To still not understand the Diana "thing"?

[TeaCake5]

As William and harry said they were bewildered by people who didn't even know her acting in the way they did. Yes it was sad that she was killed but to hand around kensington palace for days crying? Ridiculous.

Mr Gourmelon said he was sure Diana would survive

I'm sure he was and was being honest about his Immediate thoughts at the time. There was no way for him to see she had a ripped main artery and her heart was displaced. He could only look at what he could see from the outside.

If anyone is trying to insinuate that either the paramedics murdered her or the doctors did then that's not only as batshit as it gets, It is deeply offensive to all the medical professionals who worked exhaustively to try to save her life.

There is conspiracy theories then there is bat shit what's wrong with you theories. And that would fall into the latter category. Try to remember this woman had two children before spouting guff.

I guess William and Harry can't share any more although being involved in Mental health charities such as they are is some sort of sign about their difficult childhood.

All those promises from Spencer at the funeral, did they come to any fruition at all.

Very sad to hear that William had spent quite a bit of his childhood trying to comfort his mother sad, she had been crying from press intrusion.Not a good childhood considering he was only just 15 when she died and that is one of his strong memories. to comfort his mother

She had a relationship with the press that she was complicit in.The role of the press in Diana’s life and death was massive. She and the press were mutually dependent. As King Lear puts it, they were bound upon a wheel of fire. Diana manipulated the press. The press exploited her with eagerness

untrained drunk driver, he didn't force Henri Paul to speed. I would give William and Harry credit for having enough sense not to come up with that one.
All very true, but human nature being what it is i still think that deep down they'd blame their father. No, Charles didn't force the driver to speed, he didn't cause Diana to be in Paris or cause her not to wear a seat belt.

The boys will know all those things, but they'll also know that if their dad hadn't had another woman throughout his marriage to Diana and caused her deep unhappiness she wouldn't have been in the circumstances that caused her death.

I know that if it was my mum, rightly or wrongly, that's the way i'd feel. We aren't always able to rationalise our thoughts unfortunately.

I know that if it was my mum, rightly or wrongly, that's the way i'd feel

Really? If your parents separated and several years later your mum died in a car crash, you would blame your dad? Thankfully, even at 13 and 15, I think the princes were a bit more rational and mature in their thinking.

It really does feel that some pps would dearly love the boys to blame Charles, not love him, secretly blame his relationship with Camilla etc etc. Would that actually make some of you feel better?

It is all complete twaddle of course. A quick google would show many informal pictures of them laughing and relaxed together. I think the boys realise that both their parents were flawed. Someone mentioned them being envious of their cousin Zara. Her parents are divorced, so I'm not sure what that statement meant?

I also love how some pps 'know' that the royal family got more contact with the boys than Diana did. As in most divorces, time is split, the boys had just been on holiday with Diana and were due to spend Christmas 1997 with Diana.

Harry said shortly after Charles and Camilla married 'she's a wonderful woman and she's made our father a very very happy man and that's the most important thing. William and I love her to bits'. I remember on the wedding day watching them decorate the wedding car after the reception, laughing and relaxed. It was all on TV.

It's also telling that William and Catherine had Camilla's granddaughter as one of their bridesmaids. Camilla is very close to Catherine and gave her a bracelet inscribed with both of their initials when she married William.

They are a family. Dysfunctional like many but a family who love each other very much. This does not detract from how much they loved their mother, it goes without saying that they love and miss her very much.

This is a very long thread, I couldn't read all of it so many apologies if I repeat what any other posters have said.
I was gutted she died but even back then I was rather agog at how the public reacted, it was very uncomfortable viewing, quite embarrassing really.
I remember all the anger from the public about why the flag wasn't half mast at the palace and why we hadn't heard from the royals etc, but one thing really sticks in my mind, when the Queen and Prince Philip did have the walk around before the funeral one member of the public said to them, make sure you take care of the boys, Prince Philip sharply stated, that's what we have been doing. I felt good for him and felt cross that he had to address it, the royals main concern was the boys and dealing with grief the way we all would, as a family, they are a family and should have been allowed to deal with this as a family first and foremost and then once they have composed themselves and the boys, then address the public.
I couldn't believe that the public who behaved like that and demanded them to behave the way they wanted to ease their grief had the nerve to then tell them to take care of the boys, which in is what they were actually doing and had to stop doing that because of mass hysteria!
I was whatching the programme the other day and that comment from the member of the public still annoyed me and I almost wanted Prince Philip to really tear a strip off her!

i still think that deep down they'd blame their father

My understanding is they don't remotely blame their father in fact they have a lot of empathy for him, and supported his second marriage. That in itself would tell us that we haven't seen the full picture. What we predominantly see is what diana chose to tell us. The actions of her children speaks volumes and tells us she chose not to present us with the whole story or anything that would blacken her name. Which is human nature.

She was happy to go on tv and talk about Charles affair, about how the royals wronged her. She was much less forthcoming about smuggling will carling into Kensington parlance and shagging him behind his wife's back and many other things she got up to with married men, or simply with men when she was married.

Two wrongs don't make a right, and no marriage break down is one sided. The fact her children have welcomed Camilla, and are extremely close to their father says it all. I suggest we listen.

@Bluntness100, what you're saying is completely right about Diana's injuries. I remember being struck by the similarity of my FIL's injuries when he died in a car accident. When I first heard about it there was no indication that he would die, and therefore my MIL was taken to another hospital for her minor injuries. She thus didn't get to see him again conscious. (Thankfully my BIL did as he lives locally.)

We were all there as the doctors desperately tried to give him blood transfusions but he just kept bleeding out. There was nothing that could be done.

So there is no reason to think that Princess Di was ever actually going to survive. Internal injuries are just that, internal. It's ludicrous to think the doctors didn't do everything in their power to save her. With the world's media focused on them, they would hardly do anything else.

Someone mentioned them being envious of their cousin Zara. Her parents are divorced, so I'm not sure what that statement meant?
I meant that Zara and Peter Phillips were brought up without royal titles and have been able to live a relatively normal life.

Some good stuff about Di on Popbitch:

**
Diana was, by most accounts, quite a needy girlfriend. After the initial excitement of hanging out with the Princess wore off, Will Carling found her constant attention quite grating.

One night she kept booty calling him, but he was trying to put her off as he had friends over. In the end he got tired of the calls and, egged on by his buddies, he told her she could only come round if she "shaved her growler for him".

Thinking that would be the end of it, Carling went back to his evening. The phone rang again.

"I've done it. Now can I come round?"
**

I think the public were awful. The Queen was doing her best to protect her grandsons and keep things as private as possible (the Spencer family also wanted this) and they basicly forced them to have a huge public funeral. It was as if their grief trumped the boys.

Some idiots were even annoyed that the boys had not been seen in public.
It's no wonder William and Harry were bewildered by it all and prob a bit mad that people who had not even met her were sat sobbing on the pavement outside the palace. They also had to read some of the awful messages people had put on the flowers about Charles and their grandparents which was the last thing they needed.
I think looking back now a lot of people regret that behaviour and admire the Queen for putting her family first

Of course they'd not show it to the world, but putting myself in their shoes i'd imagine that they'd partly blame their father and Camilla for her death. After all if she'd still been with Charles she wouldn't have been in a fatal car crash

What a load of twaddle. Fergie managed to divorce Andrew but not involve herself in any fatal car crashes.

I think it is revolting the way people appropriated (and continue to appropriate) those children's grief

For goodness sake just let her and them rest in peace.

Derxa - your statement came after saying the boys must have 'hidden feelings' so I assumed you were talking about the state of the parent's relationship in relation to being envious of Zara.

I think Harry had openly said that he wanted to run away from his royal title and duties when growing up. He has been very open about his own mental health issues. Losing your mother at such a young age must take a huge toll out of your mental health.

It's not an easy 'job' to be born into. There is enormous wealth and privilege but Not many of us would actually want that level of scrutiny. Harry could walk away if he really wanted to but he seems to have grown into his role now and enjoys his work with charity and organising the Invictus games etc.

The boys actually have much more privacy than their mother did. That said, they do not court the press the way Diana did either. She was the architect of her own unhappiness in many ways.

I'm not sure it is helpful to call Fayed a nut , after all he also lost his son that day.

I agree. Some of these comments are really low.
I understand people saying they didn't understand the mass mourning at the time. That's their prerogative.
But there's no need for so much nastiness and personal comments towards people who have lost their lives and can't defend themselves.
But then, keyboard warriors love threads like this.
It's not so easy for them to troll living celebs any more. They're increasingly getting called out on it and rightly so.
I think that's why there's an increase in slagging dead people off and rubbishing their reputations.
It satisfys their need to be nasty and there's no comeback.

Losing your mother at such a young age must take a huge toll out of your mental health.

There was a programme recently about the effect of a parent's death on a child. They said that the worst age for it to happen was 12 years old. Harry was 12, nearly 13.

I can imagine that he wanted out of the Royal Family whilst he was the spare to William's heir, but now that he is only fifth-in-line I should think that he feels a bit more relaxed about it all.

There was a similar outpouring of grief on the death of Princess Charlotte (only daughter of the Prince of Wales who would become George 1V) She was 21 and died after giving birth to a still born son, in 1817.

purits what a daft statement. Fergies divorce from Andrew wasn't comparable. Andrew didn't have another woman in the background right through the marriage. How odd that you can't imagine the boys being deep down resentful of their father for what they put their mother through. Charles wasn't to blame for their mother's death, but i bet deep down they blame him for it. It's human nature, we always seek to blame.

My understanding is they don't remotely blame their father in fact they have a lot of empathy for him, and supported his second marriage.
That is the picture they present to the world, we are led to believe only what they want us to believe. William and Harry have to tow the line.

I don't understand why someone would be so invested as to hope that two young men resent their father, especially with no evidence at all to support the theory?
Seems a bit unkind!

heartstornastray why are you so desperate to want the princes to secretly blame their father and resent him? Doubt they would have been pleased about him marrying Camilla if that was true.

Look, if you force two people with a large age gap, who don't know each other, to marry, it's hardly a shock that it doesn't work out.

Do you think that the children of the married men Diana slept with during her marriage blame her for anything and everything that has gone wrong in their lives since then?

And it may be human to blame someone. Here is a list of people a bit more realistic than Prince Charles:
Henri Paul for driving drunk and speeding
Trevor Rees-Jones for allowing them to drive drunk
Dodi Fayed for insisting they 'lose the paps'
Mohammed Al Fayed for having shit security in place
The paps for chasing the car

Not some guy who she separated from 4-5 years before any of this happened.

Actually if you are a child of a marriage which you can see was a terrible one, you would be able to see with their own eyes how unhappy both your parents were in it. They are now adults who have had relationships of their own. Why would they blame their father for not sticking with a marriage that both of them were utterly miserable in? Diana was suicidal through most of it. Being trapped in one of the most disastrous unions in recent royal history would have finished her off far earlier. If they blame anyone, their actions and words say that blame the press. The same press that has been desperate to deflect the blame onto Charles for 20 years.

I think it was almost bound to lead to lurid conspiracy theories really. Diana was a beautiful woman with the world at her feet who died too young in a car accident, tragic but an accident. The drunk driver who drove her to her death was dead so there was no one to vent the public anger at.

Similar to President Kennedy, Princess Grace of Monaco, Marilyn Monroe. Thousands die in car accidents every year around the world, but when it happens to someone famous like Diana it shocks the world.

I must admit, when I first heard about it, I did wonder if it was in any way connected to her land mine campaign, because that upset some powerful people. Until I understood that the driver was drunk and she wasn't wearing a seat belt in a car that was driving at ridiculous speeds. Who the hell does that when she has children who need her??

What did sadden me was that Mother Teresa barely got a mention when she died later this week.