautions had been taken, including the use of a decoy vehicle, which left from the front of the hotel.

Diana and Al-Fayed left the hotel using a rear entrance, with French driver Henri Paul and one of the Princess’ bodyguards, Trevor Rees-Jones.

Driving a Mercedes S-280 limousine, Paul took Rees-Jones, Diana and Al-Fayed on a high-speed trip through the boulevards and narrow streets of central Paris. Investigators later estimated that the car may have been traveling in excess of 60 miles per hour.

At 12:19 a.m., the Mercedes carrying the couple, Paul and Rees-Jones, crashed into the 13th pillar of the Pont d’Alma Bridge, which traverses the River Seine. They were less than two miles from the Ritz Hotel.

Al-Fayed and Paul died at the scene. Diana was taken to Paris’ La Pitie Salpetriere Hospital, but several hours later, at 4 a.m., she died as a result of injuries she sustained in the crash, including a severed pulmonary vein. She was 36 years old.

The bodyguard, Rees-Jones, survived, despite suffering significant injuries. He recovered and returned to England, where he works in a family business and has published a book on his experiences with Diana.

Princess Diana’s Funeral

Princess Diana's death prompted an immediate—and unprecedented—outpouring of grief from all over the world.

Her funeral took place in London, five days after her death. An estimated 1 million people lined the funeral route from her London home in Kensington Palace to Westminster Abbey , where her funeral was held.

Diana is buried on a small island surrounded by a lake at Althorp, her family’s ancestral estate in Northamptonshire, England.

Investigating Princess Diana’s Death

Initially, the incident had been blamed on their French chauffeur, Henri Paul, who may have been exceeding the speed limit to avoid tabloid photographers.

A subsequent inquest on the crash performed by the British police, and released in 2006, ruled Diana’s death a “tragic accident.” The inquest found that Paul had been drunk at the time of the accident, and that his condition may have been worsened by prescription anti-depressants he was taking.

In fact, tests of Paul’s blood following the crash revealed that his alcohol levels were more than three times the legal limit in France for drunk driving. Investigators believe this caused him to lose control of the Mercedes.

The inquest jury ruled that both Paul and the paparazzi chasing Diana and Al-Fayed were responsible for the crash due to “gross negligence.” The deaths of Diana and Al-Fayed were also ruled “unlawful killings”—the court equivalent of manslaughter.

In addition, the jury ruled that the couple might have survived the crash had they been wearing seatbelts.

No one was charged in the deaths of Diana and Al-Fayed, as Paul was himself killed. Several members of the paparazzi were questioned immediately after the accident, but were released.

Diana’s Legacy

In addition to her accomplishments on behalf of those with HIV/AIDS while she was alive, Diana is fondly remembered as a patron of the United Kingdom’s National AIDS Trust, an advocacy organization for people with the disease and their families. Many of the organization’s initiatives are named in her honor.

Diana is also credited, by at least one biographer, with effectively modernizing the royal family in their relations with the British public.

Generally reserved, the royal family, and in particular Queen Elizabeth, have arguably been more engaged with the public since Diana’s passing, visiting with victims of terrorist attacks in London, for example.

Her sons William and Harry have also credited their late mother with shaping their own charitable efforts, which include HIV/AIDS and wildlife conservation work in Africa, among other initiatives.

Diana, Princess of Wales. The Home of the Royal Family. A Family History. Spencer of Althorp. How Princess Diana changed attitudes to Aids. BBC News. Diana death a ‘tragic accident.’ BBC News. Princess Diana’s Life and Legacy. ABC News.

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A Look at Princess Diana’s Life, 25 Years After Her Death

The royal captured the public's attention from her engagement to her funeral

Lady Diana Frances Spencer was born on July 1, 1961, in Norfolk, England. The third of four children born to the 8th Earl Spencer and his then-wife, Frances, Lady Diana developed a love of and talent for music and dancing, according to the royal family’s website.

After a whirlwind courtship, Lady Diana married Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, on July 29, 1981, in one of the most-watched events in royal history. The 20-year-old wore a voluminous silk taffeta dress with a 25-foot train that filled the aisle of St. Paul's Cathedral.

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The couple spent their honeymoon at the Mountbatten family home at Broadlands, in Hampshire, England, and then on a 12-day cruise through the Mediterranean. They finished their trip at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, shown here.

On June 21, 1982, Princess Diana gave birth to Prince William Arthur Philip Louis, her first child. As the new family of three departed St. Mary's Hospital in London the next day, Princess Diana wore a polka-dot dress.

PA Wire/Zuma

William’s wife, Kate Middleton, also appeared in a polka-dot dress after the birth of their first son decades later.

Parsons Media/Zuma

Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

In 1984, Princess Diana gave birth to her second son, Henry Charles Albert David—Prince Harry.

John Shelley Collection/Avalon/Zuma

As a royal, Princess Diana emerged as a glamorous figure with star power. In 1985, she danced with actor John Travolta at a White House dinner event in the royal couple’s honor. Later that year, she performed on stage at London’s Royal Opera House with dancer Wayne Sleep.

Pete Souza/Ronald Reagan Library/AP

Princess Diana took on charities and causes as part of her duties, eventually becoming president or patron for over 100 charities during her marriage to Prince Charles. In 1987, during a time of stigma and misinformation around AIDS, she was photographed shaking the hand of an AIDS patient in London.

John Redman/AP

Princess Diana was a glamorous figure but also charmed the public. She was seen as someone they could relate to, a mother who loved her children. She competed in a race with other parents at Prince Harry’s school in 1991.

Anwar Hussein/WireImage/Getty

Amid speculation about the state of the royals’ marriage, royal reporter Andrew Morton’s "Diana: Her True Story" was published in 1992. The best-selling tell-all book, produced with the princess’s cooperation, discussed Charles’s longtime affair with Camilla Parker Bowles and Diana’s struggles with the affair, bulimia and celebrity.

Ben Curtis/PA Wire/Reuters

Peter Jordan/AP

After news of Prince Charles’s infidelity, which he made public in a television special, Princess Diana made a public appearance at a fundraising dinner hosted by Vanity Fair in what became known as her “revenge dress.”

Ian Jones/Zuma

In 1995, Princess Diana talked about many of her struggles, as well as her own infidelity, during an interview with journalist Martin Bashir on BBC’s “Panorama.” In one memorable moment, she was asked if Ms. Parker Bowles was a factor in the breakdown of her marriage. “Well there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded," she said. The BBC has since apologized for unethical methods and fake documents used to obtain the interview.

BBC/PA Wire/Reuters

Months later, Prince Charles received a letter from his mother, urging divorce, and he agreed. By February 1996, Princess Diana had also agreed. The couple received a final decree of divorce in August 1996.

After her divorce, Diana resigned from many of the charity positions she had held as a working member of the royal family. But she continued to work on certain humanitarian issues. In January 1997, she visited Angola as part of a campaign to ban land mines.

Express Newspapers/AP

John Stillwell/PA Wire/Zuma

She began a relationship with Dodi Fayed, the son of the billionaire and former owner of Harrods, Mohamed al-Fayed. The two, often photographed by paparazzi, sailed around the Mediterranean, stopping in the French Riviera resort of St. Tropez.

Patrick Bar/Nice-Matin/AP

Diana, Princess of Wales, and Mr. Fayed both died on Aug. 31, 1997, in a high-speed accident in Paris. The vehicle crashed in the Pont de l'Alma underpass as the driver, who French authorities said was inebriated, was trying to evade paparazzi. She was 36 years old.

Diana, Princess of Wales, and Mr. Fayed both died on Aug. 31, 1997, in a high-speed accident in Paris. The vehicle crashed in the Pont de l'Alma underpass as the driver, who French authorities said was inebriated, was trying to evade paparazzi. She was 36.

Jerome Delay/AP

Pierre Boussel/AFP/Getty

A funeral for Princess Diana, who former Prime Minister Tony Blair called the “people’s princess,” took place on Sept. 6 in Westminster Abbey. Elton John performed a rewritten version of his song “Candle in the Wind” dedicated to her. The song, later released as a single, topped charts in the U.K. and U.S.

Princess Diana’s tensions with the royal family outlived her. Many considered their initial response to her death inadequate. Tony Blair, the former prime minister, has said he spoke with the family about how to react, and that he thought a televised statement the queen gave ahead of Diana’s funeral was “near perfect.”

Ian Waldie/Reuters

Her sudden death shocked the world. An estimated 2 billion people watched her funeral , making it one of the most-viewed events in television history. Even today, people leave bouquets and other gifts outside the gates of Kensington Palace on the anniversary of her death.

John Stillwell/PA Wire/Reuters

Interest in Diana persists 25 years after her death. In recent years, documentaries, movies and TV shows about her life have been made , including the film “Spencer,” shown here, and the opulent Netflix series on the royal family, “The Crown.”

Frederic Batier/Neon/Everett Collection

Produced by Matthew Riva

Cover photo: Keystone Press Agency/Zuma Credits photo: Johnny Eggitt/AFP/Getty

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Why There’s Still So Much Controversy 25 Years After Princess Diana’s Death

W ednesday marks 25 years since Princess Diana’s death thrust not only the British royal family but the entire world into shock and mourning. Diana, then 36-years-old, was a glamorous celebrity known for her advocacy for AIDS patients and land mine removal in developing countries.

She was also one of the English-speaking world’s most well-known women, who millions had watched evolve from a shy 20-year-old wife of the older Prince Charles into a global figure whose legacy spurred major changes to the traditional royal family .

Below, how Diana died and her legacy.

What happened on Aug. 31?

The “ People’s Princess ” was killed in a car crash in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997. The incident raised scrutiny over the tabloid press’ coverage of her as well as conspiracy theories around the circumstances of her death.

Diana’s boyfriend at the time, Egyptian-born Dodi Fayed, and driver Henri Paul also died in the crash, which occurred as they tried to evade a group of paparazzi on motorcycles, having left the Ritz Paris to go to Dodi’s apartment. Their vehicle had been reaching speeds of more than 60 mph, although the speed limit was 30 mph; the car eventually rammed into a pillar in the middle of a highway.

In the immediate aftermath of the crash, other paparazzi on the scene faced criticism for taking pictures instead of trying to help, according to witness testimony .

Many initially blamed the paparazzi for causing the crash but a French judge cleared them of wrongdoing in 1999. Prosecutors later revealed that the driver, Paul, had a blood alcohol level three times above the country’s legal limit . An extensive 2006 Scotland Yard investigation determined the crash was a “tragic accident.” But in April 2008, a British jury ruled that the driver and paparazzi were both to blame for grossly negligent driving.

That hasn’t stopped wider scrutiny of the press’ role in hounding Diana and her family. Their fascination with Diana was in part due to her colorful and daring fashion style but also because of the ways she broke from royal tradition .

Diana’s close family members have maintained their strong criticism of the paparazzi. Her brother, Charles Spencer, described his sister as “ the most hunted person of the modern age ”—referring to the press constantly trailing her.

Read More: TIME’s Original 1997 Special Report on Princess Diana’s Death

Fayed’s father, Mohamed al-Fayed, had previously claimed that Diana was pregnant with his son’s child but that has since been disproven by a forensic inquiry . He has also criticized what he says was the royal family’s disapproval of Diana and Dodi’s relationship, citing Dodi’s heritage and Muslim faith .

Diana had publicly discussed her unhappy marriage to Prince Charles, to the Palace’s disapproval, admitting in a bombshell interview with BBC journalist Martin Bashir in 1995 that both had extramarital affairs. “There were three of us in this marriage , so it was a bit crowded,” she said, referring to Prince Charles’s affair with Camilla Parker Bowles. Charles would later marry Parker Bowles in 2005, with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip not in attendance.

Diana and Prince Charles officially divorced in 1996.

The Royal Family’s response

The Queen’s first public address came five days after Diana’s death. “I want to pay tribute to Diana myself. She was an exceptional and gifted human being,” she said in a speech broadcast to the nation. “In good times and bad, she never lost her capacity to smile and laugh, nor to inspire others with her warmth and kindness.”

But the delay in acknowledgement raised scrutiny among some in the British public. Mary Francis, an aide to the Queen, told Newsweek in a 2017 interview that she believed the family was “ somewhat slow , perhaps, to recognize the need to step forward in their public role of showing leadership for the country in its grief about the death of the princess.”

Read More: The 5 Biggest Takeaways From HBO’s New Diana Documentary, The Princess

In recent years, Prince Harry, one of Diana’s two sons, has spoken more openly about his grief. “ I was so angry with what happened to her —and the fact that there was no justice at all. Nothing came from that. The same people that chased her into the tunnel photographed her dying on the backseat of that car,” he said in the 2021 Apple TV+ documentary The Me You Can’t See .

Princess Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, told British media in 2017 that he had been lied to by palace courtiers about the two princes, then 12 and 15, wanting to walk behind their mother’s coffin at the internationally televised funeral. It was a “ bizarre and cruel thing ,” he said, explaining that he had pushed for the duo not to have to do so. He called the procession “the most horrifying half an hour of my life.”

Prince Harry had previously spoken out about how difficult walking behind his mother at the funeral procession was. “My mother had just died and I had to walk a long way behind her coffin surrounded by thousands of people watching me while millions more did on television,” he told Newsweek in a 2017 interview. “I don’t think any child should be asked to do that, under any circumstances. I don’t think it would happen today.” He later, reflecting on the occasion, said that he was “ very glad ” to have been part of the day.

The relationship between Diana and the paparazzi

The British paparazzi earned a reputation for closely following Diana’s every move; she was one of the most photographed people in the world and snapshots of her could sell for lucrative prices—hundreds of thousands of dollars a piece.

In 1993, Diana sued Mirror Group Newspapers for publishing pictures of her working out in a gym. She also spoke openly about her disdain of being endlessly pursued by paparazzi; once, yelling out to a photographer who took a picture of her leaving a movie theater in 1993: “ you make my life hell. ”

Read More : The Princess and the Paparazzi: How Diana’s Death Changed the British Media

At a speech in December 1993, Diana said that she knew starting a public life would entail media attention but she didn’t realize just how much of her private life would be scrutinized, too. “I was not aware of how overwhelming that attention would become. Nor the extent to which it would affect both my public duties and my personal life, in a manner that’s been hard to bear,” she said.

A 1997 Gallup poll found that 43% of Brits thought photographers were “extremely” responsible for the accident that led to Diana’s death, compared to 33% who assigned the same level of blame to the driver.

A more recent 2018 YouGov poll found that Princess Diana is Britain’s most mourned public figure, a sign of her lasting legacy a quarter of a century after her death.

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Princess Diana: Her life and legacy

Twenty-five years after her untimely death, Princess Diana remains a beloved figure.

Diana married Prince Charles, the heir apparent to the British throne, in 1981. She became an international icon and used her celebrity to raise awareness for a number of causes, from leprosy to domestic violence to mental health. She made headlines in 1987 when she intentionally shook hands with an AIDS patient, working to dispel the myth that HIV/AIDS could be spread through touch.

She was, in the words of former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, "the people's princess."

Diana and Prince Charles divorced in 1996, but she was still the target of intense media scrutiny.

On August 31, 1997, Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, were killed in a high-speed car crash in Paris, along with their driver, Henri Paul. She was 36 years old.

A French investigation concluded that Paul was legally drunk at the time and responsible for the accident. In 2008, a British coroner's jury found that Diana and Fayed were unlawfully killed because of the actions of Paul and pursuing paparazzi.

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How Princess Diana's tell-all biography by Andrew Morton came to be

This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is at risk of suicide please call the  U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline  at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741 or go to  SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources  for additional resources.

Princess Diana had a story that everyone wanted to hear — and no one could tell it better than she could. In the decade since marrying Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, the royal had skyrocketed to global fame, and had also experienced the difficulties of being part of her new family.

The title of Andrew Morton’s bombshell book “Diana: Her True Story In Her Own Words" is literal.

As Season Five of “The Crown” shows, Diana contributed directly to the creation of the book — though that fact didn’t emerge until after her death in 1997 at the age of 36 .

When the book came out in 1992, it was initially published under the title, "Diana: Her True Story," and became a bestseller.

The book went into detail about the royal's life before becoming Princess of Wales and gave a private perspective on Diana’s public life: Her unhappy marriage , her husband’s relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles and Diana’s struggles with an eating disorder . 

During the initial publication, Morton and Diana alike denied she was part of the book’s sourcing, per Frontline . Morton said he was accused of lying, recalling the experience in a 2017 interview with the Belfast Telegraph .

More about Princess Diana

• How did Princess Diana die? The facts about her death 25 years later
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• I was Princess Diana’s astrologer — and this is what I saw in her chart

“I knew it was all true, because the words came out of Diana’s own mouth. But it was frustrating that I was getting lambasted. I thought journalists might have got the nods and winks in the text about how I got the quotes from Diana. But most of them were asking how dare I write it,” he said. 

In 1997, Morton revealed who, exactly, had been sharing all those details: Diana herself. A revised version, entitled "Diana: Her True Story In Her Own Words," contained an 18,000 word transcript of the tapes Diana recorded and passed along to Morton.

“The story is based on a lengthy, tape-recorded interview with Diana, supplemented by her family and friends,” Morton wrote in the foreword of the memoir’s revised version, published in 1997.

This methodology sets the book apart from the many other books written about Diana . "This his biography is unique in that the story contained in its pages would never have appeared had it not been for the wholehearted cooperation of Diana, the late Princess of Wales,” Morton wrote. 

Read on for more about the creation of the memoir — and the fallout of going public. 

The biography was Diana’s way of sharing her story 

Speaking to NBC News in 2004, Dr. James Colthust — who acted as a go-between for Morton and the princess — shared that the book was Diana’s idea.

According to Colthurst, who met Diana during a skiing trip when she was 19, writing the book was a way to share her side of the story.

“I think it was a gradual realization by her that she needed to have some control over what was said … and that wasn‘t going to be possible in a newspaper. It was better, in fact, to do that through a book. And really that was a decision that she gradually came to over some months,” Colthurst said.

In the introduction to the revised version book, Morton wrote that, amid her crumbling marriage, Diana was in a “genuine predicament.”

Her task? “To give the public an insight to her side of the story while untangling the legal, emotional and constitutional knots that kept her tethered to the monarchy.” 

Diana felt herself a “prisoner trapped inside a bitterly unfulfilled marriage,” and felt “shackled to a whole unrealistic public image of her royal life” and to “an unsympathetic royal system.”

For Diana, a book was the solution. Charles later contributed to his own book. He admitted to infidelity in a 1994 interview with Jonathan Dimbleby , who later wrote a book with his cooperation.  

The princess hand-picked Morton for the job, not the other way around 

In “The Crown,” Diana gets wind of a book by Morton, and decides to contribute. But historical accounts say that Diana picked Morton herself to write the book. 

Colthurst explained to NBC, “He had done some books on her, and she felt they were sympathetic, although they were quite lightweight in the subject matter.”

Diana felt that, since Morton was young — he was about 39 in 1992 — he might be more “sympathetic” to her. 

A 1997 story in the New York Times backs up Colthurst’s account: “Mr. Morton said he was asked to become the conduit for her story after Diana learned he was preparing a biography of her. A friend of hers summoned him to a working-class pub in the northwest London suburb of Ruislip and reported her interest, saying she had been impressed by his fairness in articles and books he had written during his years as the royal correspondent for two national tabloids."

Morton and Diana never met, instead communicating through tapes delivered by James Colthurst

Speaking to NBC, Colthurst explained how the process worked. He would “peddle in” to Kensington Palace with a briefcase, containing Morton’s questions in a briefcase in the bicycle basket.

“Initially, I sat and I read out the questions, but that was too slow for Diana. She snatched the questions away from me and then clipped the microphone on to herself and the tape recorder was on and away she went,” Colthurst said. 

Colthurst then delivered the tapes back to Morton. “I was never face-to-face with Diana, so that we could give her deniability,” Morton said in 2017 to the Belfast Telegraph .

The publisher had to be convinced Diana's allegations were real

In the book "The Diana Chronicles," Tina Brown recounted the lengths Diana went to convince publishers her stories were true — especially regarding her marriage.

Morton's publisher Michael O'Mara wanted proof "besides Diana's word" that Camilla Parker Bowles was linked to Charles.

"Diana stole a cache of Camilla's love letters to Charles from the Princes' briefcase at Balmoral and allowed her publishers to peruse them as evidence. The team was instantly persuaded that the affair was real," Brown wrote.

What, exactly, does the book say?

A lot! Below, find some of the revelations.

She recounted their engagement

Diana gave a play-by-pay of how Charles proposed after about 13 meetings.

"He said: ‘Will you marry me?’ and I laughed. I remember thinking: ‘This is a joke’, and I said: ‘Yeah, OK’, and laughed. He was deadly serious. He said: ‘You do realize that one day you will be Queen.’ And a voice said to me inside: ‘You won’t be Queen but you’ll have a tough role.’ So I thought: ‘OK’, so I said: ‘Yes.’ I said: ‘I love you so much, I love you so much.’ He said: ‘Whatever love means.’ He said it then. So I thought that was great! I thought he meant that! And so he ran upstairs and rang his mother."

Diana said her eating disorder began the week after her engagement

Diana pinpointed the exact moment that "triggered" her bulimia.

“It was all very strange, I just felt miserable. My husband put his hand on my waistline and said: ‘Oh, a bit chubby here, aren’t we?’ and that triggered off something in me,” she explained. “And the Camilla thing, I was desperate, desperate. I remember the first time I made myself sick. I was so thrilled because I thought this was the release of tension.” 

She spoke to her mental health struggles and suicide attempt

Diana said she when she "threw" herself "down the stairs" during her pregnancy with William: “Charles said I was crying wolf and I said I felt so desperate and I was crying my eyes out and he said: ‘I’m not going to listen. You’re always doing this to me. I’m going riding now.’ So I threw myself down the stairs."

Diana said she attempted suicide a second time.

“I was running around with a lemon knife, one with the serrated edges. I was just so desperate,” Diana recalled, not specifying the date when this occurred. “I knew what was wrong with me but nobody else around me understood me. I needed rest and to be looked after inside my house and for people to understand the torment and anguish going on in my head. It was a desperate cry for help. I’m not spoiled — I just needed to be allowed to adapt to my new position.”

She spoke to the queen about her marriage problems

Diana said she and her mother-in-law had a conversation about her marriage to Charles.

"'I’ll never let you down but I cannot say the same for your son.’ She took it quite well,” Diana recalled telling the queen. “She indicated to me that the reason why our marriage had gone downhill was because Prince Charles was having such a difficult time with my bulimia. She told me that.” 

And her confrontation with Camilla

According to the book, Diana confronted Camilla about her relationship with Charles in the '80s.

"I said to Camilla: ‘I’m sorry I’m in the way, I obviously am in the way and it must be hell for both of you, but I do know what is going on. Don’t treat me like an idiot,'" Diana recalled saying.

Diana and Charles separated in 1992

The book was published in June. Months later, in December, the Prince and Princess of Windsor announced their formal separation. 

The book has been revised twice since its first publication

After Diana’s death, Morton revealed that Diana was his primary source in an expanded 1997 edition. In 2017, for the 20th anniversary of her death, Morton published another expanded edition taking into account William and Harry’s lives . “I think my book is basically about appreciating and understanding the life of the woman we lost,” Morton told the Belfast Telegraph.

The 2017 documentary contains footage from the tapes

The expanded version, published in 1997, included an 18,000 word transcript of Diana’s tapes. For another immersive look at “her own words,” the 2017 documentary “Diana: In Her Own Words” contains audio footage that Morton used to write his memoir. 

Elena Nicolaou is a senior entertainment editor at Today.com, where she covers the latest in TV, pop culture, movies and all things streaming. Previously, she covered culture at Refinery29 and Oprah Daily. Her superpower is matching people up with the perfect book, which she does on her podcast, Blind Date With a Book.

Andrew Morton's 1992 Biography of Princess Diana, As Seen in The Crown , Is Worth a Read

The book features in the second episode of the new season of The Crown . Morton published a new edition of the book in 2017, featuring even more insights into Princess Diana's life

Every item on this page was chosen by a Town & Country editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.

After the publication of the book, Morton told the New York Times that what he found most surprising was the lack of support the royal family gave Princess Diana. "Checkout girls in the supermarket get more training for their jobs than Diana did," he said . "And that antipathy has been allowed to go on for 10 years. Eventually you would have thought they would come around to examine the problem. But nothing gets tackled until it becomes a crisis, which is a fundamental weakness in the organization . "

Simon & Schuster Diana: Her True Story--in Her Own Words

At the time, Morton shared with the press that the three main sources he used were Diana's brother, Charles Spencer , her close friend and Prince Harry's godmother, Carolyn Bartholomew , and James Gilbey, who was another close friend (and rumored lover) of Diana's. Yet, when she tragically died five years later, Morton re-issued the book as Diana: Her True Story—in Her Own Words, acknowledging his collaboration with the Princess of Wales to tell her story.

"This biography is unique in that the story contained in its pages would never have appeared had it not been for the wholehearted co-operation of Diana, the late Princess of Wales," Morton writes in the acknowledgements of the most recent edition. "The story is based on lengthy, tape-recorded interviews with Diana, supplemented by the testimony of her family and friends. Like Diana, they spoke with honesty and frankness in spite of the fact it meant laying aside the ingrained habits of discretion and loyalty which proximity to royalty invariably engenders. My thanks for their co-operation are therefore all the more heartfelt and sincere."

Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma , a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram .

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The true story behind Andrew Morton's Princess Diana biography

The new season of The Crown details how Diana helped the journalist to write 1992 book.

Senior Writer

"I've tried everything," says Elizabeth Debicki 's Princess Diana on the new season of The Crown , explaining why she has decided to help journalist Andrew Morton write a book about her. "I've confronted my husband about his mistress and I've been dismissed. I've gone to The Queen, it's like facing a blank wall. And it finally dawned on me that unless I get my side of the story out there, people will never understand how it's really been for me."

Diana's collaboration with Morton would result in Diana: Her True Story . Published in July 1992, the book revealed the Princess' unhappiness with her marriage to the unfaithful Prince Charles, her battle with bulimia, and her feelings of isolation and depression. While Morton denied at the time that Diana had helped him write the book, Diana: Her True Story became a publishing sensation, translated into 29 languages and reportedly selling five million copies around the world. Morton's work effectively signaled the end of the royal marriage, and in December 1992 Prime Minister John Major announced that the couple had separated.

So how did Diana come to help Morton with his explosive book? And what has the writer been doing in the years since?

Morton began his journalism career in the '80s, working for British tabloid newspaper The Daily Star , first as a general reporter and then royal correspondent. The writer, who stands at six feet four inches tall, would claim that he was given the latter job because of his ability to see over crowds. Morton wrote books about both Prince Andrew and his wife, the Duchess of York, and in 1990 published the unauthorized Diana's Diary: An Intimate Portrait of the Princess of Wales . The journalist was keen to write a more substantive biography of Diana and cultivated the friendship of the Princess' friend Dr. James Colthurst, who Morton met while covering Diana's visit to a hospital. When Morton suggested, via Colthurst, that Diana help him write a biography of her the Princess proved open to the idea.

"Diana had a nagging fear that, any moment, her Palace would have her classified as mentally ill and locked away. Where to turn?" Morton recalled earlier this year in a first-hand account published by The Daily Mail . "It had dawned on her that unless the full story of her life was told, the public would never understand the reasons behind anything she decided to do."

As depicted on The Crown , Diana declined to be interviewed by Morton directly but taped lengthy answers to the writer's questions at her Kensington Palace home, with Colthurst acting as a go-between. When Morton began listening to the results, he was amazed at the candor shown by the princess. "Turning on my tape recorder, I listened with mounting astonishment to the unmistakable voice of Princess Diana, pouring out a tale of woe in a rapid stream of consciousness," he recalled this year . "She was talking about her unhappiness, her sense of betrayal, her suicide attempts — and two things I'd never previously heard of: an eating disorder called bulimia nervosa and a woman called Camilla."

When the book was published, Morton only admitted to speaking with friends of Diana, although there was little doubt that his sympathies lay with the princess rather than the royal family.

"Checkout girls in the supermarket get more training for their jobs than Diana did," Morton told The New York Times in Dec. 1992. "And that antipathy has been going on for 10 years. Eventually you would have thought they would come around to examine the problem. But nothing gets tackled until it becomes a crisis, which is a fundamental weakness in the organization."

While Diana: Her True Story inspired many people to view Diana in a more positive light, Morton was also criticized for writing the book.

"It was all, 'How dare you write about this?' and 'How much money are you making?'" he later told The Toronto Sun . "The questions were never about the story, they were about the periphery of the story. They lost sight of the first rule of journalism, which is to tell the story."

The year after publication, Morton's book was turned into a TV movie starring Serena Scott Thomas as Diana and David Threlfall as Charles. "Like all classic romantic couples — Antony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet, Joey Buttafuoco and Amy Fisher — the Prince and Princess of Wales were destined to be mythologized as pop icons of the first order," EW's Ken Tucker wrote in his review , concluding that the result was "a classy-looking movie about a distinctly un-classy aspect of the British upper class."

Morton faced further criticism when, in Oct. 1997, just two months after the princess' death in a Paris car crash, Morton published a new edition of the book titled Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words . This time, the author made clear that Diana had been the principal source for the original book and included edited transcripts of the princess' recorded responses to his questions. The Guardian writer Mark Lawson called Morton a "moral leper" for publishing the new edition of the book, criticizing the journalist for "deciding that promises of confidentiality are not posthumous."

In the years after the publication of the revised edition of his most famous book, Morton wrote biographies of Monica Lewinsky, Madonna, Angelina Jolie, and Tom Cruise. "It's easier to do Hollywood celebrities [than members of the royal family]," Morton told EW in 2011 . "First of all, there's an arc about their lives, in the sense that they have to push through to show their talent — in Angelina's case due to her parents, her famous father, her mother's psychological problems — it's an arc of revelation. With Tom Cruise, it's asking questions of how and why he would be involved with something like Scientology. So with both of them, it's a very different trajectory to, say, Prince William."

In more recent times, Morton has repeatedly returned to the British royal family as his subject matter with books like 2011's William & Catherine: Their Story and last year's Elizabeth & Margaret: The Intimate World of the Windsor Sisters .

Morton has yet to weigh in on season 5 of The Crown , which finds him portrayed by Andrew Steele ( Outlander ). We do know he is a fan of the show and in particular of Emma Corrin 's portrayal of Diana in season 4, which he described to Vanity Fair as the most realistic he had seen to date.

"I found the buildup to the wedding very affecting, as there was a slowly unfolding realization on both sides that they were heading toward an unwanted and unhappy outcome, namely the royal wedding," Morton continued. "It reminded me of what a close friend of Diana's said about the whole wretched mess when I was researching Diana: Her True Story : 'I am sorry for the tragedy of it all. My heart bleeds for the whole misunderstanding but it bleeds most for Diana.'"

Season 5 of The Crown is streaming now on Netflix.

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Related content:

• The Crown star Jonathan Pryce says new season isn't disrespectful to royal family
• The Crown star Imelda Staunton says she was 'devastated' by Queen's death
• The Crown 's Elizabeth Debicki says wearing Diana's Revenge Dress made her feel powerful
• Battle Royal: The Crown 's Dominic West and Elizabeth Debicki on portraying Charles and Diana's bitter divorce
• The Crown 's Elizabeth Debicki says Diana's final days are being handled with sensitivity

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Diana: Her True Story--in Her Own Words Paperback – June 27, 2017

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• Print length 448 pages
• Language English
• Publication date June 27, 2017
• Dimensions 6 x 1.1 x 9 inches
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• ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1501169734
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster; Anniversary edition (June 27, 2017)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 448 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781501169731
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1501169731
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 0.035 ounces
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About the author

Andrew morton.

ANDREW MORTON is one of the world's best-known biographers and a leading authority on modern celebrity. His groundbreaking 1992 biography revealed the secret world of Princess Diana, prompting Tina Brown to declare in The Diana Chronicles, "The journalist Morton most reminds me of is Bob Woodward." Diana: Her True Story became a #1 New York Times bestseller, as did Monica's Story, Morton's portrait of the young woman behind the blue dress in the Clinton White House.

The winner of numerous awards, including Author of the Year by the British Book Awards and Scoop of the Year by the London Press Club, he lives in London and has traveled extensively in the U.S., Canada, and Europe in his research for this biography.

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12 Books About Princess Diana That Will Make You Appreciate The Crown More

She bared all in her biography.

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In the early 1990s, Diana told her account in the headline-making biography Diana: Her True Story—in Her Own Words written by Andrew Morton, which likely informed part of The Crown . There's far more where that bestseller came from. In the years before and after she died , those who knew Diana, like Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown , her butler Paul Burrell , her ex-lover James Hewitt , her housekeeper Wendy Berry , her bodyguard Ken Wharfe , and her former employer Mary Robertson —among others—offered their insights in book form. Further, novelists imagine Diana's life in fiction, like Untold Story . And children can be introduced to the People's Princess and her place in history through illustrated books like the aptly named Who Was Princess Diana?

Here are the best books to read about Princess Diana, for those seeking Crown extra credit.

Diana: Her True Story—in Her Own Words by Andrew Morton

In the early 1990s, Diana was one of the most famous women in the world, but unable to speak her mind. That changed when she went on the record in this book, secretly recording herself on tapes brought to Andrew Morton through a go-between. Honest and raw, this book forever changed how the world saw Diana, and the royal family. Start with Morton's book for undiluted Diana—and then read Tina Brown's spirited biography for commentary  about  everything Diana said in that 1992 book. 

The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown

Ten years after Diana's death came the definitive biography of her, informed by 250 interviews from some of those who knew her best. Tina Brown, the former  Tatler  and  Vanity Fair  editor, writes the book with her signature wit and attention to style. The Diana Chronicles is a delight to read, infused with Brown's deep understanding of both how the royal family and the media in the U.K. work, and how they coexist. Sparkly and spirited, it's the definitive Crown  companion .

Remembering Diana: A Life in Photographs

Decorate your coffee table with a spark of Diana. This National Geographic book compiles 100 of the most iconic images taken of the beloved figure throughout her life, from childhood to her days with Prince William and Prince Harry. The book features commentary by Tina Brown, author of  The Diana Chronicles , making it an excellent companion piece. 

Diana: Closely Guarded Secret by Inspector Ken Wharfe

Ken Wharfe saw Diana through highs and lows—because he was paid to do so. Wharfe served as Diana's bodyguard for years.  Diana: Closely Guarded Secret  is a balanced biography, made up of vignettes from Diana's daily life. For a "fly on the wall" perspective on Diana's high-pressure years in Buckingham Palace, read Wharfe's heartfelt but well observed book. 

The Diana I Knew by Mary Robertson

Mary Robertson first met Princess Di back when she was Diana Spencer, an 18-year-old high school drop-out who was living in London and working through a variety of odd jobs—like babysitting Robertson's son, Patrick. Robertson didn't know that Diana, who she paid £5 an hour, was an aristocrat, until she accidentally left a card behind. The American businesswoman and the eventual princess forged a lifelong friendship. This biography gives a refreshing, behind-the-scenes perspective on Diana's youth , and the qualities she retained even as her life changed.

Diana: Finally, the Complete Story by Sarah Bradford

Sarah Bradford built a career from creating compelling profiles of some of the world's most fascinating, yet closed-off, figures: Royals. She's written biographies for Princess Grace, Queen Elizabeth, and of course, Diana.  Diana: Finally, the Complete Story  does what the title promises: It gives a fair and chronological overview of Diana's life. While not necessarily as colorful as Brown's biography, it'll make for an informative companion to  The Crown . 

Who Was Princess Diana? by Ellen Labrecque

Introduce young readers to Princess Diana through this succinctly written chapter book. Continue the royal theme with  another book in the series about Queen Elizabeth I. 

Diana in Search of Herself: Portrait of a Troubled Princess by Sally Bedell Smith

As  The Crown  shows, Diana's life was  bumpy . In fact, the show skips past some difficult parts, like her lonely upbringing following her parents' divorce. Sally Bedell Smiths's biography outlines Diana's struggles and her triumphs. The biography, though, is not a wholly sympathetic portrait of Diana—it situates her within the entire royal ecosystem. 

A Royal Duty by Paul Burrell

Paul Burrell had a unique insight into Princess Diana's character: He worked as her butler for ten years, while she was married to Prince Charles and the years after. Tina Brown described Burrell as the "maître d’ of [Diana's] private life, combining the roles of P.A., man Friday, driver, delivery boy, confidant, and crying towel." In this tear-jerker, Burrell captures Diana's everyday charm and kindness. Read it alongside Ken Wharfe's book,  A Closely Guarded Secret , to know what it was like to work for Princess Di.

William Morrow The Day Diana Died by Christopher Andersen

On August 31, 1997, Diana died in a car accident in Paris, France, alongside Dodi Al Fayed and the car's driver, Henri Paul.  The Day Diana Died  is a painstaking overview of the events that led up to her death, and their aftermath, which is still unfolding. 

Untold Story by Monica Ali

What would Princess Diana have gone on to do, if she'd survived the fatal car accident? An exercise in revisionist history in the same vein as  Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld ,  Untold Story  is a thought-provoking page-turner, which tells the story you might wish  The Crown  did. 

DK Biography: Princess Diana: A Photographic Story of a Life by Joanne Mattern

One of the most famous women in the world, Diana's life was captured in photographs. Young readers can get to know Diana through those photos, and informative captions. Don't worry—all the drama included will be kid-friendly. 

Elena Nicolaou is the former culture editor at Oprah Daily. 

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Princess Diana's life and legacy honoured in new London photo exhibition

The presentation includes images and a first-person audio guide from the longest-standing official royal photography family, the husseins.

An exhibition in honour of the late Diana, Princess of Wales , is coming to London later this year.

World-famous photographers Anwar Hussein and his two sons Samir and Zak - the longest-standing family of official royal photographers - have spent over 40 years capturing Diana and her family's greatest moments. In 2024, they're bringing their images and a first-person account of the stories behind them to the UK for Princess Diana: Accredited Access Exhibition  for the first time.

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"They received special access to document the lives of the Royals in public, as well as capturing more intimate, private moments," a press release about the exhibition explained.

"Some of these iconic photos include Diana sitting alone outside the Taj Mahal, walking through a landmine field as part of her trip to Angola in 1997, the unforgettable revenge dress  which dared to break Royal protocol and the Princess’ simple handshake with an AIDS patient that showed the world how to be human."

"Every photo has a story behind it that hasn’t been heard before and is shared in the exhibition’s in-depth audio guide." 

The 60-minute experience will be an hour of sartorial heaven for fashion fans, who'll have the chance to witness some of Diana's most iconic looks and a first-hand account of the moments she wore them as told by Anwar, Samir and Zak.

Anwar said on the exhibition: “I am honoured and humbled to have been given the opportunity to photograph Princess Diana so extensively and to have had the pleasure of having many friendly and insightful conversations with her."

"I am delighted that the images captured, as well as those of my sons, are coming home to London to recognise and memorialise such a remarkable woman and her sons. There are so many memories of our two families connecting and creating a special relationship, which I am pleased to be able to display in such a unique way through the exhibition.”

The exhibition will be held at Dockside Vaults in East London from May 25th to September 2nd. Tickets include access to the audio guide and are available to pre-order now at PrincessDiana.London .

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The cost of marrying a British prince

Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, is the latest in a long legacy of British royals to be mistreated by her own family. When will they learn?

Once upon a time, girls around the world grabbed their favorite tiaras and raced out of bed to see a great love story unfold. A handsome prince plucked a beautiful maiden from her humdrum life and decided she was worthy of being his wife. Her happily ever after was about to begin.

This wasn't just a fairy tale. To millions , it appeared to be the reality for Princess Diana, Kate Middleton, and Meghan Markle.

They were living the dream so many have had — marrying a prince . But as Kate's recent Photoshop controversy reveals, there is no "happily ever after" for a British princess .

Bringing the fairy tale to life

Questions about why the British monarchy still exists escalate each year. But Diana, Kate, and Meghan — shimmering modern princesses — have helped the royals maintain relevance.

When a dashing prince marries a "regular" girl, the royal wedding fantasy becomes a reality.

"People love the idea of a fairy tale being a real thing," royal commentator Kristen Meinzer said. "They love that idea of a girl just being plucked from obscurity and being chosen by someone who could have his pick of the litter. He could date anyone he wanted, he could marry anybody, but he chose her."

By making the fairy tale feel real, the royal family appears far more accessible — and the British tabloids are more than happy to help.

For instance, a 2006 Daily Mail article praised Kate — whose parents were multi-millionaires when she began dating William — as the "coal miner's girl" with a "dirt-poor family past" because of her great-great-great-great-grandfather's occupation. And while the tabloids eventually turned on Meghan, they initially celebrated her for closing her car door or holding an umbrella " over Prince Harry because she's just a regular woman ."

All three princesses were a boon to the monarchy's popularity. Diana and Charles' wedding was watched by 750 million people worldwide. After he said "I do" to Kate, William was praised by former British Prime Minister Sir John Major , who said the public saw him "as a very human individual." When Harry proposed to Meghan, outlets claimed their union would " breathe new life into an ancient institution ."

But, unlike fairy tales, their stories didn't end after the dream wedding.

"There's the beauty, the celebration, the joy, the happiness," Maria Tatar, a Harvard professor of folklore and fairy tales, told BI. "And then bang — you're back to once upon a time, and all the terrible things that happen in once upon a time."

'Common' roots become a vulnerability

With their smiling faces plastered over commemorative cups, the princesses are expected to uphold perfection. They're celebrated in the tabloids when they fit the "perfect wife" archetype — such as Diana and Kate stepping out just a day after giving birth — and punished when they rebel against it. Any time a princess breaks "royal protocol," it's deemed newsworthy, from Kate painting her nails to Diana's "revenge dress." Even Meghan, who hasn't been a senior royal in four years, is still accused of " breaking protocol ."

The model for Kate and Meghan is even narrower than it was for Diana , as the media expects them to match the beloved "People's Princess." Countless articles praise the pair when they wear Diana's jewelry or mirror moments from her life . In his 2023 book "Endgame," royal expert Omid Scobie wrote that William and Kate were instructed to emulate Diana in public whenever possible, and staffers went to great lengths to style both Kate and Meghan in outfits that looked like hers.

William and Harry watched their wives get picked apart by the tabloids whenever they deviated from Diana , yet she was also a prime target of their negative press .

While the princes were hailed for foregoing blue-blooded brides, Kate and Meghan's upbringings were also used against them. As Kate became a fixture of the tabloids, so did the narrative that she had always set her sights on marrying up. The rags were happy to discuss how she and her sister Pippa were known as the "Wisteria Sisters," climbing the social ladder as fast as the invasive plant.

Meanwhile, the tabloids' coverage of Meghan's roots was marked with racist undertones. One 2016 Daily Mail headline proclaimed she was "(almost) straight outta Compton," while another story described her mother as a "dreadlocked African-American lady from the wrong side of the tracks." The insults have continued to follow Meghan over the years, such as when a hacker redirected her foundation's website to a video of Kanye West singing "Gold Digger."

Meinzer pointed out the gold-digger stereotype presumes that the man has no free will. British tabloids have been pushing that story about Meghan and Harry since they stepped back from the royal family in January 2020 — it was called "Megxit," after all. The duchess became " Manipulative Meghan ," and outlets reported she took " total control " of Harry's life.

There's an undeniable power that comes with the monarchy's wealth, which was valued at $28 billion in 2021 . But what must a princess give up in exchange for money and status?

"This is what happens when you fall in love with a prince," Tatar said. "You trade in your voice."

The cost of marrying a prince

Life in the royal family requires a delicate dance of supporting the monarchy without stealing the spotlight from the crown or heir.

In the 2022 Netflix docuseries "Harry & Meghan," Meghan spoke of how she transformed her wardrobe and wore muted tones to "blend in" and avoid upstaging anyone else in the family.

Likewise, in his 2023 memoir "Spare," Harry wrote that Charles and Camilla tried to make Kate, born "Catherine," change the spelling of her name because both of their names started with the letter C. He also said Charles' press officer berated William's PR team after Kate planned to visit a tennis club when Charles had a royal engagement.

Kate wasn't the first princess to feel the wrath of the heir's jealousy. In her 1995 "Panorama" interview with BBC reporter Martin Bashir, Diana spoke of how the public's adoration — as illustrated by the couple's 1983 Australia tour — drove a wedge between them.

"With the media attention came a lot of jealousy," Diana recalled. "A great deal of complicated situations arose because of that."

Meghan and Harry's royal tour of Australia 35 years later stirred up those same bitter feelings among the royal family, the prince recalled in "Harry & Meghan."

"The issue is when someone who's marrying in, who should be a supporting act, is then stealing the limelight or is doing the job better than the person who was born to do this — it upsets people, it shifts the balance," Harry said.

It wasn't long before the tabloids' narrative of Meghan — once called the "Duchess of Success" — started to turn.

Silence is expected

When Meghan began dating Harry, she received one of her first mandates from the royal family, a motto long embraced by the monarchy — "never complain, never explain."

"I've advocated for so long for women to use their voice, and then I was silent," Meghan told Oprah Winfrey in 2021.

The "Were you silent, or were you silenced" moment became one of the year's biggest memes, but it's also a classic fairy-tale trope. The passive princess reflects the genre's "notoriously conservative" nature, Tatar said, pointing to princesses like Cinderella and Snow White.

Meghan hoped to regain control of her narrative through her 2021 interview, but she is still relentlessly picked apart by the tabloids. British author Edwin Hayward pointed out that 16 articles were written about her by just one tabloid within 16 hours after news broke of Kate's cancer diagnosis.

Diana suffered a similar fate following the release of her biography with Andrew Morton and her BBC interview. As British journalist Robert Hardman told Vanity Fair in 1998, the princess thought sharing her story would earn her favor with the press — instead, "it boomeranged."

Because she took agency of her story, royal reporters like Piers Morgan thought Diana had "no right to claim privacy." Morgan uses the same argument in his frequent criticism of Meghan and Harry.

"You can look at Meghan and say she was a victim of the royal family, and the monarchy, and of racism. And you can also say she's somebody who took control of her life," Tatar told BI. "But then that can be turned into, 'Oh, she's manipulative.'"

Princesses are set up to fail

If a perfect princess should be seen and not heard, her disappearance can throw the entire system haywire, as evidenced by the controversy surrounding Kate's withdrawal from the public eye in January.

Speculation peaked when Kate and William released a digitally altered photo of the princess with her children amid her absence. Only Kate took the blame for editing the shot, though it had been originally credited to William, forcing her to deal with the bad press alone . And when she announced her cancer diagnosis the following week, Kate was on her own once again — sharing the news by herself on a park bench.

"It brought up memories of how Diana was treated," Meinzer told BI. "It seemed to be another moment of, 'Well, she has to put out another explanation for herself, and he gets to sit this one out.'"

Some social-media users also noted that Kate's announcement was the first time they'd heard her voice. The " perfect princess " who never stole the spotlight had suddenly been thrust into it to answer for the monarchy's bad publicity.

The great irony of the royal family turning Kate into a scapegoat is that she is among their greatest assets, as were Diana and Meghan. For years, the root of William's popularity has revolved around his relationship with Kate, from their wedding to their children. And before he was Kate's husband, the public fell in love with William because he was Diana's son.

More often than not, the princesses marrying into the royal family earn the public's loyalty and love, not those born into the monarchy. Yet the royals never seem to learn their lesson, repeating a cycle of blame that, in part, led Diana and Meghan to leave the monarchy altogether.

Even if you try to escape, one doesn't just stop being a princess. The title and all the attention that comes with it follows you for life.

It's probably why fairy tales end after "happily ever after."

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Princess Diana Had a Secret Second Wedding Dress

By Kase Wickman

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. And there’s no way that designer Elizabeth Emanuel was going to let herself fail when she was asked to design a wedding dress for 20-year-old Diana Spencer in advance of her 1981 wedding to the then- Prince Charles .

“I was a bit neurotic, and I thought, ‘What happens if somebody breaks in and steals the dress or something spills or there’s a fire or it gets stolen?’” Emanuel told People about her own pre-wedding jitters 43 years ago. “So I thought, ‘I’m gonna make a backup dress.’”

And that’s exactly what she and her now ex-husband David Emanuel did, designing and then beginning to construct a dress that differed hugely from Diana’s now-iconic ivory gown, with its 25-foot train and veil-and-tiara combo .

“I just thought, ‘If anything happens, we’ll finish it off and have it ready,’” Elizabeth said of the dress, which featured fitted sleeves with frilled cuffs, and left off both the intricate hand-embroidered embellishments and cathedral train that the final dress featured. It was also a truer white than Diana’s ivory gown. “It likely ended up on some sample rail,” Elizabeth said of the unfinished contingency dress. “It probably got reused, torn up, thrown out, who knows?”

Now, using old sketches and thumbnails the designer has brought the dress that never was to life. It will be on display at the virtual interactive Princess Diana Museum .

Renae Plant , the museum’s director and curator, told the outlet why she sought the artifact out.

“We never got to see that dress on Diana and thought it would be lovely to envision it,” she said of the design. “You cannot put a price tag on history.”

Decades after the wedding, the couple's divorce in 1996, and Diana’s death, the appetite for anything related to Diana’s wedding has never waned. In 2022, a four-decade-old piece of fruitcake saved from the celebrations was even put up for auction.

Elizabeth Emanuel now recalls the moments before the wedding with fondness.

“We could hear the people outside cheering,” she said. “Everybody was happy and smiling. It really was a fairy-tale wedding.”

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Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands Sparkles in Repeat Tiara at Her First State Banquet

The future queen of the Netherlands might officially have a favorite tiara!

Janine Henni is a Royals Staff Writer for PEOPLE Digital, covering modern monarchies and the world's most famous families. Like Queen Elizabeth, she loves horses and a great tiara moment.

Patrick van Katwijk/Getty

Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands is sparkling at her first state banquet.

On April 17, the future queen of the Netherlands attended her first official diplomatic dinner celebrating the visit of King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain. Princess Amalia, 20, shimmered at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam in the Ruby Peacock Tiara with a matching necklace and earrings paired with a navy cape dress.

The young royal has reached for the same headpiece before! Princess Amalia first wore the Ruby Peacock Tiara to the royal wedding of Crown Prince Hussein and Princess Rajwa of Jordan in June 2023.

Queen Letizia and Amalia’s mother, Queen Maxima , also glittered in dazzling head-toppers at the state banquet, along with former queen Princess Beatrix and Princess Margriet of the Netherlands. Blue was the color of the night, with all the royal women matching in shades of the hue.

Hosting the King and Queen of Spain during their two-day stay in the Netherlands and making her state banquet debut with them was a fitting choice for Princess Amalia, who has a unique connection to their country. The Princess of Orange recently lived in Spain after security threats in the fall of 2022 prevented her from continuing to live in student housing in Amsterdam.

Spain was a natural pick for the princess. Because Queen Maxima is originally from Argentina, Princess Amalia is fluent in Spanish. Plus, in another sweet tie to the country, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima first met in Seville.

During his speech at the state banquet, King Willem-Alexander addressed his eldest daughter's stay in the country.

"Last year, circumstances required her to live in Madrid. From there, she was able to continue her studies at the University of Amsterdam. This was made possible by the kind efforts of many of your compatriots and yourselves," the Dutch monarch said in his speech, delivered in English, to King Felipe and Queen Letizia. "A touching demonstration of friendship at a difficult time. I'd like to express my heartfelt thanks to you and to everyone else who helped arrange this."

Princess Amalia previously revealed that she's a longtime fan of royal jewels like tiaras.

" I love tiaras ," the royal said in her biography , published in 2021 before her 18th birthday. "Show me a tiara, and I'll know where it came from. I can recognize all the tiaras of Europe."

"I used to put them on from my mother," Amalia explained. "Then there would be one on her make-up table, and I would have it directly on my head."

While the future queen ticked an exciting milestone off her royal to-do list by attending the state banquet, the glam event is not her first time wearing a tiara.

Queen Maxima and King Willem-Alexander’s eldest daughter made her tiara debut in June 2022 at Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway's 18th birthday gala, where she wore the Dutch Star Tiara. The headpiece was a sentimental choice, as it was the same sparkler that Queen Maxima wore at her wedding in 2002.

LISE ASERUD/NTB/AFP via Getty 

Princess Amalia had two tiara moments in 2023, kicking off with the wedding of Crown Prince Hussein to Princess Rajwa in June. The heir to the Dutch throne shimmered in the Ruby Peacock Tiara, which matched her red gown. The combination appeared to be a hit with the princess, who wore the tiara and gown together again for the wedding of Prince Ferdinand and Princess Marie of Schwarzenberg in July, The Court Jeweller reported.

In October, she sported the Sapphire Necklace Tiara to the 18th birthday bash for Crown Prince Christian of Denmark, a fellow heir.

Princess Amalia continued color-coordinating for the party in Denmark and matched her sapphire tiara to her cerulean cape dress.

Despite its name, the Sapphire Necklace Tiara can’t be switched into a necklace. The Court Jeweller reported that the sparkler was fashioned from a dismantled necklace that belonged to Amalia’s ancestor, Queen Emma.

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While she's still a university student, Princess Catharina-Amalia has been slowly introduced to more elements of royal life as she prepares to become queen someday. While some monarchs reign until their deaths, the Dutch royals traditionally abdicate the throne for their heir.

However, Princess Amalia hopes there are many years before her father steps aside.

Princess Amalia told biographer Claudia de Breij that she  didn't feel ready to be monarch yet and would ask her mother, 52, to step in should her father, 56, unexpectedly die in the near future.

"I said to my father, 'You just keep on eating healthy and exercising a lot,' " she said.

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