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.

Which of us are saints on here?

Quite!

She wasn't very nice to her stepmother. There's a report of her pushing her over and causing her to fall downstairs.

Didn't the stepmother have Althorp carpeted throughout? I'm not saying she deserved to be pushed down a (carpeted) stairs for that, but I can understand the urge.

I think the majority of people thought she was wonderful and a breath of fresh air but a significant minority thought she was manipulative and unstable. When she died everyone went a bit mad but, again, a significant minority were completely perplexed by the over reaction.

I was 25 in 1997, I watched her funeral with my boyfriend and house mate. Me and the boyfriend were generally quite neutral about her but her death was so shocking we felt compelled to watch. My housemate thought we were insane and couldn't understand the kerfuffle. He got really bored and frustrated in the end, wanted to leave the house but there was nowhere to go as all the shops and pubs had closed so he just had to sit in the armchair swearing

She was lovely to the staff, they all liked her (unlike him and his wife) so she was probably a good person.

Those saying she was dim ..she wasn't academic but she sure was canny. She had charisma but was volatile and could be incredibly cruel. She was fascinating in many ways & very newsworthy but people were tiring of her at the time of her death and she was clearly a bit 'full on' when she found a man attractive. She came across as being a bit unpredictable and mercurial.
Someone I knew very well taught her at West Heath and said she was very unhappy at home and often asked to stay at school through the holidays (not that she ever did). They also said she could be quite manipulative and not averse to emotional blackmail. She did not like not getting her own way.
Harry is right: there's a lot of his mother in him.

Also, my auntie knew a spiritual medium she used to visit and Diana definitely had a strong interest in the woo!

@Butteredtoast55 Diana was a very unhappy child when she was at school. Unhappy children try and manipulate adults to get their needs met. This is not being a manipulative person. It is about having a lack of power.
I am actually taken aback that anyone working with children could describe an unhappy child in such a way - and not wanting to go home is a sign of a very unhappy child.

It is well documented that Diana was a believer of woo.
Interestingly so is Prince Philip and Harry.

Sorry! Not Philip but Charles.

They had a very volatile relationship when Diana was a child. Diana's father won custody and she lived with her father and stepmother.
Diana was a child when she reportedly pushed her down the stairs. I am not sure just how much she actually fell.
But both became friends as adults and they had an amicable relationship.

She wasn’t a saint but she did so much good whether it’s land mines, children charities or HIV charities.

She did her best in extremely difficult circumstances. She was a lamb to slaughter & even the BBC lied to her to secure the interview.

@BradfordGirl
I agree that her unhappy childhood really impacted her for life and the person who taught her was very well aware of this too. However, the reasons for a child/young adult and the subsequent adult they become behaving manipulatively doesn't mean that it isn't manipulative. Nor that it isn't hurtful to the people at the receiving end.
We also know much more about the impact childhood trauma has now than they did in the 70s so I'm surprised you're taken aback that someone born in the 1920s and teaching in a private school wasn't 100% attuned to the modern views on adverse childhood experiences.

@Butteredtoast55 You did not say the staff member was in their seventies. I had assumed someone a bit younger to be honest.
I do not like labelling children as a liar or manipulative or a thief for example, most people now talk about behaviour rather than labelling a child.
Children hurt other children and adults sometimes on purpose sometimes by accident. They are children and it is up to adults to teach them better.

Diana wasn’t a child when she pushed Raine down some stairs, she was twenty-seven.

Diana was fifteen when her father married Raine, so even the stairs incident took place then, Diana was not a young child and old enough to know better.

Raine was badly bruised.

I think the media was very cruel to her but people forget who her family were. She was brought up going to the same parties as the queen's children and the rest of the royal family. She knew what she was getting into.
She also received lessons on how to handle the media but she chose to live in places where there is plenty of media. She, like Harry did interviews and sold stories. It's a choice they both made.

I feel if she didn't like the limelight she could have moved somewhere less populated and lived an almost normal life. She had a lot of money to do so.

This!!!

She threw herself down the stairs pregnant to try and get some attention from her husband. Come on 🙄

I personally think she thought she could change her husband and he would end up picking her over Camila because she was obviously beautiful.

Then she very tragically died young and is now a saint forever.

Saint no..sinner no..troubled yes.

Multiple affairs due to her husbands lack of love/affection, while he gives it to someone else, and no uproar about that!

I am no royalist, have little interest apart from gossip/scandal however, Diana is sanctified in my head, she got a raw deal, and I don't care that she spilt the beans, not enough beans either IMHO

I love her, she can do no wrong in my eyes..her ex husband on the other hand

And I thought the wicked stepmother really was a wicked stepmother?

Sorry if I wasn't clear,@BradfordGirl she was in her 50s IN the 70s when she taught Diana. She's no longer alive, sadly (she'd be scandalised by the current drama and would have very strong opinions on all of it!)
I've seen now I've read more of the thread that you have a problem with the word 'manipulative' and I can see your reasoning. I think men can be described as manipulative but you're right, it's often dressed up as Machiavellian or scheming, as if its somehow clever and charismatic.

Those saying she was dim ..she wasn't academic but she sure was canny

Yes. She was no fool.

I'm sure when the selection committee were shuffling through files of prospective brood mares they saw Diana's lack of academic prowess as a plus point. They thought she'd be a nice placid girl without too many opinions who'd pop out an heir and smile nicely at public appearances.

@kimwexlersponytail Great user name! It's fascinatingly bouncy.

@Butteredtoast55 Ah sorry that makes more sense.

@Butteredtoast55 There are always some people around children who have old fashioned ideas. Like people now who think ADHD does not exist and children are just naughty. Sad, but unavoidable.

It is the spirit of Diana, inserting meaningful pauses between your sentences, gazing upwards through her lashes all the while.
Brilliant