December 15, 2006
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Diana sat in the royal family’s box and waited for Cadet Wales to pass by in the Sovereign’s Parade with a rifle on his shoulder and the distinctive crimson sash across his chest. The gray skies that hinted at a snowfall did nothing to dampen the spirit of the crowd of smartly dressed spectators bundled up against the icy air. Wearing a navy wool coat by Catherine Walker and a Philip Somerville pillbox hat, Diana watched William march toward her. She could not help thinking back to all those times when as a young boy, he’d tried to help her as she despaired over Charles’s affair with Camilla. Her older son knew all too well about the breakdown of his parents’ marriage. He’d pushed tissues under the bathroom door when he heard his mother weeping after she and Charles had had one of their bitter rows and would patiently listen as she poured out her heart to him. William would muster as much maturity as his ten-year-old self would allow to comfort her. “Don’t be sad, Mummy,” he’d say as they’d sit on the couch side by side in the family’s sitting room at Kensington Palace. “Harry and I will take care of you.”
It seemed fitting, thought Diana, that William was given the position of ‘marker’ to assure all the cadets marched in perfect formation at their graduation ceremony from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He had always been so careful to never put a foot wrong. Born into such rarefied chambers with the knowledge of his destiny and the singular duty that was his to fulfill, William had not been swallowed up by that weighty obligation. His mother had made sure of that. William was connected to and curious about the world around him, and exhibited a discernible compassion for its people. Diana very much wanted the monarchy to thrive. When his time came, William would be a truly modern king who would usher it into the future, she thought as he marched closer.
On this day, Diana was incredibly proud of both of her sons. Harry, who had gone from Eton to Sandhurst, had graduated from the military academy a few months earlier and wanted to serve in Afghanistan.
Following his dream to become a career soldier, the young officer was on active duty and unable to attend his brother’s ceremony. William would be joining the Blues and Royals regiment of the Household Cavalry. Despite all the upheaval they’d faced thanks to their parents’ unhappy marriage and the nonstop media attention that surrounded it, they had come out of it emotionally intact. Diana had not lost her sons to the royal family as she had feared. She still had an important role to play in their lives.
Her sons’ commitment to their own charitable work and insistence on trying to live as normal a life as possible was something Diana felt they’d inherited from her. William had followed her lead and become a patron of Centrepoint, supporting the organization’s work with homeless youth in London. Harry had made several trips to Africa to visit orphans afflicted with AIDS. He told one interviewer who accompanied him, “I’m not going to be some person in the royal family who finds some lame excuse to go abroad and do all sorts of sunny holidays. I want to do as much as I can in the position I’ve got.”
Diana shifted her gaze to the Queen, in her signature matching coat and hat designed by her dresser Angela Kelly—this time in burgundy—as she commenced her inspection of the cadets, stopping in front of William. She said something that had him struggling to suppress a laugh. William and “Granny” always got on so well. Diana was glad she’d decided to make this her first official appearance with the royal family since moving back from America in June.
A few weeks after she settled back into Kensington Palace, the Queen invited her ex-daughter-in-law to tea. Diana had been a bit nervous about her sit-down with the monarch. She was fully aware of the flurry of stories that had appeared in the British newspapers when she and Teddy ended their engagement and was sure the Queen had seen them, too. The barrage of headlines in the British tabloids—which had Diana returning to London in hopes of reuniting with Charles, or worse, carrying on a covert affair with her ex-husband—certainly had done nothing to quell her jitters. Although the stories were complete fiction, Diana had no idea what type of reception she’d receive from the Queen as a result. But she was fortified by the outpouring of love shown to her by the British people upon her return.
The public’s adoration of her had reached new heights in the aftermath of the crash, when she proved herself a survivor of admirable mettle. Since her return to England, there had been a renewed surge of public support for her. Diana knew that such widespread affection meant power.
As the ex-wife of one future king and the mother of another, Diana posed a unique challenge to the Palace. In casting her out of its orbit, the royal family had made her star shine even brighter. Now at the apparent zenith of her popularity, not only in Britain but across the globe, the royals truly no longer knew what to expect from her. There was no doubt that the British people admired the ‘new’ Diana for the seriousness she brought to her work and her commitment to helping ‘the common man.’ The woman who once described herself as “thick as a plank” and had frequently bemoaned her lack of intellect had become an expert on the issues she chose to highlight.
Even the British press, which had always been cynical of her motives, was focusing more on her inspiring personal narrative and humanitarian work, and less on her fashion choices and romantic dalliances. In the years since Diana had formed her foundation, papers that had breathlessly reported every salacious detail of her personal life were now praising her for bringing “heightened global awareness to important issues and problems like no other humanitarian could.” They called her “A Woman on a Mission,” a title that pleased her greatly. While Charles had applauded her efforts privately, having Diana back in England had no doubt resurrected concerns that anything she did would overshadow him in the media. It would, but Diana was no longer motivated by spite or anger toward her ex-husband. She wanted Charles to find the same satisfaction in his work as she had found in hers. He had made significant headway in revealing a more relatable side of himself in his work with The Prince’s Trust. His support of organic farming, the preservation of Britain’s architectural landmarks, and environmental causes had, at long last, been in sync with the concerns of the British people. Ironically, it had been Diana who did some transatlantic coaching with him on how he could better connect with the masses on his walkabouts and in his speeches. During one of their phone conversations, her ex-husband, who knew no one handled the media more masterfully than Diana, astutely pointed out, “If you were talking about any of this, it would be international news. I can’t do what you do out there.”
Her years in America had proved that Diana without her royal title was even more effective at communicating whatever message she chose to telegraph to the media than she had ever been as part of ‘The Firm.’ Left to start over in the wake of the divorce and the crash, she had brilliantly made over her public persona, carefully balancing purpose with publicity in choosing her causes and appearances. No longer an HRH and released from the confines of being royal, she had emerged as the world’s biggest celebrity in the process.
In the chaotic months leading up to that night in Paris, Diana had been flailing. She had actually been considering withdrawing from public life altogether. Distraught that she had been cast aside by yet another man she loved, Diana was unsure of how to live her life as a semi-royal. But the crash had forever changed the course of her life. It had saved her. Since then, she had worked hard on herself with intensive therapy and sheer force of will and had built a new life. Diana was determined to find happiness within herself. She smothered her sons with love and they returned it tenfold. She no longer sought solace from her loneliness by having affairs with the wrong men. She craved both real intimacy and corporeal pleasure. Diana envisioned a relationship with a successful, secure man who would love her and only her. Hasnat and Teddy had shown her glimpses of that man, now she had to find him in one person.
She still believed he was out there. But for now, it was the first time in her l
ife since marrying Charles that there was no man in her life or her bed.
The Queen had been cordial to Diana when she arrived for afternoon tea at Buckingham Palace one afternoon in late June. She asked how her ex-daughter-in-law was settling in and then inquired about her plans. “I am going to spend some time with William and Harry before they go off to Balmoral and then get back to work at the foundation,” said Diana. “I will be working primarily out of the London office.”
“And will you continue to support all your causes?” asked the Queen, as her corgis came running into the room and curled up at her feet.
“Yes. I think it is very important work.”
“And you will be staying in London for good then?”
“Yes, that’s my plan.”
“I hope you’re not too sad about leaving New York.”
“I enjoyed my time there,” said Diana, eager to move on to another topic. “But I decided it was time to come home.”
“I know William and Harry are happy to have you back.”
“I am, too.”
“How are you and Charles getting on?”
“Very well. We talked quite a lot when I was in New York, and I expect everything will be the same as it’s been.”
“Really?”
“Well, perhaps not entirely.”
“Exactly. There are some other factors to consider.”
Diana knew what the Queen meant. Although Diana and Charles had been divorced for almost a decade, Her Majesty had not warmed to the idea of her son’s marrying Camilla, even though the Church of England, the same institution that had forced her uncle King Edward VIII to abdicate all those years ago because of his intention to marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson, seemed resigned to accept it. The Queen had refused even to meet Camilla until 2000, after Diana had moved to New York. The sovereign and her ex-daughter-in-law had disagreed on many things over the years, but they were united in their mutual dislike of that woman.
While the Queen did not give any credence to the tabloid stories about a renewed passion between Charles and Diana, she wondered whether now that her ex-daughter-in-law was back and newly unattached, the mere idea of Charles and Camilla’s marrying could turn the British public against the monarchy. The warm reception Diana’s homecoming garnered had not gone unnoticed by the Queen. When the news broke that Diana was returning to England, headlines trumpeted “Welcome Home Di!” and “The Queen of Hearts Has Returned!” Any gesture seen as hurtful to Diana could be disastrous. Queen Elizabeth did not want her son, who was finally enjoying a reasonably high approval rating, to risk incurring the public’s wrath over any further perceived mistreatment of his ex-wife. Charles and Camilla’s relationship was a still-divisive issue all these years later. The Queen had seen the polls showing that the majority of her subjects were adamantly opposed to the mere idea of a Queen Camilla. The thought of her son’s mistress becoming Queen someday set off stories about a change in the line of succession, a clamoring for William to become the next King instead of Charles.
The Queen would never forget the incredible outpouring of concern and support for Diana at the time of the accident and how members of the royal family were cast as villains who had pushed the princess into the arms of a man who could not properly protect her. She shuddered to think of what could have happened if Diana had died. The entire episode had shaken her to the core. She had come to accept that the monarchy’s very survival was dependent upon her subjects’ devotion, and maintaining that loyalty would entail being on good terms with Diana—or at least keeping up appearances.
“Charles and I are good friends who want the best for each other,” said Diana, as she sipped her tea.
“We shall have to wait and see what that means in the long term,” the Queen responded. She then steered the conversation toward safer ground, saying how happy she was to see both her grandsons “doing so well.”
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Diana looked away from the parade and glanced over at Charles, dressed in his military uniform, who was pointing out someone across the field to Prince Philip. She followed his gaze and spotted Kate Middleton, wearing a bright red coat with a large black hat, seated in the front row of the general stands across the field. She was with her mother, Carole, who was dressed like a Russian Cossack in a brown fur coat and hat, and Kate’s distinguished-looking father, Michael, who, like most men in attendance, wore a business suit and black overcoat. Diana smiled to herself, intrigued that Kate had chosen to wear something that would make her stand out from the crowd. Unable to sit in the royal enclosure because of protocol, Kate had nonetheless made sure her presence at William’s graduation made an impact. It marked her first appearance at a high-profile event also attended by the Queen and was meant to convey that she and William were indeed serious, although Diana knew her son was not ready to propose to his girlfriend of three years quite yet. When his mother asked him about his plans, William told her, “Kate is very, very important to me, but I’m not ready to decide anything about the future.”
Since returning to England, Diana had noticed a decided shift in the newspaper coverage away from stories about her and Charles toward breathless speculation about whether an announcement would be forthcoming about William and Kate’s engagement. After Kate’s appearance at Sandhurst, the newspapers had made it clear who the star of the day had been—and it wasn’t William, Diana or even the Queen. “Kate Rules!” blared one headline. From then on, every day there seemed to be another photograph of Kate being chased on foot as she tried to make her way to her job at Jigsaw, where she was an assistant buyer. The press titans had found another pretty, possibly soon-to-be princess who would sell newspapers. Still, as someone who knew the high price of overshadowing the royal family, Diana wondered whether Miss Middleton was skirting a bit too close to the line.
She was reminded of her earliest days as a possible royal bride, when she was hounded by some of the very same men every time she left her flat on Coleherne Court. At nineteen, Diana had been embarrassed and overwhelmed by the press attention but soon found a way to sound politely game during those brief interludes with reporters camped outside her front door. She remembered when she first discovered her innate sense of how to use the media attention to her own advantage; how it had excited her!
Trapped in an unhappy marriage and subjected to campaigns to discredit her, Diana proved to be a quick study in manipulating the media and using the press to tell her story. She became emboldened to use her newfound talents to strike back whenever the men in gray went on the attack. At the time her marriage was imploding, it appeared that the only person in the world not in love with Diana was her own husband. Editors of magazines and newspapers were invited to lunches at Kensington Palace and found themselves wowed by the experience of one-on-one time with the princess. She had also learned to strategically disseminate information to sympathetic reporters via covert telephone calls and secret meetings.
Diana would befriend certain journalists who, when they pleased her, were rewarded with exclusive information that served to ensure their loyalty. But once her scandal-plagued marriage culminated in divorce, the same outlets that had been so willing in helping her create a sympathetic public persona turned against her. An ‘emotionally unstable’ Diana or a Diana ‘in distress’ sold more papers than a newly single, empowered Diana did.
She wondered how Kate, whom Diana found to be formidable, would come to discover both the power and price that came with being such a sought-after subject. She was surprised by unfamiliar twinges of envy she felt when image after image of Kate’s unmarred, youthful beauty were splashed across the tabloids day after day. (Diana still kept meticulous scrapbooks of all her own media coverage and watched and re-watched the news reports filed from her trips for the foundation.) She knew the limelight was gradually shifting to the next generation. Now, with all the recent media attention surrounding Kate, she sensed a profound change was imminen
t. If Kate was to become the newest paparazzi princess, Diana was determined to be there to teach, protect, and support her heir apparent.
The intense attention surrounding Kate had infuriated William, who saw dangerous parallels between the treatment of his mother and now his girlfriend by the paparazzi. “Bloody hell!” he exclaimed on seeing the newspaper on the dining room table when he’d last visited his mother at Kensington Palace. “They almost killed you, and now they will not let up on Kate. I’ve had nightmares about this! Something has to be done right now!”
Diana was worried by the vehemence of William’s reaction but understood why he took the harassment of Kate by the photographers to mean that the paparazzi had no plans at all of changing their tactics. That same morning, after her son left, she called Charles and told him, “This girl needs our help. We can’t let this get out of control. I’ve never seen William so angry.” Since the Palace could not offer anyone outside of the royal family their own protection officers, Charles decided to hire and personally pay for a private bodyguard for their son’s girlfriend. Unfortunately, the arrangement was short-lived when it was deemed inappropriate by Palace officials. A formal complaint of harassment was filed on Kate’s behalf with the Press Complaints Commission, and Clarence House issued a statement calling the situation “unbearable for all those concerned.”
A few days later, Diana called William and invited him and Kate to join her for lunch at Kensington Palace so she could talk to Kate about how she might handle the media attention—especially if an engagement was forthcoming.
“I do appreciate it, Mummy,” said William. “But I don’t want to make it seem as if it’s setting the stage for our engagement. I’m not quite ready.”
“I understand you don’t want to mislead her, but if she’s going to be with you as your girlfriend, she needs our support.”
Imagining Diana Page 11
