The Life, Legacy, and Secrets of Princess Diana | Full Documentary

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:03]royalty. It's the fairy tale romance of a princess coming together with living history.

[00:00:10]>> Diana simply [music] thought royal life would be like something out of a romantic novel.

[00:00:16]>> I think the idea [music] of being queen of England uh also appealed enormously to her.

[00:00:20]>> The wedding of Prince [music] Charles and Princess Diana was a wonderful and special day full of hope. It quickly went wrong.

[00:00:30]>> On paper, this marriage should have been perfect, but the personalities were wrong.

[00:00:36]>> Diana was in need of love in all its forms.

[00:00:41]>> Prince Charles couldn't let go of his mistress and the tragedy unfolded as we know it.

[00:00:47]>> The queen, I [music] think, was very worried about the damage that it was doing to the monarchy. She said, "Okay, enough. You two [music] must now divorce.

[00:00:58]There's been a car crash in Paris. Dodie fired is dead and we think the princess is [music] dead too. The press uh played up there being no Union Jack flying at half mast on Buckingham Palace.

[00:01:10]>> People looking at that building and looking at all the surrounding buildings where flags were at half mast would again form the impression that this was a disrespectful act to a dead princess.

[00:01:20]>> Their first reaction was to protect their grandchildren. Queen's job [music] was to look after these boys at this traumatic terrible moment in their lives [music] and she thought let's go down at the last moment but she completely misread the mood of the country >> for the queen to have stayed in Balmoral for them to have tried to get away with a quiet funeral was absolutely ridiculous. I mean, all these [music] people here today are showing the strength of the nation, and she hasn't said anything. The queen, >> these are not people who wear their emotions publicly. That is not what they do.

[00:01:54]>> Tucked away in Scotland, far from all of that, trying to [music] cope with these griefstricken boys, I think she did the right thing.

[00:02:03]>> What I say to you now as your queen and as a grandmother, I say from my heart.

[00:02:10]I want to pay tribute to Diana myself.

[00:02:33][music] When she married Charles, she was desperate for somebody to love her.

[00:02:40]He was desperate for someone to love him. The pair of them were extremely needy individuals.

[00:02:48]Her because of her damaged background.

[00:02:51]Him because of his his lack of self-esteem, lack of confidence. Both of them lacked self-esteem.

[00:02:59][cheering] [cheering] Dana had a pretty disastrous upbringing.

[00:03:17]You know, her parents were [music] constantly at loggerheads, enormous rows. She she was a very sensitive girl [music] and it affected her enormously.

[00:03:28]>> Diana grew up in an abusive household. Her mother was in an abusive marriage.

[00:03:36]She gave her husband the children that he wanted. [music] She finally um gave him the son he was desperate to have, the son and heir. And she then saw an opportunity to have a happy life herself. She fell in love with somebody [music] and she went off with him fully believing that she would take her children with her.

[00:03:56]>> In the end, of course, her her mother ran off with another man. Her father drank too much. Prince Philillip always disliked the Spencers and uh because of their behavior with mother and father [music] and this did affect Diana >> in the custody proceedings.

[00:04:10]Francis [music] Shantid as she became lost custody of all four of her children. Now Diana at that time was [music] 6 years old. All she knew was that her mother didn't love her enough to want to [music] be with her. That was incredibly damaging for for a young child.

[00:04:29]She also worked out that actually she hadn't been wanted anyway, that her mother and father had been desperately trying to get a boy. She she felt totally insignificant, [music] unwanted, and unloved.

[00:04:45]Now, the effect of this was to make her [music] desperately want to have have a family of her own, peace and quiet, um a non-drinking husband. She wanted to be a faithful wife. She wanted to have wonderful children. She was a typical product of divorced parents getting exactly what she wanted, never sticking at anything because no one made her stick at anything.

[00:05:09]>> What made you go into teaching, for example, instead of perhaps social service or something like that?

[00:05:14]>> Just seemed to appeal to me.

[00:05:16]>> Did you can I ask you was your own child in particular?

[00:05:20]>> Oh, yes.

[00:05:21]>> Well, did that prompt you into wanting to do it?

[00:05:23]>> Not just love children.

[00:05:27]She gave up her first job. She She gave up ballet school. She didn't stick at things.

[00:05:49][music] Prince Charles now joins you in having a look at his baby sister. But perhaps he prefers his toys.

[00:06:01]>> Charles grew up very much in awe of his parents. I would say his mother was was pretty absent during his childhood. So Charles grew up really bonding much more closely with her his grandmother um the queen mother [music] than ever with his mother. it was really the queen mom who stepped into her shoes. Prince Charles was a sensitive little boy and suddenly you know mommy had virtually disappeared off the scene. Um and so I think the queen mom provided the sort of emotional stability and security.

[00:06:35]Certainly in the early years >> she was a devoted mother but it wasn't able to devote that much time to them.

[00:06:41]Um and of course her her own personality is a was a is a kind of [music] reserved one.

[00:06:47]People have described it as being sort of slightly his mother was on a pedestal, but it was not a close relationship. [music] >> When the queen came back from that long tour and got off the train at Paddington Station and her son was who'd been dying to see her came up to her, she didn't kiss him or put her arms around him. She shook his hand and what does that say?

[00:07:07]That says, "Where's my mommy?"

[00:07:14]>> He was not a happy child. [music] He'd been sent away to school in Scotland which he hated. He was lonely. He was [music] um he was bullied there. He he had [music] a miserable time miles away from from everything that was familiar to him. So Charles grew up a very insecure sort of boy who [music] turned into an insecure man. Prince Philillip knew that Charles had suffered because the queen put the nation first and Philip did everything he could to compensate for that even bringing in his uncle Lord Mountbatton.

[00:07:50]>> Lord Mountbatton who was the queen's uncle took him under his [music] wing and started to give him some some confidence and to make him feel [music] valued. Um, and then of course Mountbatton was blown up and that came as a terrible blow to Charles. He was really lost.

[00:08:10]Charles was needy. [music] He he was somebody who who just didn't have lots of self-confidence. And the royal family are very interesting because they never congratulate one another. They don't pat one another on the back at all. They're very lonely characters. They've got they're surrounded by their household of secretaries, private, you know, private secretaries. They've got their valets and their butlers and their footmen and their all of that. But none of those people were really in a position to act as a friend.

[00:08:39]>> We've definitely got a a class distinction within the households of the royal family at the very top. You could call it the aristocracy if you like of the royal household. That is the members. Then you've got a sort of a middleclass area which may well be described or is the officials. And then of course you've got the downstairs area, the working class if you like which is called the staff. The three classes are completely separate. They do not socialize in any way. They don't eat together. The lower orders have to address the upper ones as sir or madam.

[00:09:17]The whole thing is very very classbased, very much like it was in Victorian times.

[00:09:28]>> Diana seemed wonderfully sympathetic um and and said she understood how he [music] must have felt and she touched his heart.

[00:09:42]It was during a weekend house party that Prince Charles and Lady Diana took notice of each other for the first time.

[00:09:48]>> It was 1977. Charles came to stay as friend of my sister Sarah for a shoot. We sort of met in a plow field.

[00:09:56]>> I remember thinking what a very jolly and amusing and and attractive 16-year-old she was and I mean great fun >> and bouncy and full of life and everything. And um um I don't know what you thought of me, but >> pretty amazing. [laughter] >> There was always a great fascination, I suppose inevitably, in Prince Charles's girlfriends because everybody knew she would be Princess of Wales and one day would be Queen if he chose to marry one of these young ladies.

[00:10:28]>> He was the world's most eligible bachelor, a magnet for admiring and aspiring young women. One name mentioned more than most was Princess Astrid of Luxembourg even though she was a Catholic. Then a new name emerged.

[00:10:41]Lady Dye, the name she would be known by throughout the world. By now shared a flat in Kensington with three girlfriends. News of her romance came as a shock to them. She'd said she was going out with Charles Renfruit. Baron Renfruit is one of Prince Charles's titles. They remember her as a good flatmate.

[00:11:00]generous. Um, >> very generous.

[00:11:02]>> A very good friend.

[00:11:03]>> Did you watch TV a lot? Where did you have any favorite programs at uh [laughter] >> Cross?

[00:11:10]>> She was spotted by James Whitaker, the royal reporter for the um for the Daily Mirror and went back to London and they took some photographs off and they finally worked out who it was that it was Diana Spencer, Lady Diana Spencer.

[00:11:27]She now faced possibly the most daunting initiation test for wouldbe members of the royal family ordeal by the media.

[00:11:34]Her flat came under siege. She was followed wherever she went.

[00:11:38]>> Diana was not the shy girl at school that a lot of people suspect she was.

[00:11:45]>> She was a lively person. She was a party girl. She lived in Coler Court as we know which was was a great party scene in Hills Court. She was a lot of fun.

[00:11:55]She had a great sense of humor, very popular. Um, she was a proper Sloan.

[00:12:01]>> Her house, her flat in London became absolutely besieged by by the press, by photographers. Um, they they followed her everywhere she went.

[00:12:14]>> How well were you coping with all the press attention?

[00:12:16]>> Well, as you can you can see, you can tell. Are you bearing up with it quite well, though? Cuz it must be quite a strain with all of us after you. Well, it is naturally >> that was effectively the the end of of Charles and Diana being able to explore their relationship, get to know one another.

[00:12:36]>> The interesting thing about Diana Spencer, who became Princess Diana, >> was that she rather came out of nowhere.

[00:12:43]No one no one really spotted her. Um although she had some royal connections in her family, she wasn't the usual type of girlfriend that uh I remember uh Prince Charles accompanying to places.

[00:12:55]>> A lot of his girlfriends had a past and we the press knew that the that uh Prince Charles had to find at that time definitely find someone who had no past.

[00:13:06]And then Lady Diana Spencer appeared and you know it was a it was a gift to all of us.

[00:13:13]When Lady Diana Spencer appeared on the scene, uh, it did begin to look as though she was likely to be the one because after all, her father, Lord Spencer, had been the Queen's Aquaria during the famous [music] 1954 Commonwealth tour. Both her grandmothers and four of her great aunts were ladies and waiting to the Queen Mother, and the ancestry of the Spencers was, of course, goes back into myths of time, but is very closely associated with the royal family over a number of years. And so, um, she seemed in a sense to be ideal They lived on a house on the Sandringham estate. She used to go and watch films.

[00:13:50]I think she said chitty chitty bang bang. She must have seen about 10 times with Prince Andrew. And the queen said she's one of us.

[00:13:59]>> Both the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were delighted, I think, at the prospect of Diana marrying Prince Charles when it happened. She was a beautiful, charming, delightful, innocent young girl, and they had high hopes for the relationship.

[00:14:12]geographically she came basically from you know a shoot at Sandringham or the kale fields of Sandringham or or the like. So that seemed to be you know full of full of full of good hope basically.

[00:14:26]>> Prince Charles's parents were relieved that he had decided to marry someone. He had quite a long period of bachelorhood where he couldn't seem to settle down and it was actually attracting the wrong kind of headlines. Was he a playboy prince? Was he not [music] able to make decisions? Was he not able to commit?

[00:14:41]And suddenly this beautiful young girl came into [music] his life and it really improved his PR enormously because not only had he managed to settle down but was such a gorgeous and glamorous figure.

[00:14:58]That marriage came about in a strange way. It came about through granny power.

[00:15:04]his grandmother, the queen mother, and her grandmother, Lady Fermoy, got together, and they agreed that whoever Charles married would have to be a virgin. And Lady Fermoy assured the Queen Mother that Diana was a virgin. So the Queen Mother said, "Then that's the one."

[00:15:23]Problem Diana Spencer and what she really fell victim to was a was a time warp.

[00:15:30]We [music] all like the idea of the royal family being like everybody else, but if they get too like everybody else, then what's special about them?

[00:15:40]By the 1970s, when Diana Spencer appeared on the scene, most people [music] couldn't care less whether the bride walking up the aisle was a virgin or not in ordinary life. But when it [music] came to the royal family, we still expected this old-fashioned view.

[00:15:58]And it's the basis for really the tragedy that became [music] um her life and Prince Charles's life and an enormous challenge [music] to the monarchy and to the reputation of Elizabeth II.

[00:16:14]In February 1981, the waiting was over.

[00:16:17]Buckingham Palace announced that Prince Charles and Lady Diana were engaged. The ring was a sapphire surrounded by diamonds.

[00:16:25]The couple looked happy and relaxed, delighted, like everyone else, that a wedding would take place.

[00:16:34]>> Earl Spencer and Lady Diana's stepmother celebrated among the crowds outside the Palace gates. Inside, Lady Diana was facing up to a future she could hardly have dreamt of.

[00:16:45]>> Yesterday, you were a nanny looking after children. Um, now you're about to uh marry the Prince of Wales and and one day you would all in all likelihood be queen. It's a tremendous change for someone, I may say, of 19 to make all of a sudden the transition.

[00:17:03]>> It is, but I've had a small run out to it all in the last 6 months.

[00:17:08]And next to Brit Charles and I can't go wrong. He's there with me.

[00:17:12]>> And I suppose in love, of course.

[00:17:16]bit of in love.

[00:17:23]>> I thought the engagement interview was was terribly sad. It must have hurt her enormously [music] when when he said that because what would our wives have said if if we'd said on the day of our engagement publicly that whatever love is he was sending a message to Camila but poor Camila's problem um was sort of catch 22 and when she met Prince Charles she fell in love they went to bed together, but that sort of automatically ruled her out as a future queen.

[00:18:03]>> The world didn't really know about Mrs. Parker Bells at that point, and the thought that there was another woman in the background who was to [music] some extent deciding when this marriage was going to take place and that it was all right for him to proceed with this marriage um did give one some you know additional fears on her behalf.

[00:18:19]>> It was an arranged marriage. Potentates of course were Camila and [music] Kangatrian and the proposal which they set up they stage manage took place in the cabbage garden of Camila's country house. I believe they were never in love. Diana was infatuated with him at the beginning. I think the idea of being queen of England also appealed enormously to her and it suited his purposes. He knew that he could carry on as before if he wanted to and he did.

[00:18:51]>> I think that the problems emerged as soon as the engagement was announced.

[00:19:11]Everybody [music] loved Diana when they first encountered her. When she went up to Balmor Moral that first time, um the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were there. Many members of the family were there, plus friends, and they all thought Diana was [music] absolutely magic. I mean, she she was funny. She was deliciously unsophisticated and and [music] easy.

[00:19:35]She didn't wear smart clothes. She fitted in brilliantly with the family.

[00:19:41]She mucked in with the picnics. She went fishing with Charles. She walked on the moors. She she did everything that they did. [music] And they she made them all laugh. There was always a vulnerability about her um which was very attractive and um the the need slight need that one felt that she needed to be protected a bit.

[00:20:02]>> Charles was older. He could have looked after her. He could have taught her everything. Um Diana, she could have adapted [music] to the life had she been a stronger and a different [music] personality. The months between the engagement and the wedding were hectic, often exhilarating, sometimes trying.

[00:20:30]>> She had to learn the restrictions of royal life. Never again would she be able to walk quietly down to the shops.

[00:20:37]One of the many many problems that that Diana had was I don't think anyone actually explained to her the enormity of what she was doing. And you'd think her father would have done cuz he was one person that did know it.

[00:20:56]>> Even if somebody did try to explain it to her, she could never have understood it, never have taken it in. Remember, you know, she was very young. She was not very well educated. She lived in a kind of romantic world. She read Barbara Kartland romantic novels. She simply thought life, royal life would be would be like something out of a romantic novel. She would marry the prince [music] she loved. She would be secure and safe. And I don't think she really understood what it would involve.

[00:21:32]Prince Charles had to keep the engagements he'd accepted before the announcement of the engagement, and this [music] meant some separation.

[00:21:46]Diana had to accept this and do her best to hide her feelings.

[00:21:53]Suddenly, [clears throat] as far as Charles was concerned, she changed before his very eyes. This [music] lovely, happygolucky, easy, laughing, giggling, funny girl who made everybody else laugh suddenly became angry, jealous, uncooperative.

[00:22:16]She had terrible mood swings. [music] She she manifested a a side to herself that that nobody had seen before. But bear in mind that that [music] you know Charles and Diana had seen each other tragically few times before they became engaged. They did not [music] know one another. But what he did know had suddenly vanished. And [music] here was somebody completely different. And he thought, "Oh god, it's my fault. My kind [music] of life is just she can't stand the thought of it. It's all going to be too horrible for her." He didn't know what to [music] do. His diary was filled six months in advance.

[00:22:53]He he couldn't drop everything [music] and tend to Diana.

[00:22:57]>> The queen actually tried to um bring Diana under her wing, but [music] Diana was very reluctant. She thought, you know, she didn't want to have supper with the queen. That was too boring. And so she'd find excuses.

[00:23:11][music] And so they never really formed a very close relationship at a time when it might have really helped Diana to do so.

[00:23:23]July the 29th, 1981. Wedding day had arrived at last. In a few hours, St. Paul's Cathedral would become the center of the world. As dawn came up over London, preparations for the parade were well advanced. Horses were made to get up early.

[00:23:42]Outside Buckingham Palace and all the way to St. Paul's, the pavements were jammed with well-wishes.

[00:23:51]By the time they'd be become engaged, it was almost too late for either of them to do anything about it. Charles didn't have the courage to call it off and Diana at at the very last minute she wanted to wanted to pull out of it, but it was too late. Lady Diana's mother, Mrs. Shan Kidd, had flown in from her home in Australia. It was her big day, too.

[00:24:20]>> [cheering] >> She looked like a princess from a fairy tale, radiantly happy, accompanied by her proud father, the eighth Earl.

[00:24:35]The rest of the royal family waited patiently for the bride.

[00:24:42]Now it was time for the bridegroom to get into position with a wink for favored friends.

[00:24:48]Outside the glass coach arrived. The bride stepped down and let the world see and admire her dress. Ivory silk embellished with old lace and mother of pearl sequins. It had a train 25 ft long.

[00:25:06]She was still Lady Dy but only just. She was about to become [music] the first English girl in 500 years to marry a Prince of Wales. The eyes of the world were on her, and she knew it.

[00:25:25]>> And there too I give thee my truth.

[00:25:27]>> And there too I give thee my truth.

[00:25:31]>> She was no longer a children's helper.

[00:25:33][cheering] She was the princess of Wales, married to the heir to the throne. Another chapter in the thousand-year history of the British royal family had been written.

[00:25:46]>> At the beginning of the wedding, at the time of the wedding, at the beginning of the marriage, they had high hopes. If you look at the pictures of the queen at the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, you can see there she is, a happy mother and mother-in-law, helping the bridesmaids sort out their dresses. It's a wonderful and special day full of hope.

[00:26:14]Gibralar was the starting point for the honeymoon. They made a brief public appearance there before disappearing from sight for two weeks. It gave the people of the rock a chance to express their loyalty and Diana a chance to adjust to being Princess of Wales.

[00:26:32]The Royal Yacht Britannia was waiting at the keyside. Also waiting was an army of reporters, photographers, and television crews. The main problem was making sure they didn't find out where the honeymooners were going. It was solved.

[00:26:45]They made a leisurely cruise along the Mediterranean and were not unduly disturbed.

[00:27:03]She was um very very good at those royal duties and of course they were for a time really completely a dream team.

[00:27:10]They could have gone anywhere and done anything. Everybody wanted to see them.

[00:27:38]Sorry.

[00:27:49]I can hold it.

[00:27:57]The royal couple appeared to all the world a perfect match. They seemed totally at ease together in public. And the prince was never slow to sing his wife's praises.

[00:28:08]>> At that time, everybody was saying good luck and I hope everything goes well and how lucky you are to be engaged to such a lovely lady. And my goodness, I was lucky enough to marry her. And we had many many messages.

[00:28:23]It's amazing what ladies do when your backs turn.

[00:28:28]>> It quickly went wrong.

[00:28:32]>> The first inclination that I got that the marriage had gone wrong was a palace maid. Her name was Michelle Ri went to their room at Bmoral one morning to to clean it up and every single thing in it had been smashed. It was wrecked and Charles had slept on the floor in his dressing room. I mean it was [snorts] from that moment on it was obvious that uh I mean all all couples have rows but this one never ended. Well before the actual breakup of the marriage, things were beginning to be said. Uh I can remember a very senior royal adviser talking to me about it a bit. And it wasn't until one particular uh writer and the princess got together and she decided that she wanted her story out there that the whole thing exploded. And even when it came out in in in book form and in the newspapers, then a lot of people refused to believe it for an awful long time.

[00:29:26]Diana.

[00:29:28]>> Diana is an immensely popular figure.

[00:29:32]For him to have treated her as badly as most people believe he did uh begins to chip away at all the reasons why Charles is popular uh speeches about the rainforests pale into complete insignificance as indeed does community architecture alongside two timing the most popular woman in the land. And I've come to the conclusion that really it would have been far easier to have had two wives to have covered both sides of the street and I could have walked down the middle directing the operation.

[00:30:22]The real complication was I suppose that that he was really I mean subconsciously still attached in some way to Mr. Parker BS and that was difficult and when she and she minded about that if she hadn't minded about that it would perhaps of all have just calmed down and and sort of settled into a sort of routine. It is very curious that in a country where our media is often considered very intrusive, particularly some newspapers that nobody seemed to cotton on to the fact that the uh royal marriage was in such trouble. [music] >> I I don't think any of us knew. I really feel that that we were, you know, that there was this facade that they were putting up where it really foxed us all and there was no reason for [music] us to know that Diana was so unhappy.

[00:31:04]I think as far as the relationship was concerned, it's amazing really when you consider the press scrutiny that the one thing the [music] press didn't find out about was Camila Parker BS. Of course, Diana knew, but at the time that was all going on behind anyone's back. [music] Nobody in the press knew that Camila Parker BS was on the scene as she was.

[00:31:22]When the marriage had [music] irretrievably broken down, he friends who [music] recognized that he was absolutely in the depths of despair um reintroduced [music] him to Camila Parker BS.

[00:31:39]>> Camila was always very open about her um uh love life. She had um a predecessor, a grandmother or something like that, Mrs. Keell, who'd been a mistress of a previous prince of Wales. And so it is said, and it's quite she's never denied it, um that when they first met, um she actually said to Prince Charles, you know, well, um uh my grandmother slept with your grandfather. How about it?

[00:32:09]When he was interviewed by Jonathan Dimbleby, he and asked whether he'd committed adultery, he again told the truth and said yes, but only when the marriage had irretrievably broken down.

[00:32:24]That was the truth. And for some strange reason, the great British public chooses not to believe him, but to believe Diana's version of the of the story of their marriage, which was that there were three of them in the marriage, that Camila was always there, that there was no chance of it ever working.

[00:32:45]>> She needed love in all [music] its forms. She was an attractive, glamorous woman in her prime. And her needs weren't being met at home. We know that >> she had lots of lovers. He had just one.

[00:33:02]She talked [music] about there being three in the marriage. She didn't mention the others.

[00:33:06]>> But all was not as it seemed. It's since been revealed that the princess was suffering from an eating disorder, bulimia nervosa, a complaint caused by stress. The public glimpsed that something was wrong when she fainted during a visit to an exhibition in Canada. The prince made light of her predicament.

[00:33:24]>> It's really entirely due to the extremely advantageous conditions uh that pertain in British Columbia, the weather and the general uh fertile conditions which have ensured that she's about to have sex duplicates, which is really why she fainted.

[00:33:46]It's not actually true, but then >> Diana had many of the characteristics that that go with eating disorders. I mean, she displayed them. Um, I do know that it began when she was on honeymoon.

[00:33:58]She was eating and then and then making herself vomit. The psychiatrist she saw um was treating her for anorexia, but later bulimia was what she she mostly did. It's an addiction like any other addiction. Um, and the royal family didn't know how to handle that. They they'd encountered all kinds of problems in the past.

[00:34:20]>> Eating disorders, whether it be anorexia or bulimia, show how an individual can turn the nourishment of the body into a painful attack on themselves.

[00:34:48]The couple had spent a month apart when they reunited to visit Welsh flood victims. But after a few hours together, Prince Charles went straight back to Scotland. The rumors about their marriage were now presented as fact.

[00:35:01]When the marriage really started to to break down, Diana used to go and see the Queen. Now, nobody sees the queen without an appointment, but Diana used to wait in the pages [music] vestibule until the queen's last visitor, if you like, >> [music] >> um had left and then she'd dash in before the next one. And she'd just cry and say, "Everybody hates me. I hate my mother. I hate my sister. I [music] hate my husband." And the queen, not used to this kind of moral confrontation, just didn't know how to handle Diana. It really threw her. And [music] um as a result, she sat on the fence with Diana.

[00:35:35]>> And although she didn't, you know, particularly get on well with Diana. Um they were not the same sort of woman, it would be a great mistake to think that she blamed Diana for what went wrong. Um if anything, I believe um that she and her husband, Prince Phillip, put more of the blame on Prince [music] Charles. The Duke of Edinburgh had a very difficult relationship with Charles.

[00:36:02]And the real problem behind the the Charles and Diana marriage [music] was that Charles misunderstood his father.

[00:36:12]They didn't speak to one another as normal father and son might. He [music] always felt that he had difficulties with his parents and had turned to his grandmother and Lord Manbatton and indeed to his nanny Mabel Anderson for sort of particular support. What I think is interesting and [music] still perhaps isn't well enough understood is how the Queen and Prince Phillip both tried their level best to help.

[00:36:37]>> They were very [music] supportive. You know, Diana could be a nightmare at times, but they had been very fond of her.

[00:36:46]And I think everybody wanted the marriage to work.

[00:36:57]>> Prince Phillip made a very concerted effort to commune with her.

[00:37:01]>> The letters that Prince Phillip wrote to Diana, you would expect them to be hectoring letters. Um letters telling her off. Such of those letters has been published shows immense sympathy um and wish to help uh and wish to give support and Diana herself said that she was very moved by them.

[00:37:23]>> The queen and Prince Philillip arranged meetings between Charles and Diana to try and be a kind of royal relate, you know, marriage counseling service. They tried to provide that uh but to no avail. And when the marriage clearly was ready to collapse, they felt well okay it is collapsing now better have done with it.

[00:37:44]>> I wish to inform the house that Buckingham Palace are at this moment issuing the following statement. It reads as follows. It is announced from Buckingham Palace that with regret the Prince and Princess of Wales have decided to separate. Their Royal Highnesses have no plans to divorce and their constitutional positions are unaffected.

[00:38:05]This decision has been reached amicably and they will both to continue to participate fully in the upbringing of their children.

[00:38:15]>> William and Harry grew up um in this in this very tricky household.

[00:38:22]They absolutely adored their mother.

[00:38:24]Their mother absolutely adored them and so did their father. The one thing that Diana be praised for forever more was giving those children real love and security in their early days.

[00:38:38]>> The people who loved her were the staff.

[00:38:40]She would often take William and Harry down to the kitchen to have their tea and they wanted fish fingers and things like that. But if they had it upstairs, she would bring both boys down to the kitchen afterwards to say thank you. She was amazing in that way.

[00:38:57]But she didn't mask from them her feelings. And if she was unhappy, she let them know about it. And she would say to [music] friends who said, "Look, you know, is it right that you should be crying in front of of [music] your small boy?" And she'd say, "Well, he's got to learn someday." What was so sad for these boys is that because the media took such a huge interest in Diana's [music] private life and she didn't hide it from the media. Um there were constant stories in the newspapers [music] about about Will Caring or about Oliver or whoever it was James Huitt. Um all these stories were appearing in the newspapers when these boys were were at school. It it was must have been really really hard for them because little boys are horrible and they tease one another.

[00:39:49]And I I feel that [music] the real problem was she had never been properly motherthered herself. And I and and therefore I think she didn't quite appreciate [music] how to do it because I don't think that most mothers would allow [music] their children to meet the lovers with such um such openness.

[00:40:13]I don't think a good mother really [music] would have spoken on national television as Diana did in that Panorama interview. She was at war with her husband. [music] She wanted she wanted him to suffer. And somehow I don't think she managed to put herself [music] into the position of of how her sons would feel if she behaved in this in this way. How they would feel if she [music] paraded her lovers in front of them. if she um ran their father down on television. I don't think she she could put herself into their minds.

[00:40:49]She spoke to his housemaster and said that um that she was going to be on television. His housemaster said he she must go and explain to William what what she'd done. You know what? And she went down there. She saw him for five minutes and and uh left. She was very pleased with what she'd done at the time. She thought it was a great performance and she was thrilled and she rang up her friends and said, "You must watch. You must watch."

[00:41:18]Afterwards, I think she regretted it bitterly.

[00:41:22]Because it it was just about [music] as bad as it can be for a 14-year-old boy.

[00:41:32]after the Panorama [music] interview.

[00:41:33]That is absolutely why the queen called time when she said, "Okay, enough. You two must must now um divorce."

[00:41:46]Whatever uncertainties the last few weeks may have brought, I want you to be certain of this. Our work together will continue [music] unchanged, especially now as Christmas brings its own painful stresses.

[00:42:05]>> I mean, now, of course, we would, it's very easy for us all to say it was inevitable that it was all going to collapse. It wasn't at all at the time.

[00:42:11]In fact, it was just as shocking that it collapsed as that Edward VI should have abdicated. Um, it didn't seem possible that the Prince and Princess of Wales could part. the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, their attitude to it was entirely that I think of of any other concerned parent and distressed of course that it was happening in the middle of the limelight. But you must bear in mind they are not as conscious of themselves being in the middle of the limelight as you are. And to some extent I think I do personally blame the media a lot for the continualounding of them. And then of course unfortunately um they both on both sides began to um sort of suck with the devil uh feed the media in one way or another and the rest you know basically it was it was a disaster for them. It was a family drama. I asked Prince Phillip about it once and he said to me simply we're a family. We are a family. These things happen in families and they cope with it as a family would and their reaction to it was that of parents of their particular generation. Now better have done with it. Let's, you know, cleanly cut this thing and free Diana and start again.

[00:43:28]>> It was her friendship and holidays with Dodie fired that ensured that the last few weeks of her life were lived as they'd always been, never far from the spotlight. When it comes to a question of what the queen thought of Diana's behavior after the marriage broke up and her succession of boyfriends and particularly Dodie Fied and all that sort of thing, that's another issue.

[00:43:49]>> The queen just simply didn't really understand Diana and um she didn't understand an urban girl who hated the the country. She didn't understand the princess's approach to what princess saw as her job.

[00:44:07]which was famously to be queen of hearts to empathize with people to go out to be popular in a personal sense.

[00:44:16]>> One of the things that disturbed distressed the queen and Prince Philillip about Diana, Princess of Wales and about Sarah Ferguson who married the young Duke of York was that the attention they got they may have thought that it was for them as individuals. The crucial thing about anyone joining the royal family is understanding what the agilation is.

[00:44:41]>> When the queen first became queen and went on tours in the early 1950s, millions millions of people came out of the streets and cheered. And if the queen had taken that attention for herself, it would have been corrosive.

[00:44:57]Celebrity normally is earned in some way by doing something remarkable, being a very good writer or a very good artist or a very good actor. Um, normally you don't get celebrity just because of who the family you were born into.

[00:45:14]>> The queen knew the attention, the adulation was not for her. It was for the position of being queen. Diana came into the family and became hugely famous and a superstar.

[00:45:28]>> That was an Athens queen. You don't do that. You just um stand there and be yourself, right? But you don't reach out to people.

[00:45:38]>> Prince Phillip was married to a woman who put the country first and he had a daughter-in-law who put two daughters-in-law who put themselves first and and he couldn't tolerate that.

[00:45:47]She suddenly overnight became such a superstar and loved it and feasted on it. She fed herself emotionally on the adoration of strangers and this caused a huge problem with Charles because rather than being a support to him, she outshone him and he felt that he had really important things to say, messages to to deliver in speeches and he would have Diana by his side and the press ignored his speeches and they talked about Diana's hairstyle or her clothes and could she perhaps be pregnant again?

[00:46:28]And that repeated itself and she stole his thunder. [music] So that caused problems.

[00:46:48][music] I was asleep in bed and the phone rang and one of my bosses said, "Nick, there's been [music] a car crash in Paris. Dodie Fed is dead and we think the princess is dead, too."

[00:47:07]So, I obviously got up, got dressed, went straight to the studio in the middle of the night and then was really on television, I have to say, for the next week really. At first, ambulance crews managed to keep the princess alive, but her heart had stopped beating by the time she was admitted to hospital. The surgeons fought for two hours to restart her heart. At 3:00 this morning, London time, they admitted defeat and announced that Diana, Princess of Wales, was dead.

[00:47:37]We have a flash here from the press association [music] Newswire saying that Diana, Princess of Wales, has died in a car crash in Paris.

[00:47:47]It was all to do with two people, Dodie Fed and Diana's bodyguard.

[00:47:53]>> The car was being chased by paparazzi.

[00:47:55]The chauffeer [music] had had certain amount too much to drink. He probably could have driven home perfectly well if he hadn't been being chased by paparazzi.

[00:48:02]>> This is what's left of the Mercedes in which the Princess of Wales and her companion Dodie Alied were being driven back to his house. Witnesses say the car was being pursued by photographers on motorbikes. Whatever the cause, it's clear that when he entered this tunnel alongside the river Sen, the driver lost control, crashing into a pillar on one side, then with full force into a wall on the other. [music] >> It's been speculated on that Diana would be alive today if journalists has not been pursuing them. It had nothing to do with the journalist pursuing. They could have been traveling at 10 [music] miles an hour. The and the journalist would have followed at 10 miles an hour. It was a state of chaos and when there is chaos, accidents happen and that's fundamentally what it was.

[00:48:47]>> You'd hardly recognize this as a car.

[00:48:50]The engine rammed up into the rear passenger area. Miraculously, Diana's bodyguard sitting in the front survived this.

[00:48:58]>> Dodie Fiad pulled a drunken driver out of the bar at the Ritz Hotel and put him in charge of a broken car. He then split the threecar convoy, which there's always supposed to be three cars, one in front, one behind, and the one contained the royals in the middle. Dodie split it up. Sent the other two on a decoy mission. So, they were on their own.

[00:49:19]The policeman allowed this to happen. He should never have allowed it. He strapped himself in. He put his seatelt on. He didn't tell her to.

[00:49:28]>> Dawn had not yet broken over Buckingham Palace as people began to arrive to pay their respects. young people grieving for a princess they regarded as their own.

[00:49:38]>> She was young herself. She was fresh.

[00:49:39]She was um I think she showed that the royal family wasn't something that was still stuck in the 18th century.

[00:49:46]>> The people everywhere, not just here in Britain, everywhere they kept faith with Princess Diana. They liked her. They loved her.

[00:49:56]They regarded her as one of the people.

[00:50:01]She was the people's princess.

[00:50:06]And that's how she will stay, how she will remain in our hearts and in our memories forever.

[00:50:24]So on the Sunday you had the shock. Uh the next day it was discovered turned on the paparazzi or perhaps even on the same day that had pursued the car. Then after that it was discovered that the chauffeur had um more alcohol in his blood than he should have done. So he was the next one to be blamed. And then once they'd finished with that they turned on the queen and the press uh played it up like anything. They played up the fake [music] thing of the flag there being no Union Jack flying at half mast on Buckingham Palace. Uh, I uh tried to tell it time and time again, why don't you film Windsor Castle, [music] which has its flag at half mass?

[00:51:00]Surely that makes a certain point.

[00:51:01]Didn't quite fit what they were interested in. They wanted the Stark flag pole, the monarch who did not care and so forth.

[00:51:08]>> We didn't whip up [music] hysteria and I always get a bit cross when people accuse us of that. The British people felt very deeply, most of them, about Diana. Now I know it's tradition that the flag flies at Buckingham Palace when only the royalty there, but I really would have liked to seen the flag flying half mask there as [music] well.

[00:51:26]>> You almost felt that if you walked past Kensington Palace or Buckingham Palace [music] without a bunch of flowers in your hand, you might be lynched.

[00:51:35]>> I mean, all these people here today are showing the strength of the nation and she hasn't said anything. the queen.

[00:51:41]>> They felt her loss personally and we were very aware that we shouldn't inflame people. We shouldn't say, "Oh, the queen's being terrible. She hasn't come down to London to meet the crowds."

[00:51:53]We tried to be very careful about what we were doing. But the story just swept along. No one could have imagined what would what had happened to Diana and what would happen in the days that followed.

[00:52:07]But with Diana's [music] death, the queen did what she's always done.

[00:52:10]Remember, she likes continuity and she [music] did what her father would have done and what her grandfather would have done. So they button down the hatches, stay at Balmoral on the outward, [music] act as if nothing so terrible has happened. The fact that she was one of the [music] most famous women in the world, that she was the mother of the future king and the former wife of her son really cut no ice with the queen.

[00:52:39]>> These are not people who wear their emotions publicly. That is not what they do. The idea of the British stiff upper lip comes from people like the queen, her father, her grandfather. Actually, that's what it's about. You don't show your emotions in public. You protect your own. And that's what they attempted to do.

[00:53:00]>> Tucked away in [music] Scotland dealing with the grief and the shock and trying to cope with these [music] griefstricken boys.

[00:53:09]>> The Queen and Prince Philip have always been very close to their grandchildren, particularly [music] William and Harry, I think, after the divorce. And it was very much their opinion as [music] grandparents that they should keep the boys back, try and keep their mind off what was happening back in London.

[00:53:24][music] While Charles went and recovered Diana's body and had to deal with the public administration of things, if you like, I think she [music] did the right thing, >> but she completely misread the mood of the country because in the ivory tower of Balmoral, you you don't know what's going down in London.

[00:53:40]>> They're the most cold people on this earth. The queen was much [music] criticized for staying in in Balmoral, but I actually think that what she was doing there was was putting the [music] boy's family before before anything else. And I don't think that she appreciated quite what was going on in London.

[00:54:16]Well, the queen when [music] she came back to Bucking Palace from Scotland, I think she was actually extremely nervous because she could [music] feel the hostility of the crowd. So, she did a walkabout and actually she she heard they say, "Oh, about time you've come."

[00:54:32]You know, you they can hear an awful lot of things that the crowd say. And then I think a woman actually gave her um a bunch of flowers and said, "Oh, would you like me to place it for for you.

[00:54:41]When a woman said, "No, ma'am, it's for you." And that sort of broke the ice. It was that moment. And I think suddenly people saw her instead of feeling all prickly and angry, they suddenly thought, "My goodness, this is this is a grandmother and she's got to deal with all this."

[00:54:57]>> I suppose it was a sort of natural feeling of sympathy in many ways for the Queen. Plus the fact, and I remember this terribly well, the Queen went on television live from Buckingham Palace to address the nation in the middle of all of that. And it was a very masterful speech.

[00:55:17]>> What I say to you now as your queen and as a grandmother, I say from my heart.

[00:55:24]First, I want to pay tribute to Diana myself.

[00:55:27]>> It did just the right thing. It said just the right things. to use the famous words as your queen and a grandmother.

[00:55:35]That was a very important thing to say to remind people that she isn't just some remote figure but she has a family, children, grandchildren and all the sorrows and pleasures that that brings to everybody.

[00:55:50]one of the most moving moments uh when the royal family were gathered in Buckingham Palace and um they were discussing the details of what was going to happen next day and in [music] particular who was going to walk behind the coffin. Um Prince Harry had no doubt that [music] yes, he would do it.

[00:56:10]William was not so sure. He'd had very complex feelings in the last weeks about his mother's relationship with Dodie fired that he didn't like. William and Harry went to stay with the Feds [music] in the south of France um before Diana was photographed gavorting with with um Dodie. And I think that the [music] boys found that quite uncomfortable.

[00:56:36]>> Um Harrods had sent all sorts of presents um after he'd stayed um on the fired yacht. He'd had them all returned.

[00:56:44][music] >> They went back to to England. um and flew up to [music] Scotland and joined their father and they started the family holiday. That was when Diana then went [music] back and had a second spell in the Mediterranean on the yacht with um [music] with Dodie and that was where all most of the photographs were taken.

[00:57:05]>> He felt embarrassed by seeing [music] his mother in a bikini on the newspapers. Uh he was troubled um and he wasn't sure if he wanted to walk and parade and perform for the people. And at that moment, Prince Phillip said, "Well, um, if I walk, will you walk, too?"

[00:57:24]>> Prince Phillip said to him, "I think when you're older, you would regret it if you didn't walk in your mother's procession, and I will walk with you."

[00:57:32]And that's an immensely supportive grandfather.

[00:57:34]>> And it made the difference. Um and of course more than a difference because the sight of those different generations of men um uh from Prince Philip already in his 70s to little Harry uh it was one of the most moving sites of that day and I think you know people who who saw that um will carry that image throughout their lives.

[00:58:28]I think Diana grew up [music] and matured.

[00:58:31]And in the early days, life was a bit frivolous and and uh she didn't want to be seen as anything terribly cerable and she would always say, you know, me, I'm [music] as thick as two planks. Um, but I think she she grew and she developed.

[00:58:46]>> She had the the gifts [music] which make for a successful princess. She was very glamorous, but uh more so perhaps more importantly, she had a natural affinity with the sick [music] and the young and the old and those who needed care. and it's something which can't be faked and she had that in full measures. No question about that at all.

[00:59:04]>> You know, I I think she [music] took on serious issues like landmines and and AIDS and all those things.

[00:59:12]>> HIV does not make people dangerous to know. [music] So you can shake their hands and give them a hug. Heaven knows they need it.

[00:59:21]>> She cared [music] enormously. I mean I I do think she had huge compassion. She did inspire, I think, in in in many people a feeling of of concern and and and sympathy. And that's what I was feeling for her.

[00:59:33]>> I mean, she did have huge empathy with with strangers. She she really was good at at um you know, people she met who who were suffering from cancer, who were who'd had [music] terrible accidents, who she was very very good with those people.

[00:59:50]>> She had the common touch and I think that is why people loved her. I mean she she became the most popular woman on earth as we know. [music] >> She was a brilliant communicator.

[01:00:00]She really connected with people again mostly with [music] strangers but she did communicate with them and engage with them and and I think that's why people loved her so much.

[01:00:39]>> [music] [music]