If Diana had lived and re-married

[acq80]

As it is coming up to what would have been Diana's 60th birthday, I sometimes wonder if she lived what her life would have turned out like. Obviously its only speculation and we will never know.

If Diana re-married and possibly had more children what effect do you think this would have had on her public image?

Would she still have been a member of the royal family if she re-married and would she still be seen as royal?

www.express.co.uk/news/royal/846259/princess-diana-death-anniversary-marrying-dodi-fayed-royal-family-latest-news/amp

There was definately talks of Diana and Dodi marrying by father Frank Gelli. So i think it would’ve happened. A child. But not lasted.

My DP's mother died when he was around 13 and I think he would have been quite a different person if he hadn't have been through that trauma, I think the princes would be the same.

I think the popularity of the Royals might have been higher if she'd lived. We'd not have seen just how odd that system is. There would have been glamour and jewels and good works for headlines, and secrets kept firmly behind closed doors.

We now know about the Establishment and e.g. Andrew's behaviour, and wonder about what sort of behaviour we don't know about. It is that sort of thing that will bring the monarchy down.

Charles is going to have to pull off a massive PR campaign to keep the Establishment going when the Queen dies and I can't see that any of them have the brains or charisma to make it work. Perhaps William and Kate's kids could, if they are half way bright and photogenic and had decent advisors able to balance tradition with a digital world.

@StarryStarrySocks

Agree she would have been the MIL from hell. But on the plus side, her cursed engagement ring might have stayed in a vault somewhere and not ended up on poor Kate's finger!

I'm so glad someone else has said it. I honestly can't believe he gave her that ring. And I can't believe Kate took it, willingly!
It's also horrifically dated and ugly … think of all the beautiful family jewels she could have had.

William would not have married Kate.
I think she would have found someone rich who wanted to protect her. That is what she was looking for. She would have continued courting the press and there would have continued to be positive and negative stories about her.
Charles would have found it harder to marry Camilla, but would have eventually.
Yes there was negative press, but there was a lot of support amongst the general public for Diana, especially amongst women. There is sometimes an attempt to rewrite history about this. The outpouring for Diana when she died was not just because it was unexpected, but because lots of people did support her.
I am not a Royalist so have no skin in the game. But I do not try and rewrite history. Before she died there was a sale for charity of some of her dresses and that garnered an enormous amount of interest and lots of news stories.

Those of you who don't think William would have married Kate, why do you think that? Did Diana leave jewellery to the boys, saying she hoped it would be used? I haven't looked it up. I have thought that I wished Kate had had her own brand new engagement ring, although I can see why it's nice for the daughters-in-law to wear some of her jewels.

@Tlollj

I wonder what she would have made of Harry deciding to step back? Do you think she would have been a good MIL? I think she would have doted on her grandchildren. Such a shame.

If she hadn't died, Harry almost certainly wouldn't have stepped back - it was hugely to do with the way the media treated his mother that he did so, citing that he doesn't want the same thing to happen to his wife.

@upinaballoon I think William was unsure about marrying Kate. They were seeing each other for years and even lived together. They split up for a bit. This is now sold as them waiting to be sure they were right for each other. But I think although William was interested, she is not the love of his life. But he would be under pressure to get a suitable wife. Kate clearly wanted to marry William.
Diana would have told him to ignore the pressure to marry and not marry unless he was totally smitten.

@upinaballoon

Those of you who don't think William would have married Kate, why do you think that? Did Diana leave jewellery to the boys, saying she hoped it would be used? I haven't looked it up. I have thought that I wished Kate had had her own brand new engagement ring, although I can see why it's nice for the daughters-in-law to wear some of her jewels.

chances are he would not have ended up where he met her. he would have been a different person, so who knows what path he would have taken.

I think it might have helped Camilla. Diana did a lot of good things, but she wasn't a saint, and she's only remembered as one because of her untimely and tragic death. If she'd survived through today, there would probably have been a steady steady stream of very public and intensely dramatic relationships with tycoons and Hollywood stars, more than one additional marriage, and quite a few adultery scandals (on her side). Camilla can't compete with the revisionist history version of Diana's public image, but if Diana had spent the past 20 years paining the town while Camilla was quiet and dignified and stayed out of the spotlight, Camilla would be perceived by many as more suitable to be the next Queen.

It's interesting to think about what impact her survival and possible other children might have had on her sons. I don't doubt that she loved them, but her parentification of William was awful, and it would only have gotten worse as he got older and became a more effective pseudo-parent. Harry seems to have been quite spoiled, above and beyond the norm even for such privileged children, and I doubt he'd have reacted well to a young half-sibling becoming the new center of his mother's world. They'd have been constantly in front of the cameras whenever they were with her, but perhaps without the associated trauma of her death, that wouldn't have affected them as badly as it seems to have affected Harry.

William would still have gone to university and I think St Andrews was the ideal choice for him so he almost certainly would have met Catherine.
I think his hesitancy was mainly about giving her the opportunity to see what she was taking on and really be sure that was what she wanted. Didn't he say as much in their engagement interview.
Yes, they broke up for a bit, I daresay there was a feeling of FOMO and not having fun with other girlfriends. Who knows - maybe Charles suggested he sow a few wild oats. We forget but Charles had A LOT of girlfriends in his twenties, society beauties and a few married women too (remember Kanga? And there was another whose name I have forgotten). In fact thinking about it, the story of Camilla being the love of his life (whilst that may be true now, in the fullness of time) doesn't really ring true for his younger bachelor days. I think he was lucky, there was obviously plenty of press interest but I don't think it was nearly as aggressively intrusive as it is now plus of course there were no mobile phones with cameras and the internet. He had a lot of fun I think for all the royal angst.
Also I think William just wanted to put off royal duties and stay single and although Catherine may have been keen to get on and marry, he didn't want to weigh her down. I think his hesitancy is entirely sensible and honourable. They are a great pair and I am sure he is hugely grateful for the stable family life she has given him.

I think it would have been interesting to see how her role developed. Would she married and lost her royal title? Either way she’d have had prominent places at the weddings of her children and christenings of grandchildren. Would she have been present atCharles’ accession or William’s investiture as Prince of Wales? What would her title have been as King William’s mother?

I think his hesitancy is entirely sensible and honourable.

have to disagree, seems a bit mean to keep someone waiting like that.
maybe he goes by the be mean and keep them keen saying.

@PurpleOkapi nobody though Diana was a saint. A lot of women did seem to identify with her because she was cheated on by Charles. I think it is unfair to say Diana would have had affairs. I think if she had found a man to love and protect her, she would have been very loyal.
Diana was more like Margaret in enjoying nights out and fun. Margaret as she got older faded out of the press and I think the same would have happened to Diana.
I think both Charles and Diana were inadequate parents, but they both had inadequate parents themselves. But by the time Diana died William was at boarding school and 15 years old when Diana died. I think they would have moved more into a friends role, rather than a parent child role. I do not think that is good, but it is common. I think William would have become more distant from Charles and that William and Harry would both avoid Camilla.

A round up of a few of Charles' girlfriends, tactfully omitting the married ones.

www.standard.co.uk/insider/royals/prince-charles-dating-history-lady-diana-sarah-spencer-b71420.html

Yes Charles did not want to marry, he was pressured into it by his family.

Diana was campaigning on land mines when she died. She realised that campaigning on serious issues brought her kudos. I think she would have continued to do this. And maybe it would have helped save lives?
I also think the only people who care about Diana are those who remember her and have formed their own opinions separate from the attempts at rewriting history. Young people don't care.

Diana was more like Margaret in enjoying nights out and fun. Margaret as she got older faded out of the press and I think the same would have happened to Diana.

I was thinking along these lines too, with a bit of Fergie, and then Princess Alice thrown in, in terms of housing and lack of public profile.

Yes Charles did not want to marry, he was pressured into it by his family.

I think an older, more educated and experienced Diana would have understood the score. I’m not sure I could have accepted that, but I don’t move in the circles where it’s the norm.

This lengthy and detailed Vanity Fair article is an interesting account of Diana’s relationships with Haznat Khan and Dodi, and what she was like. It’s well worth a read to get a picture of a complicated and somewhat chaotic woman.

www.vanityfair.com/style/royals/2013/09/princess-diana-love-hasnat-khan

Her former Private Secretary pointed out that her idea of “normal life” was not really normal life, and said this of her:

“She would go on holiday, but after two or three days she was climbing the walls because she needed to be entertained and needed to feed her public persona. She would say, ‘I want to be normal,’ but actually, when it came around to the business of being normal, it is damned inconvenient to have to park your car in a car park.”

The article concludes:

“Even after Diana broke things off with Hasnat, she contacted his family and gave the impression that the two were still together. Both Lady Annabel Goldsmith and Rosa Monckton spoke publicly at the British inquest in 2008 about Diana’s love for Hasnat and the improbability of a serious relationship with Dodi Al Fayed. Monckton was obliged, in her appearance, to reveal that there was no way Diana could have been pregnant with Dodi’s child. Just a week before her trip to Paris with him, Diana had been on the cruise with Monckton and had had her period.”

@altoran I think you're right that with the right man who married her for the right reasons, Diana would have been happy and faithful. But I don't think any of the men who would have pursued her would likely have done so for the right reasons. Being so young when she married Charles for all the wrong reasons on both sides, I'm not sure she'd have known what the right reasons are.

@Kokeshi123

I think she would have ended up being a bit of a mess, to be honest--I' imagining a string of dicey and embarrassing relationships, increasingly desperate attention-seeking behaviors and games with the press, gradual fading from the limelight as she aged (and which she wouldn't have liked at all).

She was a kind-hearted person but she was also emotionally unstable, impulsive and not very bright. I mean, we're seeing it all in Harry right now, frankly.

She's bathed in a kind of lovely rosy light because she died so tragically at quite an early age and because she was treated badly by the RF (which does not in any way negate the fact that she was a fairly dim and difficult person herself).

This is what I think would have happened.

None of the St Diana rubbish that happened because of her early death. An increasingly difficult relationship with her sons as they become embarrassed by her behaviour as teens.

@Serenster interesting you quote about the only negative things about her in the article.
Yes I always thought Hasnet was the love of her life.
And of course Diana did not know what a normal life was like, she was a very rich woman. None of the Royal Family know what a noraml life is like. Although Charles is the worst with a servant who puts his toothpaste on his toothbrush for him.
That article just confirms my impression of the similarity between Diana and Margaret, except Diana was far more interested in charity work and campaigning work than Margaret ever was.

@PurpleOkapi yes true that men who were totally unsuitable for Diana would have pursued her for the wrong reasons. I would have hoped she would have learned though from her love for Hasnet what a decent man was like and identified the rotters more successfully.
Of course we will never know. But it would have been nice if she had ended up with a man who adored and protected her.
I always think she might have ended up with a man not as good looking as her, but who could not believe his luck and would do anything to keep her happy. I think that would have worked well.

I suspect she would have become like Margaret with a crowd who attended small private parties and been happy to be entertained by her. And like Margaret the press would have become less interested in her. People forget just how big in the press Margaret was at the time. But this all inevitable fades.

I didn’t think they were negative? Her lack of any concept of normality means it seems unlikely she would have “settled down” with someone and been happy with a quiet life. No judgment there - as I said, she was obviously a complicated woman. My own view is that she would have struggled with getting older unless something changed drastically - it’s hard to see what that would have been though.

The other quote was just backing up what I had posted earlier - I think it’s unlikely that she would have married Dodi. Even if she had, I don’t think it would have been long lasting relationship.