Can I ask a question about Diana please?

[allmylifewheretheygo]

If Diana was alive now and divorced from Charles, I just wonder what effect it would with a monarch having an ex wife alive and well.

Would Camilla as Queen consort risk being overshadowed by her DH's ex wife?

Also, if Diana remarried what effect would that have on her royal status, would she move out of where she was living at Kensington Palace do you think?

@MargaretThursday Well, as @User1563 said, she was deeply loved, all over the world. So, she could have made her home in another country and escaped some of the worst of the papparazi.

I too don’t think Charles would have married Camilla if Diana was still alive

I also agree that Charles wouldn’t be able to remarry in that case. Diana wouldn’t play any part even if not remarried, a bit similar to Andrew’s ex wife.

Oh no, he’d have to have done. You can’t have a royal mistress these days.

The C of E allows re-marriage now so it’s no longer the issue it was.

But if Diana was around and splitting the popular vote, I’d imagine they’d have stuck t to the original idea of having Camilla as Princess Consort rather than crowning her Queen.

Going back a bit here but it was also used for Margaret Beaufort was it not? Formally?

Married 3 or 4 times? No idea where you got that from. I wonder how old you are, I am about Diana’s age had she lived. I was devastated when she died and I’m not a royalist. She was a lamb to the slaughter poor thing.

I also remember she had a lot of negative publicity before her death. And if you watch any of the documentaries, the man on the street interviews were very critical of her. I don't think that she would be held in such high regard if she were alive today. Right or wrong.

@RJnomore1 i just can’t see William not giving her a title.

No no she was in a relationship with Hasnat Kahn, even I know that. He wouldn’t marry her because she wasn’t Muslim, Dodi was just a rebound fling.

User1563 said

"I haven’t grown up in the U.K. and in my home country she is really loved. I don’t know what her perception was here when she was alive but she was really loved and revered all over the world."

They didn't know what her perception was when she was alive, which is what I was talking about. She may have been deeply loved, or it may have been something that came from death, as it did here.

There was a lot of nastiness towards her which people now gloss over. Not just from the UK, but other places too.

I'd like to think that if she was alive that she'd have found somewhere to live where she could live peacefully without the press hounding her, but I'm not confident she would. Don't forget that it wasn't in the UK that she was being chased when her car crashed-in some ways she may have found it worse in other countries where there may have been less press regulation.

It's not like Diana was afraid of a fling either!

King Henry VIII had Anne of Cleves known as "The Kings Sister" or something. Although a) I'm pretty sure she was never crowned as Queen and b) They didn't divorce, they annulled the marriage, so not sure how relevant that is! Catherine of Aragon was pretty much banished away, but again, it was annulled, and she was known as dowager princess of Wales afterwards. Perhaps that would be the title used? Seems the nearest example unless I'm missing someone obvious.

If Charles dies now before Camilla what title/name would she then have once she is no longer Queen Consort?

This. Just like Sarah, Duchess of York. Who hasn’t been mentioned in this thread yet despite basically being exactly where Diana would be in terms of titles and disappearing from the public eye the way women do when they’re not young and pretty anymore (see also the early Wessex scandals when Sophie was younger vs the way she’s part of the furniture now). The press lose interest in shit stirring after a while unless you are a walking disaster. Even Audrey Hepburn wasn’t really big news by the early 90s and she was working so hard for UNICEF.

I meant “in terms of the format of her titles” not her literal titles, that would be silly.

The Queen would never have consented to Charles marrying Camilla if Diana was still alive. So none of this would arise.

She was granted to be allowed to continue to use the title Diana Princess of Wales so that would have to be reorganised as that title belongs to Kate now, but neither she nor Camilla would be queen at this point.

On taking the throne of course Charles would no longer need his late mother's permission so would make arrangements to marry Camilla if she would still want him, but would have been able to set up Diana with a different title and no edpectation of queenship long before that happened.

@Isausernameavailable
Yes, exactly. Camilla never worked for a living, when she married Peter Parker Bowles, the bride's occupation was left blank, likewise in her current marriage.

Would it be the Dowager Queen?

They didn't know what her perception was when she was alive, which is what I was talking about. She may have been deeply loved, or it may have been something that came from death, as it did here.

I think there was a lot of affection for her while she was alive, both here and abroad. It's a little late to dig up quotes, but people did not grieve for a person they disliked or because they felt guilty. They grieved because she was a person who always engaged with the suffering, the vulnerable and the outcast when she met them. And because she was still young and had left two sons motherless. And because she was quite unprotected at the time of her death, left with one bodyguard to keep the press at bay. Other reasons, too, no doubt, but certainly she was not disliked in her life, of people would not have mourned her. Nor would they have demanded the queen acknowledge her death in a speech, as you may remember. Who knows if another country might have protected her better? I think it is possible.

King stepmother lol

My MIL is not a royalist at all but she still refers to Camilla as the other woman. Tonight she couldn’t even bring herself to say that and referred to her as it.

If Diana was still alive I think Camilla would be taking a much much back seat - I don’t think that would overly bother Camilla, except right now he does need his wife for support.

Katherine of Aragon was known as that because she had been married to Henry VIII's older brother who was POW when he died. Henry's claim for the divorce/annulment rested on him (apparently) being struck by conscience that the marriage to his brother had been consummated, decades earlier (when in actuality it was the fact he didn't have a male heir with Katherine who was by then too old and he was also obsessed by Anne Boleyn)

It makes the situation with Meghan, Harry, Camilla et al look extremely tame

Yes yes. I meant I am not aware of the negative press in the U.K. but in my home country and across several others where my family is spread she was deeply loved when alive and still is to this day.
she came to our middle of nowhere village school. People’s Princess and all that.
I just love her . sad she had such a short and traumatic life.

It's not the same. The HRH and the 'the' make it different.

Diana and Katherine, as married women, were/are both HRH The Princess of Wales. Only once divorced did the former become Diana, Princess of Wales. It would be incorrect to use that pattern for the current one. Formally her first name is never used. Informally I suppose she could be Katherine, HRH The Princess of Wales.

I wonder if the difference between Diana and Catherine would have been that Diana became a Princess of Wales, as Charlotte is now, I guess, and Catherine would be the Princess of Wales

Charlotte is different as she is a princess by birth not marriage, so her first name appears. She is HRH Princess Charlotte of Wales.

Thank you! I knew she was married to the elder brother first, but I didn't realise the title came from him. I thought the title came from Henry.
Can you imagine if internet/social media/mumsnet had been around in the 1500s while Henry was doing all that he did?! 😬