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?

I sometimes wonder if Diana's bitter obsession with Tiggy Legge-Bourke was partly rooted in envy for a life she had lined up for herself, before she crossed paths with Prince Charles: looking after young children for a well-connected family, some skiing, some house parties, then marriage and children of her own in a country pile with a tennis court. Whether she'd actually have been happy with that either, though, who knows.

I do not think she would have married Dodi.
She went out with Hasnet for two years and I think would have married him if he had wanted to marry her. Being married does not mean you have to have a quiet life. It does not mean you cant campaign, do charity work or court the press. But with a man who loved and protected her, she would have been much happier.

“Although Charles is the worst with a servant who puts his toothpaste on his toothbrush for him”

@altoran that story has been debunked so many times. Prince Charles needed his valet to put his toothpaste on his toothbrush temporarily when he had an arm in a sling after injuring his shoulder in a polo accident. Of course he has no concept of normality either (none of those born royal would have, I imagine) - silly stories aren’t needed to make that point!

I doubt if she would have married Dodi. much as his dad wanted it to happen.
Diana was very popular when she died.

Diana was doing ground breaking work for people with HIV and those in war areas with her work on banning landmines.

No one else in the Rf comes close to this type of impact!

I like to think that if she were alive today, she would be leading an international effort on cyber bullying, sex trafficking, war crimes with massive outreach and impact.

Regarding the engagement ring, I believe Diana left it to Harry, but he graciously gave it to William for Kate. Personally I think it suits Kate more than Diana.

I'm another thinking Margaret's media fate would be most similar with bit of Fergie and campaigning thrown in.

I also think she'd have been a difficult MIL and family member - I don't think Charles would have re-married.

I don't think she'd be happy unless the move to the states led her to some form of therapy that actaully helped her. I think the smart move would have been to marry money and fade away gracefully but I think she'd have been too bitter and angry to do that.

@Gorgeouslilgirl I could have imagined her getting involved in highlighting the Rotherham sexual abuse scandal. She like unpopular causes that afected children and underdogs. I think she could have carried on doing a lot of good.
I never thought Diana was a saint, few people do. I suspect I would not get on with her personally if we had met as she always struck me as a woman who got on better with men than other women. But she genuinely did great stuff with AIDS crisis and I think would have carried on making a real difference. I also think her work would have continued to highlight how useless the rest of the Royal Families charity work really is.
I also think the Royal Family would have tried to undermine her continually planting negative stories.
Harry's mental health would have been far better. He was very young to lose his mother and seems to have had no specialist help to deal with this bereavement.

@DeepThinkingGirl

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.

Fr Frank Gelli is a total nutter, though -- he's pretty much the Paul 'I was her rock' Burrell of Anglicanism, only with added spiritual conspiracy theories, selling his self-published books (and publicising a mildly mad blog called Father Frank's Rants which sounds off about Barack Obama, Islam, and Catholicism) off the back of what he claims was his role as Diana's 'spiritual adviser' and claiming his house was burgled and his papers stolen, and that 'powerful people' didn't like what he knew about Diana, but that he can't say any more than that.

This article (in which he says he has no doubt Dodi and Diana would have married had they lived, also says how 'sexy' he found her when she first appeared in his Kensington church, says she is suffering in the 'flames of Purgatory' and has appeared to him since her death, inspiring and correcting his writing), appeared in New Dawn, an online conspiracy theory magazine.

www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/princess-diana-the-priest-messages-from-the-spirit-world

I wouldn't take anything he said particularly seriously.

The Amazon free preview of his self-published Diana book is enjoyably bonkers -- it features letters from a dead Diana climbing a mountain in Purgatory, signing herself 'Love, Duch', saying she found the idea of going to confession to Fr Gelli 'titillating' and wishing she could ruffle Harry's hair from Purgatory, while complaining that William has none left and saying 'Not my genes!'

Right.

GloriousMystery

Good grief! I better check my sources next time. That sounds bonkers

I think Dodi was a rebound from Hasnet. Al Fayed was understandably devastated by his son's death and as part of his grief I think created this star crossed lovers narrative.
Or alternatively Dodi was totally smitten with Diana and gave the impression to his father that they would marry.
I think as Diana got a bit older and press attention started to fade, that may have been when she would have had more chance of meeting someone who was right for her.

I reckon she would have had 15 years or do as the big press draw for the Royal Family though, even so - assuming a vaguely similar trajectory for William and Harry they would be unlikely to marry anyone before their 30s, meaning there would have been no young woman in the royal family to draw attention in the way Diana did, and would surely have continued to do in her 40s?

@randomlyLostInWales

I'm another thinking Margaret's media fate would be most similar with bit of Fergie and campaigning thrown in.

I also think she'd have been a difficult MIL and family member - I don't think Charles would have re-married.

I don't think she'd be happy unless the move to the states led her to some form of therapy that actaully helped her. I think the smart move would have been to marry money and fade away gracefully but I think she'd have been too bitter and angry to do that.

If anything, Diana's death delayed Charles's remarriage. A long and gradual plan to rehabilitate Camilla in the press opinion was well underway at the point of Diana's death. The press condemnation of Diana's relationship with Dodi took some of the focus off Camilla, who had been seen as the villain of the piece ever since the Andrew Morton book.

Diana's death put Diana firmly back on a pedestal as an ill-used heroine. Some people indirectly blamed Camilla for her death (i.e. if Camilla and Charles hadn't had an affair, Diana would still be with Charles - highly unlikely though that is). This stalled the campaign to improve Camilla's image as she had little choice but to keep a low profile in the immediate aftermath of Diana's death.

It took seven years before the idea of a marriage was deemed acceptable in the public eye - I think if Diana hadn't died, it probably would have happened in half that time.

@Serenster

“Although Charles is the worst with a servant who puts his toothpaste on his toothbrush for him”

@altoran that story has been debunked so many times. Prince Charles needed his valet to put his toothpaste on his toothbrush temporarily when he had an arm in a sling after injuring his shoulder in a polo accident. Of course he has no concept of normality either (none of those born royal would have, I imagine) - silly stories aren’t needed to make that point!

My father was valet to an Earl. Not only did he put toothpaste on the brush, he also ironed the morning paper - AND stitched it together. I'm talking 1930s here.

Regarding the engagement ring, I believe Diana left it to Harry, but he graciously gave it to William for Kate. Personally I think it suits Kate more than Diana.
Diana didn’t leave the ring to anyone. William and Harry were invited to chose a price each after her death. William chose her Cartier watch and Harry chose the ring. When William got engaged, he and Harry swapped. I don’t think there is any truth in superstitious nonsense surrounding the ring. Diana loved it and still wore it after her divorce. I would imagine that William would have checked that Kate was ok with having it, especially as he had to swap with Harry to get it 🤷‍♀️

I think Diana would have waged a war on Camilla in the press if marriage looked likely that's why I think marriage wouldn't have happened.

Though I agree the sudden death and reaction did lead to a long campaign to rehabilitate Camilla in the public eye and that did take a long time and some of that was the change in perception of Diana post her death.

@Kanitawa

I think that’s a bit of an overstatement. But I agree I think her soon to be king son being raised with half Arab or half Asian siblings would’ve been a bit dramatic for the royal family The head of the Church of England having Muslim siblings? That’s more than “a bit dramatic”.

From what I know of the C of E (which is a fair bit) they would have LOVED the titular head having Muslim half-sibs. "See how inclusive we are" Better still, the Daily Mail would have hated it

Choose a piece, not a price 🙄

Though I agree the sudden death and reaction did lead to a long campaign to rehabilitate Camilla in the public eye

The plan to rehabilitate Camilla was underway long before Diana's death. She'd already appeared for the first time in public with Charles. She was due to host a high-profile charity event with Charles a few days after Diana's death, which was obviously cancelled.

Diana's death stalled the campaign - it wasn't until the aftermath had subsided that Camilla and Charles were able to resume it.

If you look at the most likely candidates for a Muslim half-sibling for William and Harry, if Haznat Khan, Diana and her future children may well have been predominantly living in Pakistan, much like Jemima Khan had done when married to Imran Khan. If Dodi Al Fayed - well, the rich playboy wasn’t exactly the most devout Muslim, and if he and Diana had divorced then half-siblings wouldn’t really have been that controversial, surely? And I agree, I think the drama would have come from the press, not the family.

@randomlyLostInWales Diana was not waging a war against Camilla when she died. Why would she have started to do this after she was already divorced?

William would not have married Kate if Diana had lived, but if he had, Kate would have compared poorly next to Diana. Diana always wore modern clothing relevant to her age. Kate would have looked even more frumpy and old-fashioned in comparison.

@Serenster I really do not think Diana would have had children with Dodi. I think she would have had with Hasnet if he wanted them. But I think she would only have had more children if she met another man she was head over heels in love with. I also think she would have been very careful before marrying again. I think she would not have wanted a second divorce so would have been careful that this was the right man.

Diana and Dodi wouldn't have married. Charles and Camilla wouldn't have married and Charles may have just remained publicly single.

Diana would have had a series of short, unstable relationships but not re-married. She would have become a humanitarian but also chased fame to the utmost. The RF would have waged war against Diana by constantly leaking stories to the press to paint her as unstable, while pretending to publicly ignore her.

William and Kate wouldn't have gotten married. A big part of the draw for him was the normalcy and stability the Middleton family offered him and the fact both Kate and Carole mothered him and acted as replacement mother figures. I never bought the ten year wait was for Kate's benefit because she's the one who stalked him and was obviously desperate to become future queen, and he's the one who dragged his feet, broke it off, and jumped on tables shouting I'm Free. He married her because he had to get married and she was the one who hung in and made clear she was dedicated to him and would tolerate all the crap and craziness of being a royal wife, and because of the stability the Middletons gave him. If Diana was still around he wouldn't need that.

I actually think Diana would really like Meghan because they are very similar and both stood up to the RF. But they would have had conflict and competed to be top dog because they're so similar. However if Diana hadn't died Harry would never have met Meghan much less married her. Diana likely would have encouraged him to build his own life more and perhaps he would have wound up living abroad and working anyway, but without there being a big dramatic flounce. Without Meghan the RF would have been okay with letting Harry have the 'half in half out' kind of thing the Yorks have and maybe he'd have lived somewhere in Africa and landed a job as figurehead for some charity but come back to the UK all the time for royal events.

@DeepThinkingGirl

GloriousMystery

Good grief! I better check my sources next time. That sounds bonkers

He does seem a proper loon. In fairness, though, it's perfectly possible they did have have some form of relationship -- Diana had a taste for dubious healer/astrologist/spiritual nonsense peddlers.