Was Princess Diana really as saintly as Harry (in particular) and the media make her out to be?

[Nosleepforthismum]

Just curious really to hear from those that remember the news coverage from when she was alive. I was only a kid when she died but some of her behaviour i.e. the Martin Bashir interview seems a little … dare I say, twatty? Is it not a basic unwritten rule that when you have kids with someone and then you split/get divorced you don’t slag off the other parent? I find it an interesting decision that she did that interview despite knowing the global interest it would generate and seemingly not giving a damn about how it would impact her kids.

This ☝🏼

And apparently the garbage (Harry) doesn't fall far from the truck!

No, no by is saintly. She married young, but she was very media savvy once her marriage crumbled, photo ops in the right places to to build her new narrative. Then her life was cut short and the expression never speak ill of the dead springs to mind. (Do those statements that get released o after premature death ever say "they were academically average, a bit moody and liked to get their own way? No eulogies are idealised perhaps jimmy saville aside)

She was a once in a generation star. Even now there is no one on the planet that comes close to having her global fame or adulation across generations. The young and old knew her alike.
She was the most photographed women ever, there was literally not a day that went by that she wasn't in the newspapers.
They say the Beckhams would never have become as popular if she hadn't died as they filled the void that she left behind for the newspapers
Harry tries almost obsessively to align his wife with his mother, Diana mark two but she will never come close to her. No one could. I think that is part of the problem for them, they thought she would be the new Diana and when that didn't instantly happen its when it all fell apart.

She had an affair with Will Carling shortly after he married Julia Carling and it broke their marriage up. She also pursued Oliver Hoare when he was married and his wife was a friend of hers. She was far from a saint.

She was a damaged person who was badly treated and placed in an impossible position both in childhood and as a young adult - flawed but often meant well. She should have been left alone to grow up, not selected like a breeding mare before she had time to mature. She was not ready. She was rejected by her mother and had been rejected by her husband before she had the chance to heal.

Nope. she used 'visiting sick kids' at the brompton as a cover for her obsession with the cardiac surgeon Khan and was lauded in the media as the queen of hearts for it.
Anyone who uses sick kids for their own gain is not on my list of good people

She should have been left alone to grow up, not selected like a breeding mare before she had time to mature.

I think this is it. She had barely a gap to develop between her dysfunctional childhood and her dysfunctional marriage.

I couldn't agree more. I could never understand the hysteria about Diana. I realise she was young when she married Charles, but she came from an extremely aristocratic family and had mingled with the royal family all of her life, so could hardly have not realised what her life would be like when she married him. I left home at 18 and started my own life with the man I went on to marry, and I most certainly knew exactly what I was doing at that age. Diana was hardly an innocent child when she married, and must have known what she was letting herself in for. She went on to have numerous affairs, and took advantage of every press opportunity. I was also always baffled by the number of people who thought she was such a beauty - countless women could look way better than her if they had access to the resources and support that she had after her marriage.

She tried to play the media and got stung. She "stage managed" various things such as turning up at a hospital to talk to patients that was leaked to the media so that it turned into a media opportunity! She basically tried to use the media for her own advantage but then tried to avoid them when it didn't suit her, i.e. when she was having affairs and afraid of getting caught. The media don't work like that.

The rest of the Royal family know how to deal with the media. You respect and work with them, give them a few snippets of harmless gossip and few photo opportunities and they leave you alone the rest of the time. The media know that if they break that respect, then they won't be "invited" to future events and photo opportunities! Such as George's first day of school - stage managed and pre-arranged with a kind of unwritten rule/respect that the media won't turn up the next day, and the next, etc.

Unfortunately Harry and Megan have fallen into exactly the same trap of trying to manipulate the media for their own advantage, and exactly as happened with Diana, the media won't put up with it and that mutual two way respect is lost, it becoming a free for all "anything goes" situation.

The media are powerful and need to be fed titbits to keep them on side. They turn on you otherwise.

I often wonder the same OP. Like you, I'm too young to remember it all and the way people describe her has always been very mismatched with the things I'd read about her life.

I know the crown isn't real, but after watching it I really disliked her character and felt myself warm to Charles.

Diana was hardly an innocent child when she married

Wasn't she famously a virgin? Can hardly have been that worldly.

Yes! All those silent phone callsto Oliver Hoare, or his wife-can't remember which.

And that bonkers time she sat in on all the heart surgeries-and was pictured, obvs (with all the eye makeup) when she fancied Hasnat Khan.

Also, my mum died young and I definitely deify her. I think it's normal when a child is grieving a parent who has died young.

I agree, @WoolyMammoth55 . He sees her through a child’s eyes. I’m sure she was a lovely Mum, but no one’s perfect. I don’t think he accepts that (perhaps his brother does?)

She talked about there being three people in her marriage but then went on to be the third person in other people's marriages.

Wasn't she famously a virgin? Can hardly have been that worldly in the early 80's that wasn't that unusual.

And she was also well known for making a friend flavour of the month, and then abruptly turning on them.

I can’t get pass all the affairs. Sorry!
she had a baby and toddler when it all started,

probably not but I'd say it meant that as a 19 year old virgin that she had a far more romantic view of her upcoming wedding and marriage than Charles did. He knew the score.

Sadly, I think Diana is the third person in Harry's marriage. I find it deeply uncomfortable.

Back then, people had a little more respect for themselves and most women didn't sleep around like they do today. It wasn't at all unusual to still be a virgin when you got married, and certainly not unusual to be a virgin at 18. The fact that she supposedly was still a virgin when she married has nothing to do with whether or not she was worldly and knew what she was doing.

I was sitting quite close to her once in real life. She was captivating, you couldn't stop looking at her.

I don't understand how a woman who's husband has cheated on her could herself accept being the other woman in someone else's marriage- knowing all pain and suffering affairs cause.

But isn't that true of all famous people?

I saw Bez at a station and couldn't help but look over.

Of course that's his view she was his beloved mum and he was only young when she died. I'm sure like.most ppl she did good and bad at times