Diana, Princess of Wales

British royalty, daughter of the 8th Earl of Spencer with excellent lineage that dates back to the 15th century, the 11th cousin once removed to Prince Charles, heir to the throne of the U.K. She was seven when her parents separated in 1969 and she and her brother Charles stayed with their father after a bitter custody battle. Though the family was not demonstrative, she adored her dad. A shy, insecure child, she was raised largely by nannies. When she was nine, Mary Clarke became her governess and they remained friends for the rest of her life. She loved to swim and ride. When her dad met Raine Cartland, it was a major blow to her security; the family nicknamed their stepmother Acid Raine. Diana was already in boarding school in Kent when her dad married Raine in 1975. Not a scholar, she did well in ballet and piano, and was exceptional when visiting the handicapped in the hospital with an innate sense of sympathy and care. In November 1980, she met Prince Charles, whom she already idolized. After going to finishing school in Switzerland, she was living in a flat in London that she had bought with a trust fund which had matured when she turned 18. She was working at a nursery, showing a natural skill with kids. Her older sister, Sarah, dated Charles but when they did not connect and Diana was an appropriate choice. Charles was being pressured by the palace to find a bride who had suitable lineage and qualifications to sit on the throne of England as his queen. She had to be able to handle the constant public scrutiny, have an aristocratic background, and be a virgin. Diana qualified on all counts. After five months engagement, they married at St. Pauls Cathedral on 29 July 1981, 11:17:30 AM GDT. The London procession was hailed by 600,000 people, prior to their two-week cruise on the Mediterranean. The first of their two sons was born 11 months later on 21 June 1982, Prince William , followed by Prince Henry on 15 September 1984. The marriage that appeared to be a story-book-romance was stressed from the beginning. The public was obsessed with her and the media put unrelieved attention on her every move. Not strongly secure in herself, she leaned on Charles for continual reassurance, a role to which he was unaccustomed and indifferent. He either resumed, or continued, his relationship with his mistress, Camilla Parker-Bowles, while Diana twisted in the net. She had begun a pattern of bulimia before the marriage, and was emotional and unstable. She took tranquilizers and was often depressed to the point of feeling suicidal. Her anorexia increased with a spiral of nerves, shaking and in the grip of ferocious mood swings. Her biographer, Sally Bedell Smith, argues that Diana suffered from a fairly common, but often elusive, mental illness called borderline personality disorder, the symptoms of which include impulsiveness, feelings of abandonment and an inability to sustain relationships. Nonetheless, Diana stepped up to her public duty of presenting an immaculate image. She was introduced to the world of fashion and began to develop her own sense of glamour. She had a gift of reaching people, especially kids and the sick and dying, with a genuine empathy for those in pain. She knew instinctively how to turn to the one in need, and how to relate to the wounded. Though she was often seen in tears in her private life, in public she was poised as she learned her role of attending charities, openings, polo matches, o Read less