Diana Frances Spencer, known as Princess Diana, was the wife of Charles, Prince of Wales. She died on August 31, 1997. She was the mother of Prince Harry and Prince William, who is currently second in line to the throne after his father, Diane’s former husband. Diana was renowned for her stylish sense as well as her charitable efforts.

Age & Birth Information

On July 1, 1961, Diana Frances Spencer was born in Sandringham, England. She belonged to the British aristocracy but was not a royal, she was a commoner. John Spencer, Viscount Althorp, the father of Diana, served as a personal assistant to both Queen Elizabeth II and King George VI. The Honorable Frances Shand-Kydd was her mother.

Diana’s parents divorced in 1969. Her mother fled with an heir to a sizable fortune, and her father was granted custody of the kids. He later wed Raine Legge, whose mother was romance author Barbara Cartland.

Education Background

At Park House, a home close to the royal family’s Sandringham estate, Diana essentially grew up next door to Queen Elizabeth II and her family. Prince Andrew was her childhood playmate and was 12 years younger than Prince Charles.

Diana’s father was granted custody of her and her siblings following her parents’ divorce. Diana attended West Heath School and Riddlesworth Hall after receiving her education at home up until the age of nine. Diana struggled in school and did not get along with her stepmother. Instead, she developed a passion for dance and, according to some accounts, Prince Charles, whose image she reportedly had framed and hung in her dorm room at school.

Diana reconnected with Prince Charles when she was sixteen. He had dated Sarah, her older sister. Even though she was still too young for him to date, she left him with some sort of impression. She left West Heath School at age 16 and enrolled at Chateau d’Oex, a finishing school in Switzerland. After a few months, she left.

Relationship Status

Diana traveled to London after finishing school and worked as a maid, nanny, and kindergarten teacher’s assistant. She shared a home with three other people that her father had bought. When Diana visited her sister in 1980, whose husband served as the monarch, they reconnected. Six months after they started dating, Charles proposed. In over 300 years, Diana was the first British citizen to wed the heir to the British monarchy.

Diana quickly began making public appearances despite her qualms about being in the public glare. Her first formal outing was to Princess Grace of Monaco’s burial. Diana gave birth to Prince William (William Arthur Philip Louis) on June 21, 1982, and Prince Harry (Henry Charles Albert David) on September 15, 1984, very soon after becoming pregnant.

Diana and Charles engaged in open displays of affection early on in their marriage. But by 1986, it was clear how much time they spent apart and how cool they were together. Diana made the announcement that she was getting a divorce in February 1996.

Divorce

On August 28, 1996, the divorce became legally binding. According to the settlement agreement, Diana would receive $23 million plus $600,000 annually. Charles and she both took an active role in their sons’ lives. Diana was allowed to keep the title of Princess of Wales and continued to reside at Kensington Palace. When she got divorced, she also stopped working with most of the organizations she had been, focusing instead on just a few causes: homelessness, AIDS, leprosy, and cancer.

Diana got involved in the effort to outlaw landmines in 1996. She traveled to many countries as part of the anti-landmine campaign, which was more politically charged than usual for the British royal family.

Diana was romantically linked to playboy “Dodi” Fayed, 42, in early 1997. (Emad Mohammed al-Fayed). Mohammed al-Fayed, his father, also controlled the Ritz Hotel in Paris and the Harrod’s department store.

Cause of Death

Diana and Fayed departed the Ritz Hotel in Paris on August 30, 1997, driven by a driver and Dodi’s bodyguard. Paparazzi were pursuing them. The vehicle lost control in a tunnel in Paris just after midnight, crashing. Diana passed away after being saved in the hospital, while Fayed and the driver died quickly. Even though the bodyguard had severe wounds, he lived.

The world responded right away. First came shock and horror. Then came the finger-pointing, much of it aimed at the paparazzi who were tailing the princess’s car and who the driver was ostensibly attempting to elude. Later testing revealed that the driver had been much over the legal limit for alcohol consumption, but the photographers were first held responsible for the accident because to their apparent never-ending pursuit of Diana photographs that might be used in news releases.

Then, a flood of sorrow and grief descended. The funeral for Princess Diana on September 6 received international attention. Millions of people showed up to line the funeral procession’s route.

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Legacy

Diana and her life story has numerous parallels in popular culture. Her fairy-tale wedding, complete with a glass coach and a dress that just just fit inside, was in keeping with the decade’s excessive spending and affluence when she got married close to the start of the 1980s.

She publicly discussed her battles with bulimia and depression, which was characteristic of the 1980s’ emphasis on self-help and self-esteem. Her passing was all the more heartbreaking because it appeared that she had finally started to move past many of her issues.

Diana had a tremendous impact on the AIDS crisis’ reality in the 1980s. At a period when many people in the public sought to confine those who had the disease due to unfounded and misinformed beliefs of easy communicability, her desire to contact and hug AIDS patients helped influence how AIDS patients were treated.

honors 

Titles and styles

• 1 July 1961 – 9 June 1975: The Honourable Diana Frances Spencer
• 9 June 1975 – 29 July 1981: Lady Diana Frances Spencer
• 29 July 1981 – 28 August 1996: Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales
  • in Scotland: 29 July 1981 – 28 August 1996: Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Rothesay
  • in Chester: 29 July 1981 – 28 August 1996: The Countess of Chester
• 28 August 1996 – 31 August 1997: Diana, Princess of Wales

Honors

Orders

•  Member of the Royal Family Order of Queen Elizabeth II (1981)

Foreign honors

•  Supreme Class of the Order of the Virtues (or Order of al-Kamal), 1982
•  Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown, bestowed by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands on 18 November 1982

Honorary military appointments

The Princess of Wales held the following military appointments:

 Australia

• : Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Australian Survey Corps

 Canada

• : Colonel-in-Chief of the Princess of Wales Own Regiment
• : Colonel-in-Chief of the West Nova Scotia Regiment

 United Kingdom

• : Colonel-in-Chief of the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment
• : Colonel-in-Chief of the Light Dragoons
• : Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Hampshire Regiment
• : Colonel-in-Chief of the 13th/18th Royal Hussars (Queen Mary’s Own)
• : Honorary Air Commodore, RAF Wittering

She gave up these appointments following her divorce.

Some Interesting Facts

• Diana married Charles, Prince of Wales, in 1981, and joined the British royal family as a result.
• Also Known As: Lady Di, Princess Diana, Diana Frances Spencer
• near Sandringham, England, on July 1, 1961
• John Spencer and Frances Spencer are the parents.
• August 31, 1997, in Paris, France, passed away
• Charles, Prince of Wales’ spouse (m. 1981–1996)
• Children: Prince Harry and Prince William (William Arthur Philip Louis) (Henry Charles Albert David)