Royal style & gossip: tiaras, tantrums and totty

[QueenOfTheAndals]

Sorry, just not my day and I dropped the ball again!

Link to previous thread

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11319317/Bill-Shand-Kydd-obituary.html

Don’t know if this is of interest to anyone. Diana’s Mother’s BIL and Lord Lucan.

Churchill's father was the younger son of a Duke of Marlborough. Diana descends from them too so they were distantly related. There were various Diana Spencers around in past times too who were close to the monarchy, I think one nearly got engaged to the heir to the throne.

Sorry guys, was out for the day. Diana told those stories herself, she dictated them into a tape recorder for Andrew Morton and they're on public record. She was giving them as an example of how "desperate" she was, but truth be told, it sounds like everyone else around her must have been equally desperate.

Yes, she was sent to two psychiatrists in turn. She didn't like either and stopped going to both. She hadn't wanted to go to a psychiatrist in the first place. She didn't think she needed them and seemed bullish about them. Her grandmother gave her valium to take, but she refused to take them.

I don't know if either of those psychiatrists got a chance to get to know her well enough to diagnose her. There's nothing in the public arena, except a lot of armchair diagnoses based on her own tapes. Usually its personality disorder that rises to the top. We will probably never know.

Eating disorders affect the skin of many young people so perhaps "genes" was as much her secret as "youth".

It sounds in hindsight that the RF really thought the eating disorder was the root problem. Diana said that the staff knew, that it was well known. I suspect she didn't keep it a massive secret, it was her nature to demonstrate her pain. I suspect they really had no idea it was much bigger than the bulimia.

On another part of the tapes she said she was looking for Charles to be a "father figure" to her. She was bitterly disappointed and resentful that he wasn't. That's all kinds of fucked up, tbh.

Article on headbands... it's official. They're A Thing.

www.theguardian.com/fashion/2019/mar/14/schools-out-how-headbands-leapt-from-classroom-to-catwalk

No mention of Catherine though. She woz robbed.

It's not surprising Diana behaved as she did. She was little more than a child with no life experience when she married a man she hardly knew who was much older, and pretty screwed up himself. She found out he was in love with another woman fairly early on, something which was common knowledge. They had nothing in common, and his friends were all much older and pretty dreary. She was thrust into a life she had not been prepared for and her fun loving, warm personality had no outlet. Stuck in stuffy rooms with staff watching her every move and Charles not making much effort (according to her), no outlets, no chance to be normal young woman doing normal things. Pregnant within three months , no one to turn to turn to to talk things through , isolated and bored. Her mother was a distant, cold figure, her sisters not close or sympathetic. Her friends left behind.
She had had a very dysfunctional family life and was already insecure. She was looking for security, lots of love and a sense of belonging. She didn't get any of that in the RF who couldn't understand her and couldn't support her. The attitude of the Queen's generation was 'just get on with , don''t complain, keep smiling'. Emotional intelligence is not their strong point.

I would have thrown myself down the stairs too. Her bulimia was a symptom of the distress she was in.

I didn’t know it was that bad , poor thing. She was still a child married to a much older man who didn’t know how to deal with her.

I find it interesting that both sons have chosen wives so very different - in every sense - from Diana.

She was a very damaged woman, I think. I'm not sure any man would ever have given her what she craved.

Her protestations about how awful it was to be cheated on ring rather hollow when she had at least 2 affairs with married men and caused their marriages to end.

I always felt rather sorry for her. Even as a child I didn't buy into the "fairytale" crap.

And - this is simply my view - she would have been the mil from hell!

Either the MiL from hell or she'd have loved Meghan but hated Kate for marrying her PFB!

No I suspect she would have struggled to have a mundane domestic relationship with anyone. She seemed to crave massive highs.

She had already fallen in love with Barry Manakee as early as 1984, he was a proper father figure and was head over heels. And then there was just this long succession of men she built up to idols in her head, and each "let her down" (with the exception of Manakee who she seriously thought was murdered).

It was just highs and lows, highs and lows, obsession followed by "betrayal".

She could be very vicious to people she was previously close to, and for silly reasons mostly.

Sarah fergusson?

I think she would have found Kate becoming PofW VERY difficult!

Im sure she would also have struggled with 2 such young beautiful women "outshining" her so to speak.

I also think she would also have made further poor choices wrt going to the media and doing "tell alls".

I'm convinced one of the reasons William is with Kate is how very discreet she is. She knows her place.

Which is a good job. William strikes me as someone who can be quite petulant. Again, a product of his childhood.

I agree Diana has shaped the wives her sons have picked. Both strong women with a cores of steel.

I think it's interesting that her sons chose strong, loyal women too. I think perhaps William was very very careful to choose a woman with lots of support who was stable and could keep her mouth shut. I suspect he was in dread of having a failed marriage himself.
Harry seems to have been drawn to Meghan as a woman who professes to care about similar causes and be a humanitarian. Time will tell if this really is the case or it's all just soundbites.

I think Kate’s stable family life was a huge draw for William.
Apparently he calls Carole and Michael Mum and Dad.
The whole family are pretty discreet.
There’s only been 2 interviews in all these years.
Carole on 30 years of her business and James on mental

Years ago I read that Johnnie Spencer was an excellent grandfather.
He used to set up stalls in the hall of Althorp so the Spencer cousins play sweet shops.
I think when he died in 1992, it all unravelled for Diana.

Apparently he calls Carole and Michael Mum and Dad

How do you know that?

I think Kate would have managed Diana very well. Kate is not one to seek out the spotlight. She defers to William all the time. The 10 years waiting for him were all part of that.
She is a wife from a different generation; that’s why we find her « type behaviour a bit difficult to swallow.
However as the RF is 50 years behind everyone else; they love it.

Some article about when William goes to the Middletons. He likes Carole’s roast dinners and Michael dresses up in sumo costume on Xmas day for a laugh. Of course it could all be bollocks!

Ps,

@QueenOfTheAndals
Time for a new thread please!

Where’s the new thread?!

Kate is so discreet we know next to nothing about her, which is amazing considering all the new media around now. There was a funny thread asking what people thought of her, all we can really say (surely) is she’s dutiful and discreet. Agree she seems from a different era but don’t think that’s a bad thing necessarily- almost helps with the “prestigious distance” between them and us

I'm on it! Don't anyone post til I've got the new thread up!

New thread as shiny as Kate's hair...

Going

Going

Gone!