Different Facets of Diana


If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Status
Not open for further replies.
I still miss seeing Diana at big Royal events, and it's been over 16 years since the separation. In a way, she was "mad, bad, and dangerous to know", but she was fascinating in another way.
 
Oh, she was. Considering that the Queen had three sons and a not very glamorous daughter, and Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother were both getting on in years, Diana brought the whole fairy princess quality that the royal family really hadn't had for a while (apart from the Duchess of Kent, I suppose). It's a shame it didn't last, but she did bring interest to the royal round.
 
And the sad thing now is that any girlfriend or fiancee of a British Royal is claimed in the media to be "the new Diana" and has all those expectations put on her right away. The individual abilities of these young women aren't really brought into consideration, and they're expected to have tremendous style and grace in public without any experience.

It's a shame it didn't last, but she did bring interest to the royal round.
 
I hesitate to post this, in case I offend or go off topic. However, I do have some sympathy with Al-Fayed. Diana was a real loose cannon. She actively persued Married Men, whilst making a hue and cry against Charles and Camilla, who were trying to conduct a discreet and old relationship.
Her behaviour in the France with Dodi was beyond the pale to me, and do any of you remember, just a few days before the crash, she swam over to the reporters and said, "Just leave me alone, I am about to give news that will shock the world." Does anyone else remember that? I wonder what that news was, it just makes me think that she was about to announce her engagement or her pregnancy, and that she thought she was above all....thoughts for her own children went out of the window. It was enough to make the Powers That Be, (of which the Queen spoke to Burrell,) take action.
This is not meant as a critisism of Diana, (although I never liked her,) just a plea for recall of that newspaper headline. I remember it SOOOOO well. At the time, I was working in a nursing home, and the residents were eager and agog for each new day's newspaper...
 
By the time of her relationship with Dodi, I had already become somewhat disillusioned with Diana. I do remember her teasing the reporters with "You'll be surprised by the next thing I do"...or words to that effect. I've had the feeling that the last year of her life in particular was pillar-to-post. She was telling so many different people so many stories that it's hard to know for sure what her plans were or even whether she had any definite ones at all.

I like to remember Diana best as someone who did good for many sick and wartorn people during her time with us and brought happiness to the people she dealt with in public.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I understand both of you, Mermaid1962 and normalil.
But I wouldn't say I had less sympathy for her in the later years. I never looked for the perfect princess in Diana (perhaps because I was still a child when she died). All her lies, manipulations, etc. she did in her life are part of her character and that's what fascinates me. I'm not a Diana fan who wants to see her as a saint or the most wonderful woman who came on earth or whatever. She magnetizes my interest because even if she was close to people, I have the feeling that they didn't know her. It's the mystery of her personality that keeps me captivated. Loose cannon or not.;)
 
I still find her absolutely fascinating, and I still look for rare pictures to add to my collection. So I guess that I'm a little schizoid in a way; I'm literally of two minds about her.:flowers:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
All her lies, manipulations, etc. she did in her life are part of her character and that's what fascinates me. I'm not a Diana fan who wants to see her as a saint or the most wonderful woman who came on earth or whatever. She magnetizes my interest because even if she was close to people, I have the feeling that they didn't know her. It's the mystery of her personality that keeps me captivated. Loose cannon or not.;)

I, too, find her fascinating for these reasons. She had some extremely good qualities: her compassion and kindness and thoughtfulness were genuine and very endearing, but for me the many unattractive qualities she also possessed outweighed the good ones. I didn't like her, but I keep coming back to the Diana pages because I want to understand her and know what made her tick and why she was like she was, though I'm sure we'll never have any definitive answers.
 
Without sounding like I'm trying to defend her here I'll just say this, I think Diana herself didn't know what she was doing/saying. I know for myself coming from experiences sometimes I'd be the one saying "oh don't do this it's wrong" but in the end I ended up doing the same thing that I was telling people not to do. Sometimes you think you know what's best but in the end you're the one who makes the exact same mistake you were trying to avoid. I don't know if that made any sense but it does to me. Or I could also maybe assume she was fed up by the time she started doing those things I mean, in a sense without starting anything here wouldn't you be fed up if your husband was seeing another woman. Not that what she did was right but sometimes circumstances cause you to do things that you shouldn't be...I mean I don't know I'm just guessing here and in the end we'll never know but she was human just like everyone in this world, you make mistakes no one is perfect even if you know what your doing is wrong sometimes you still end up making those mistakes. In all I think she did great work and helped many people. I'm not trying to say she was a saint and people are allowed to have their opinions, their allowed to adore her and allowed to hate her but for me she was human, you know.

I do have to say though for me personally her charity work attracted me to her, her unique character, the mystery behind her I could go on but I think in the end that's something she had that no one else had if you get what I'm trying to say here..it's just Diana it's who she was.
 
Last edited:
Or I could also maybe assume she was fed up by the time she started doing those things I mean, in a sense without starting anything here wouldn't you be fed up if your husband was seeing another woman.
Sadly, IMO Diana would have done those things whether whatever husband she had was 1000% faithful or not. There are some people, men and women, who need to be needed, to be the absolute centre of their partners universe and when real life cuts in, they cast around for the person who will, at the drop of a hat, drop everything and come running. :flowers: The type of person that drains you, because you can never do enough for them and not all are from horribly broken homes where you are seen as some sort of prize. :flowers:
 
Diana knew perfectly well what she was doing, and she was needy, draining, manipulative, and often demonstrated vengeful behavior. She may have had a magnetic personality, but she was an attention seeker and behaved like a spoiled child when she didn't get her way. She also had a temper problem--she pushed her step-mother down the stairs, started rumors about people, etc...
 
I certainly don't deny this.

Diana knew perfectly well what she was doing, and she was needy, draining, manipulative, and often demonstrated vengeful behavior. She may have had a magnetic personality, but she was an attention seeker and behaved like a spoiled child when she didn't get her way. She also had a temper problem--she pushed her step-mother down the stairs, started rumors about people, etc...
 
Sadly, IMO Diana would have done those things whether whatever husband she had was 1000% faithful or not. There are some people, men and women, who need to be needed, to be the absolute centre of their partners universe and when real life cuts in, they cast around for the person who will, at the drop of a hat, drop everything and come running. :flowers: The type of person that drains you, because you can never do enough for them and not all are from horribly broken homes where you are seen as some sort of prize. :flowers:

Yes I do agree with that, I feel she expected too much from Charles in a sense.:flowers:

You know and I really am going to sound delusional but I'm not I accept she wasn't perfect and I accept she did bad things but I think alot of the things she did were caused possibly because of her past and everything going around her during her life pretty much. I'm not trying to give her the easy way out here but I'm the type of person who likes to try and see a different point of view instead of seeing everything negatively. No disrespect to anyone here everyone as I've said is completly allowed to have their opinion but this is mine.
 
Yes I do agree with that, I feel she expected too much from Charles in a sense.:flowers:

You know and I really am going to sound delusional but I'm not I accept she wasn't perfect and I accept she did bad things but I think alot of the things she did were caused possibly because of her past and everything going around her during her life pretty much. I'm not trying to give her the easy way out here but I'm the type of person who likes to try and see a different point of view instead of seeing everything negatively. No disrespect to anyone here everyone as I've said is completly allowed to have their opinion but this is mine.

Well, you are completely right--her childhood was fraught with upheaval, her marriage was a mismatch--and let's face it--the image she had of marriage was that of two people constantly disagreeing and arguing, so she didn't have good role models to help prepare her for marriage. And, when she and Charles started to have problems she really didn't have anyone she could go to for advice, so she made some bad decisions. We are all products of our environment, but I do think she handled herself very, very badly. After all, she was an adult; she knew not to push people down stairs but as she said "I just got so angry" (the People's Princess could hold a grudge, apparently) displays perfectly that she never really matured enough to handle her problems reasonably.
 
Yes that I completly agree with^:flowers: I don't think she ever had time to properly mature into a proper adult.
 
Last edited:
You know and I really am going to sound delusional but I'm not I accept she wasn't perfect and I accept she did bad things but I think alot of the things she did were caused possibly because of her past and everything going around her during her life pretty much. I'm not trying to give her the easy way out here but I'm the type of person who likes to try and see a different point of view instead of seeing everything negatively. No disrespect to anyone here everyone as I've said is completly allowed to have their opinion but this is mine.

You don't sound elusional, just the sort of person who looks for the good in people and has a sympathetic approach to their flaws, which is nice.:flowers:
 
You know and I really am going to sound delusional but I'm not I accept she wasn't perfect and I accept she did bad things but I think alot of the things she did were caused possibly because of her past and everything going around her during her life pretty much. I'm not trying to give her the easy way out here but I'm the type of person who likes to try and see a different point of view instead of seeing everything negatively. No disrespect to anyone here everyone as I've said is completly allowed to have their opinion but this is mine.
Of course everyone is entitled to their opinion. :flowers: There are very many people who had a worse family life than Diana, with parental arguments and family rifts, but they are not manipulative or vindictive. They do everything in their power to ensure that they don't hurt people and try to make a success of their lives. There are also many people from loving families that are manipulative and vindictive. IMO, it is impossible to blame it all on her upbringing or early marriage.
Some people are just born that way, personally I am a great believer in seeing the good/potential in someone, until they [do the dirty on you. - ed by Warren]
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You don't sound elusional, just the sort of person who looks for the good in people and has a sympathetic approach to their flaws, which is nice.:flowers:

Thank You, your right I always do try and see the good in people, which I think alot of people nowadays(I don't mean here just in general) seem to try and block.

Of course everyone is entitled to their opinion. :flowers: There are very many people who had a worse family life than Diana, with parental arguments and family rifts, but they are not manipulative or vindictive. They do everything in their power to ensure that they don't hurt people and try to make a success of their lives. There are also many people from loving families that are manipulative and vindictive. IMO, it is impossible to blame it all on her upbringing or early marriage.
Some people are just born that way, personally I am a great believer in seeing the good/potential in someone, until they [do the dirty on you. - ed by Warren]

Ya your right,I know people who's childhood was probably way more difficult then Diana's but grew up to be a better person because of that but then I also do know people who grew to be horrible because of their past it just depends on the person.:flowers:
 
It is also important to remember that Diana was A TEENAGER when she met and married Charles. Many people write as if she and Charles were on an equal playing field when it came to emotional maturity and this is not a fair comparison. Charles was 12 YEARS her senior and should have known better in a lot of ways, as should the people who surrounded him and recommended the match. Neither one of them probably had any idea how invaded and scrutinized their lives would be from every front. Could anyone behave "normally" in that ongoing situation?
 
It is also important to remember that Diana was A TEENAGER when she met and married Charles. Many people write as if she and Charles were on an equal playing field when it came to emotional maturity and this is not a fair comparison.
19 when they met 20 when they married, so technically not a teenager. I'm sure we all know people who got married at 18 or so to older partners and still made a go of it. Maturity doesn't come to all at a certain age and some never mature at all!
 
Perhaps, if Diana, who was very young and immature had married someone loving and kind, her whole life might have been different. She could have blossomed from being immature and unrealistic, into a wonderful woman. But, alas, she fell into a miserable situation. A husband, who is basically self-centered and with a lover, a family without warmth and had no idea what family life really was. She was on every front page, constantly. Really was not able settle in. It takes time and with some, they need help. Also, those who made a go of their marriages were in real marriages, where the other partner "loved" them enough to work out the details. Charles doesn't have that capacity.
 
Do you really believe that Diana would have been easy to please, even with a more "caring" family ? Charles had his faults but she was as self-centered as him. Okay, things went wrong and both made some mistakes but she was also difficult. Her problems of adapting herself to a certain lifestyle came right from her childhood and education. When she was sent to Switzerland, she begged her parents to go back home cause she couldn't stand the life overthere. That she couldn't do once married and settled in BP. Moreover, her father didn't help her to grow up by accepting her every wishes. Diana thought she could do the same to Charles and "control" him. But she realized fast enough that this doesn't work in "real life", like she realized that there were no such things as prince charming or happily ever after stories.
 
Perhaps, if Diana, who was very young and immature had married someone loving and kind, her whole life might have been different. She could have blossomed from being immature and unrealistic, into a wonderful woman. But, alas, she fell into a miserable situation. A husband, who is basically self-centered and with a lover, a family without warmth and had no idea what family life really was. She was on every front page, constantly. Really was not able settle in. It takes time and with some, they need help. Also, those who made a go of their marriages were in real marriages, where the other partner "loved" them enough to work out the details. Charles doesn't have that capacity.

Countess, are you saying that Charles was not loving and kind? I think I would tend to disagree with that. He may not have been madly in love with Diana, but I don't think he was hateful and rude to her, either. :flowers:
 
i don't think diana would have been happy with anyone because she wasn't happy with herself. she chased a fantasy. diana was too needy and too insecure to be able to sustain a loving and healthy relationship with any man. it's a shame she didn't get the help she needed.
 
I agree with you jcbcode99. Charles has never been offensive toward her and I believe that even when both had started an affair, he made things easier for her and tried not to hurt her. You just have to look the way he confessed his affair on TV in 1994. Someone who wouldn't have cared at all wouldn't have said it with such a tone of voice. Same things with some pictures. They did care for each other, the images speak by themselves.
 
thanks Squidgy for looking it...so it was her only time as bridesmaid. i thought being a pretty little girl she must had been asked to be bridesmaid many times.

Well, besides being a bridesmaid for her sister Jane, I think she was also a bridesmaid for one of her Wake-Walker cousins, that is, if I remember, her father's sister's daughter.
 
Perhaps, if Diana, who was very young and immature had married someone loving and kind, her whole life might have been different. She could have blossomed from being immature and unrealistic, into a wonderful woman. But, alas, she fell into a miserable situation. A husband, who is basically self-centered and with a lover, a family without warmth and had no idea what family life really was. She was on every front page, constantly. Really was not able settle in. It takes time and with some, they need help. Also, those who made a go of their marriages were in real marriages, where the other partner "loved" them enough to work out the details. Charles doesn't have that capacity.
Or perhaps she was incapable of appreciating the love given to her, always needing more, then moving on. Had her father not spoilt her, punished her even for the many spiteful acts (her nannies, her step mother), taught her that tantrums don't always achieve what you want, who knows.
Also, those who made a go of their marriages were in real marriages, where the other partner "loved" them enough to work out the details. Charles doesn't have that capacity.
They tend to be marriages where both were in love with each other, not just the title. They also tend to be where both people are prepared to give and take, and really work at it. :whistling:



To continue the lie Diana told with regard to the Royal Family is rather stale... especially as we have all seen the pictures that contradict that tale, to anyone with a modicum of sense!
 
Before we go any further down the path of Diana versus Charles& Camilla for the umpteenth time, please remember what this thread is supposed to be about. Here's the post made by TheTruth a couple of pages ago when she merged some threads to create this one:

Four threads have been merged to regroup them under a main subject.
This thread now contains Pregnant Diana, Diana's Hairstyles, Dancing Diana, Diana as Bridesmaid threads and was renamed "Different Facets of Diana".

TheTruth
Diana, Princess of Wales Sub-forum moderator.


This is a warning that further posts on the subject of the CCD eternal triangle will be deleted.

Elspeth

British Royals moderator
 
Or perhaps she was incapable of appreciating the love given to her, always needing more, then moving on. Had her father not spoilt her, punished her even for the many spiteful acts (her nannies, her step mother), taught her that tantrums don't always achieve what you want, who knows.
They tend to be marriages where both were in love with each other, not just the title. They also tend to be where both people are prepared to give and take, and really work at it. :whistling:



To continue the lie Diana told with regard to the Royal Family is rather stale... especially as we have all seen the pictures that contradict that tale, to anyone with a modicum of sense!

Actually that's why I think many of Diana's problems go back to her childhood. I think she felt the constant need for love and attention and when you feel the need for something like which cannot be given to you 24/7 your most likely to run into problems down the road.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom