Last year, right after I finished reading Finding Freedom, I picked up my copy of Tina Brown’s The Diana Chronicles, which Brown wrote ten years after Princess Diana’s death, with a hindsight-heavy assessment of what actually happened throughout Diana’s royal days. I’ve said before that The Diana Chronicles is one of my favorite Diana books, and re-reading it after Finding Freedom was bittersweet. I was reminded of Diana’s happiness and freedom in the last year of her life, her dreams of the future, her desire to start a new chapter, likely away from England and away from the oppressive royal family. Those dreams were cut short in a Paris tunnel. More than 23 years later, her younger son sat down with Oprah after he followed his mother’s path and learned the same painful lessons. Diana was mentioned throughout the Oprah interview, but these were the most poignant parts:
Later in the interview, the subject of Harry’s own mother came up, with Oprah asking how he thinks the late Princess Diana would have felt about the rifts that drove them to step back from the Royal Family.
“I think she would feel very angry with how this has panned out, and very sad,” Harry said. “But, ultimately, all she’d ever want is for us to be happy. I’m just really relieved and happy to be sitting here with my wife by my side. Because I can’t even begin to imagine what it must have been like for [Diana] going through this process by herself all those years ago. Because it was been unbelievably tough for the two of us, but at least we have each other. My biggest concern was history repeating itself. And what I was seeing was history repeating itself, but far more dangerous[ly] because you add race in, you add social media in.”
But Harry went on to reveal that he and Meghan never would have been able to step back from the Royal Family had Diana not left him an inheritance before her untimely death in 1997. Prince Harry and Prince William were both left around $8 million by their mother. The money was invested and gathered interest, with Harry inheriting around $13 million on his 30th birthday in 2014.
Harry explained that he and Meghan were “cut-off” financially from the Royal Family in early 2020 when they first announced their intention to step away from life as working royals, and relied on this inheritance for the last year.
“I’ve got what my mum left me and without that, we would not have been able to do this,” he said of their new life in Santa Barbara. “Touching back on what you asked about what my mum would think of this — I think she saw it coming. I certainly felt her presence throughout this whole process.”
I gasped when Harry said “I think she saw it coming.” I’m not sure if Diana could have predicted this for her younger son, the one she nicknamed Good King Harry, the one she thought would have been more temperamentally suited for the role of monarch, more than her older son. I do think Diana would have been so proud of Harry though. She would have been so proud to see him stand up for Meghan and Archie, and to stand up to the Windsor clan. And he’s also right that Diana would be BEYOND furious at Charles, William and the institution. She would be raging at all of them for doing this to her son.
Diana got the last word.
— Camilla Blackett (@camillard) March 8, 2021
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red.
Harry is so much like her, she probably knew he also wouldn’t thrive in that family.
agree 100%
That’s why she left him a lot of money so he could flee when the time was right.
She left him (and William) a lot of money because she died at 36 years old.
It wasn’t some idea that she wanted to give him money to escape.
She just died young.
She should be turning 60 in a few months, living on that money right now.
MissMarieRose, I see where you are coming from, but had Diana lived, Harry would have had a different upbringing and different opportunities, and he would have had his mother there to guide and protect him through it all. Had Diana lived, she would have been profiting from investments and maintaining a steady income and increase of wealth. She chose to leave him a sufficient sum of money to ensure his independence and protection should she pass away. People make wills and form trusts knowing they could die young or unexpectedly and wanting to be prepared and take care of their loved ones. Diana escaped herself. She of all people would understand Harry needing an exit strategy.
I missed Diana FOR him. How lonely it must be to not have your mummy while going through this. Thank GOD Meghan has Doria but Harry? Who does Harry have but Meghan?
Now he has Doria to comfort and mother him.
Some antis are saying that Diana would be sad at what happened and that she wouldn’t have liked that Harry doesn’t have a relationship anymore with his brother and father. They are saying that about a woman that was so desperate that she threw herself from a staircase while pregnant because she saw no way out of that misery. Who better to understand Meghan than her? She would have been there every step of the way helping Harry get his family to safety.
I don’t believe she would have cared about Charles, but any mother’s heart would break when their offspring don’t speak to each other. That doesn’t mean they don’t know which one is in the right though.
But she sussed William out from the get go and knew that if the Windsors got to him, he would be a crap King. He was not a kind child. He was cute and mildly ‘intelligent’ but he was full of his own self importance too.
Diana’s friend helped Meghan when she was at her lowest. Would she help Meghan if she thought she was destroying Harry’s relationship with his family? Someone who loved Diana is a better indicator of how Diana would feel than what someone on the street thinks.
I think she’d be angry at what they’ve turned William into.
If she were still alive, I don’t know if William would be as Full Brainwashed Windsor as he is now. I would like to think that she would have matured and become more self-actualized had she lived, and that she would have kept pushing back against the Palace to make sure he and Harry had better opportunities and didn’t just turn into aristo-brats.
Diana protected him more from beyond the grave than Charles ever did. Good god.
right? I’m still shocked (but not surprised) that Charles abdicated his role as supportive parent to Harry these past few years in favour of supporting the Crown and William. I’m so happy they left, what a toxic, toxic family.
That is such a good way to put it. She really did. She left him the means to escape if he wanted.
I think Diana would be very sad at how things turned out but I think she would be so proud of Harry for getting away with his family.
Well said, thanks and she sure has.
God I remember all the crazy theories when she died, a lot of which revolved around her possibly becoming pregnant by Fayed, and how the RF would never allow the two princes to have a non-white half sibling. I was so naive, I scoffed at that. I don’t now though.
Never forget the RF took away Diana’s protection.
With Diana didnt she decline it herself because she was paranoid they were spying on behalf of Charles?
Well, they WERE spying on her on Charles’ orders, so that’s not being paranoid.
@Noki – that’s what we were told, yes. But if this interview does one thing it’s to show us that what we are told by the RF is not to be believed.
In the divorce, Diana DID turn down RPOs just for that reason: she was sure they were spying on her and reporting back to the “Institution”. Once the divorce was final, she only had her own guy.
Many have said that IF she had RPOs they’d’ve NEVER LET her get in that car.
Her sister was INSISTENT that Diana was compulsive about buckling up in a seat belt, and it had to have been that Diana’s wasn’t working (hence, no seat belt, which drs. said WOULD’VE been a game changer ie: her injuries wouldn’t have been life threatening).
SO MANY things didn’t add up about that night.
Like I said last night and someone else said thank goodness for that money Diana left him. What would be happening right now without it?
Also, Tina Brown this morning on CBS? I made this comment on another post but I’ll say it here. She tried to play the card “Megan was old enough to know what she was getting into and she was an actress something or other that should’ve helped her prepare” after she said the interview was kryptonite. How is the world was Megan supposed to know what she was getting into? She was a normal everyday person like the rest of us and none of us knew the half of it so why should she have? Victim blaming again. Tale as old as time.
From what I’m gathering no one who has married into the family really knows what they are getting into. Diana and Fergie for certain. Even PP to some extend even though he was royalty and family close cousin. Kate might have had a better idea due to her actively pursuing William for 10 years.
It was very “What did she expect??”.
This is slightly off-topic, but your mention of Prince Philip in the context of his position reminded me of something I read a while back, which I just have to share because it’s an absolutely epic burn: Apparently at one point after the divorce, when it was felt that Diana was becoming too “free” for the RF’s liking, Prince Philip allegedly threatened that they would take away her title (Princess of Wales, without the style of HRH). Diana’s response? “My title [as a daughter of the ancient Earls Spencer] is a lot older than yours, Philip.” DAMNNNN.
Exactly, Lauren. Phillip was pretty astute —- and had a lot of real insider knowledge —-when it came to the workings of the royal family and even he wasn’t prepared for the level of sidelining and marginalizing he faced. So I don’t see why Meghan should have been more knowledgeable as she saw it like the rest of us do…only from the outside.
the caucasity–Harry is the ultimate prize to white women and he chose Meghan. There’s a certain class of white women, and I think Tina Brown is part of that class, even though she’s old-school media, that can’t abide the thought of a high status white man choosing a nonwhite partner.
Yes, she is. I think of Tina Brown as very accomplished, but no matter their professional status (albeit aged out by actual age or not holding onto fame) many are barely concealing their ride on the coattails of this to renewed relevancy. Sure let me give my wondrous, certain to be clever, opinion.
I liked that Meghan explained that pretty well – that she had an idea of what to expect based on the outside but the inside was completely different. I dont think anyone knows what to expect because we have no idea what its actually like “inside.”
She explained that well but Tina still questioned her this morning so no matter what she says they will stick with their same attacks.
No one ever knows what they are getting into regarding that family. Their true shady corrupt peado loving selves are well hidden (or atleast they were). Also there has never been a media hate campaign on this sort of scale before, I’ve never seen it and I can’t really compare it to anything.
I was so moved by that moment, because we all see the subtext that she would be so proud of him. Doing what’s best for himself, his wife, his child, and then having the guts to set the record straight.
I think if she was alive, it wouldn’t have taken this long, or wouldn’t have gotten to this point. But man she would be massively in their corner.
@savu You have to wonder what Diana would think of William…
Diana would definitely be on Harry’s side, encouraging him & Meghan to find their peace. She’d be disappointed in both Charles & William for their behavior and lack of support.
Harry is supporting his wife in a way that Charles never did. She’d be so proud of him.
This breaks my heart. Harry is right, Diana went through all that by herself to find death one year into her freedom, but it is way worse with Meghan and the race factor especially in these awful times.
And again, I cannot believe people, mostly the royal family, learned NOTHING from what happened- scratch that, what THEY DID, to Diana.
The press, the institution, the royal family, they tried to make Diana disappear and then tried again with Meghan. I just wish those people hell, for doing this to them, they deserve nothing more.
Thank God for the money Diana left, wheter it was foreshadowing or not I do not know but I believe she kinda did. She knew how toxic the royal family was and she would have been proud of Harry for what he did.
It was horrible for Meghan to be vilified because of her race, but as Meghan said, she was a fully formed person coming into this family. She was in her 30s, she had worked since she was 13 years old. Diana was only 19, she grew up in and was inescapably shaped, tortured, by the institution. I agree with Meghan that, thank god she had had a life outside the Firm and had plenty of support including a loving husband. I think Diana had it worse than Meghan.
Oh no, they didn’t learn NOTHING from Diana. They learned to crush the threat quickly and without mercy. Before said threat gains a following, before said threat gets their legs under them and figures out how to fight back.
Problem was, they were working based on what they learned in the 80s and 90s going against Diana. The media landscape has MASSIVELY changed since then, and Meghan is an entirely different threat with completely different tactics and resources. Thus, failure, and from Meghan they will likely learn to act EVEN MORE ruthlessly and even EARLIER.
No letting the undesirable girlfriend actually marry in next time, crush her in the press the moment she is presented to the family.
Ngl I got chills when he said the money Diana left him is how they were able to escape. Diana had the foresight to make sure Harry was taken care of in the event of her death because she KNEW his father and the institution would not. A MOTHER.
I am so glad you brought that up! A) let’s dispel this notion that they’re still living off palace money, and b) that it’s money from his mother that allowed him to protect his family. WOOOOOW. I can’t even find the words… but he must feel his mom around a LOT. Grateful she left him this money. Grateful she did her best to get out. Grateful she raised him the way she did, so he had the strength to do this. With hindsight, so much of life can become so clear, and people’s actions mean a lot more.
The Royals I am sure hated Diana dating a Pakistani and Egyptian, the thought of their future King possibly having a half POC and Muslim sibling must have left them losing their minds.
I am old enough to remember those days, and yes, that was a big story back then. “What if Diana marries a Muslim, and harry and Wills have step-siblings who are half Arab?”
I think Diana left both of her children money to potentially set them up for a life outside the royal family. Or to at least give them some financial independence because she knew how The Firm controlled the purse strings.
Harry also inherited money from the Queen Mother. This was 20 years ago, I’m sure with investment and interest his inheritance probably tripled in size. He probably would have been eternally trapped if it wasn’t for that.
I know some people are like “Boo Hoo, poor millionaire Prince”. But throw in the fact that Harry had to abruptly arrange secret service level security for his family and find a home where they could live protected and in peace, that’s costing him a TON of money. And it would have run out in a few years if they didn’t sign that deal.
The scum people who scoff at his predicament would scramble too if they were that high profile and suddenly had security removed. He wasn’t asking for living wage, he was asking for decency. He did not ask to be born a Prince, so they owe him that protection. The people who scoff would ask for the same and desperately think of how to overcome it, but of course they wouldn’t admit that. The people who scoff would think they would be braver than Harry but ask them to give up their guns or sign up for the army and it’s all crickets.
“He did not ask to be born a prince.” Agree. If you’re a member of the royal family, especially if you’re the monarch or you’re going to be the monarch, and YOU decide to have kids, then you should be planning to provide them with security for their entire life, no questions asked, no matter if they “work” for you or not. You brought a child into a world full of threats for him just because of who his parent is. You need to bear the responsibility of protecting them.
Ah I was wondering where he got more money-The Queen Mum. Cause yeah, 13 million does not a mansion in Montecito buy, you know?
The Spotify and Netflix deals are likely how they bought the house.
it was reported he took out a mortgage.
Truly this. I mean, I remember reading some stuff about the language and threats they were receiving at the time, including calling Prince Harry and race-traitor. It must have been scary to contend with the threats to your wife and child and the fear that you couldn’t protect them.
I’m so glad they escaped. We can only guess what Diana would have thought but after the way the family treated her, I think she would be proud to see Harry removing himself from their toxicity and standing up for himself and his wife. Especially because she never had that kind of support.
Took away his security and funding then leaked their location. That is unacceptable and unforgivable imo. They wanted to financially strangle them at best and something to happen them at worst.
It is such an abusive tactic – used to punish them and probably to force them back.
Plus, Charles stopped taking Harry’s calls (though TQ still did). I’m glad Harry said that, it exposes Charles’ personal involvement directly, and I hope it hit him (Charles) like a body blow that Harry let that be known.
I posted before…is this all serendipitous or what? Harry actually married someone who could match his mother’s capability and strength. And in doing so, his eyes were opened to how racist the institution and his family was. He was trapped and he didn’t know it. He played the role of the Fool and he didn’t know it. In his own words, Meghan saved him. Did Diana send Meghan to him? Mind blowing how everything comes into full circle. He was rescued and then he rescued his family. The army moulded him, his wife and mother gave him strength and his mother helped from beyond the grave. Friends reached out and gave him shelter and suggestions to fund his security. This is very special.
What broke my heart was Meghan saying that she was trying so hard not to burden Harry with her pain because she knew how much pain he’d already been through.
Their love is really inspirational.
And when Harry said “My brother and father are still trapped. They can’t walk away. I have tremendous compassion for that,” my respect for him as a person grew even more. It is a much kinder statement than I would have given; but shows his emotional intelligence and growth.
“Because I can’t even begin to imagine what it must have been like for [Diana] going through this process by herself all those years ago. Because it was been unbelievably tough for the two of us, but at least we have each other.
Wow, that statement is a pretty damning indictment of his father, isn’t it? It’s one thing for the world to know that Charles was a shitty husband, but for his son to publicly acknowledge that fact all but confirms that he was a shitty father as well.
Diana would indeed be incredibly proud of her son for not allowing himself to become trapped, as she had been, and I’m sure she’d be thankful to Meghan for giving Harry the love and support he always needed. It just makes it all the more tragic that she never had a chance to meet her daughter-in-law, whom she’d no doubt adore.
I think Meghan has helped him to come to terms with his Mother’s death and in doing so he was able to achieve the freedom she had longed for, everything is coming full circle and I have no doubt she’d be incredibly proud of him. Didn’t she once say about Harry that he was going to surprise everyone? As an aside even before the interview aired there was a debate on CBC our national radio station here in Canada regarding whether the Queen should still be our head of state. I hope it’s the final nail in their dusty old racist coffin and we get rid of those scumbags. She aint my queen.
I’m Canadian and so done with the monarchy after this. I used to enjoy the spectacle of it but the in-fighting, jealousy and media games seem so pointless. They royal family had a better chance at longevity by embracing Harry and Meghan’s popularity and instead turned on them. It makes no sense at all. Does the media really exert that much control over the royal family that they’d sink to these lengths for a headline?
I now understand why the royal family was so adamant about their commonwealth tv program airing the day before CW Day, before Harry and Meghan’s interview dropped. There is no way that they could’ve done a CW service/program and people in the CW could’ve watched it without extreme disgust at the hypocrisy after all the racism that was exposed in H and M’s interview. They knew what they had done to that couple and their unborn baby. They knew that they had said blatantly racist things and made blatantly racist decisions, and they knew that Meghan knew why she and her baby were being treated so differently from other members of the royal family. And they knew she and Harry would speak about it on some level, expose them on some level, and it would infuriate/break the hearts of the CW nations and their POC citizens. They could not immediately go on TV after that and pretend to love and respect and appreciate their CW brothers and sisters without it looking patently fake and disingenuous.
I think it’s worth visiting Oprah’s interview with Fergie – this clip was very telling. https://people.com/royals/sarah-ferguson-oprah-winfrey-1996-interview-royal-life-not-fairytale/
This was 1996 (one year before Diana died), and she specifically says that the RR would like to kill Diana. I’m not a Fergie fan, but boy it sent chills up my spine to listen to it. Her words aren’t that different than Harry & Meghan’s – Fergie was just never seen as the future of the royal family, and therefore there was less (face) to lose.
Ohhhhhh, thanks for posting that clip. I’m sure I watched it when it aired but forgot about it. In a court of law you could submit it as evidence to back up what Harry and Meghan said.
It breaks my heart to think how well Diana, Meghan and Doria would have gotten along and that image only being possible in my imagination. It honestly makes me emotional.
Before Meghan, I would have told you that the idea that the Royals had a hand in the death of Diana was a silly conspiracy theory.
Now I honestly would not put it past them.
I think they intentionally left her unprotected knowing that eventually she would be in harms way from outside forces like the paparazzi, terrorists or just some random crazy person.
Actively try to murder her, maybe not. But create circumstances where her death could easily happen, yeah I buy that now too.
I think they set her up for that. Charles did the same thing to Harry he did to Diana. Change in status means no security and no funding. Both were snatched and was left unprotected from the media frenzy THEY created around the 2.
sadly agreed.
I agree MARIA!
I realize they have the privilege of money and connects vastly beyond what the average person has, but man, I can’t help but think that I see over and over again between people I know and interviews like this how very worth it major sacrifices are to get out of a toxic situation. My friends took on 11K in debt to get the hell out of bad situation in Texas family-wise, and they’ve never regretted spending a penny on it even if it set them back several years catching up financially. Sometimes that means walking away from the people you love most if they can’t be a better person with you.
Diana used to say that the Windsors would look after William and that she would look after Harry. She knew that the family would only be concerned about William as the heir.
Diana was witness to William being a bully to Harry. But she was also a witness to what happened to Margaret. I think she saw the writing on the wall.
This just goes to show you that toxic families are everywhere, regardless of class, background, or income bracket.
There were three moments that made me cry last night and this revelation was one of them. Diana’s spirit guiding her son. OMG.
Also. Y’all where did Diana get the money? Was it inheritance or her settlement from Charles?
I think it was both.
Probably some of both, mostly the lump sum settlement from her divorce. She also had housing provided and an allowance from the royals, and since she died so soon after the divorce was finalized, the lump sum was probably mostly intact. I don’t know if the third daughter would have inherited much from her father’s passing, most of it likely went to her brother the new Earl Spencer, I imagine.
Yeah, almost all of her father’s estate went to her brother, and her brother apparently threw a fit that Daddy left Diana a very small portion of his estate in cash. The standard for British aristocrats is to leave EVERYTHING to the heir, so as far as he was concerned he got shorted.
I will go to my grave believing the conversation about Archie’s complexion was started by Kate and William.
The RF includes Kate
Did you read Lainey’s pieces today? I’m thinking now that the comments about Archies skin color came from Charles……
It was absolutely Charles.