I have no idea what Ingrid Seward is thinking, trying to rewrite royal history to make most of the Windsors (even the dead ones) sound like absolute trash, but here we are. Seward has a new book which is allegedly about King Charles and his relationship with QEII. Every excerpt I’ve read from the book is about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex or Princess Diana. You know, the actual stars of the family, two of whom escaped to America. C-Word makes the late QEII and Prince Philip sound like racist trash, which is a pretty unique perspective for a royal biographer. Of course, she also makes Princess Diana sound like a manipulative psycho, and she completely rewrites the narrative on Diana and Charles’s courtship.
In 1980, Diana had twice gone to stay with her sister Jane, who was married to Robert Fellowes, then the Queen’s assistant private secretary, at their cottage on the Balmoral estate. And after the second visit, she’d been invited to spend four days at the castle to join one of the regular Royal house parties. During her time there, recalled one member of staff, Diana was desperate to make an impression.
‘Most of the ladies do not get up until after the guns have gone out, but Diana was always up early. If you looked out of your window at a quarter to eight, you would see her walking in the garden, and she made a great point of being there to see them off. It was then that she played her sharpest card. She would go around telling everybody how much she loved Balmoral and that it was such a magical place and how she loved it beyond imagination.’
Impressed, Prince Charles started asking her to accompany him fishing and to join him on long walks through the estate in which she professed such an interest. Diana, everyone agreed, was ‘enchanting’.
The Queen, alert to a possible new woman in her son’s life, had just two reservations. She wondered whether anyone that young could differentiate between the man and the prince. And she couldn’t help thinking that the Spencer girl would be far better suited to her younger son, Andrew.
The Queen Mother took a more positive approach. In a grandmotherly intervention, she invited Diana and Charles for a few days’ stalking a month later at Birkhall, her house on the Balmoral estate. A few low-key, discreet dates followed in London, and in January 1981, Diana was invited to Sandringham. She made a point of going to the nursery and making a great fuss of nanny Mabel Anderson, then looking after Princess Anne’s son, who’d been the emotional linchpin of Charles’s childhood.
And when the guns went out early in the morning, Diana was always there to wave them off with an ingratiating remark about how ‘wonderful’ Sandringham was. ‘She was everywhere, picking up the birds, being terribly gracious and absolutely oozing charm,’ a Royal confidant remembered.
The idea that Diana and Andrew would have been better suited for each other is something I’ve heard before. Sometimes the suggestion came from QEII, sometimes the Queen Mum. It was more to do with their ages than some big statement about their temperaments, although it’s long been said that Lord Mountbatten encouraged Charles to marry someone young and inexperienced, and that’s why Charles pursued Diana. It’s also important to realize that Diana’s early years were spent at Sandringham, living on the estate there in a home her father (not yet the Earl Spencer) rented. It’s important to remember that the Spencers and Windsors have long been intertwined, and it’s not like Diana showed up one day and that was the first time anyone saw her. Charles had even dated Diana’s older sister, and the Spencers and Windsors socialized together (Diana’s grandmother was one of the Queen Mum’s closest friends and allies). Many people believed that one of the Spencer girls would end up marrying one of the princes, and the older Windsors would speculate on who would match with whom.
All of which to say, I do believe Diana schemed a bit to “win” Charles. But that ignores the fact that everyone else was scheming to encourage Charles to marry Diana too – his parents, his friends, even Camilla greenlighted Charles’s pursuit of Diana.
Photos courtesy of Getty, Avalon Red.
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- HRH PRINCESS OF WALES (HRH Princess Diana) Seen at the 1995 Wimbledon Tennis Championships. Bandphoto Agency Photo B21 009812/E-36 09.07.1995,Image: 502647127, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: For queries call UPPA + 44 (0)20 7421 6000, Model Release: yes, Credit line: © Band Photo / uppa.co.uk / Avalon
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- Prince Andrew, Duke of York at the Trooping The Colour ceremony on June 13, 2015 in London, England. The ceremony is Queen Elizabeth II’s annual birthday parade and dates back to the time of Charles II in the 17th Century, when the Colours of a regiment were used as a rallying point in battle.,Image: 512149798, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Photoshot – sales@photoshot.com London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Florida: +1 239 689 1883 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: – / Avalon
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- The Duke of York meets young people who have achieved their Gold Awards during a ceremony for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award at Buckingham Palace Gardens in London.,Image: 515232225, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, Model Release: no, Credit line: – / Avalon
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- 153637, HRH Prince Andrew attends the service for the Most Noble Order of the Garter at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. Windsor, United Kingdom – Monday June 13, 2016. UK, FRANCE, AUS, NZ, CHINA, HONGKONG, TAIWAN, SPAIN & ITALY OUT Photograph: © CPNA Rota / i-Images, PacificCoastNews. Los Angeles Office: +1 310.822.0419 UK Office: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 sales@pacificcoastnews.com FEE MUST BE AGREED PRIOR TO USAGE,Image: 533490138, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS, DIRECT SALES ONLY UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE IN CAPTION – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: i-Images, PacificCoastNews / Avalon
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- Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales, visit Australia Princess Diana in Tasmania The princess is wearing the Spencer family tiara and a dress by Bruce Oldfield. State Reception in Hobart,Image: 549283325, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Photoshot – sales@photoshot.com London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Florida: +1 239 689 1883 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: John Shelley Collection / Avalon
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- Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales, visit Sicily during their trip to Italy. Diana is wearing a Catherine Walker dress and a hat by John Boyd.,Image: 549497656, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Photoshot – sales@photoshot.com London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Florida: +1 239 689 1883 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: John Shelley Collection / Avalon
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- Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales, visit the Children’s Hospital in Rome, Italy. Diana wore an outfit by Bruce Oldfield.,Image: 549498507, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Photoshot – sales@photoshot.com London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Florida: +1 239 689 1883 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: John Shelley Collection / Avalon
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- The Duke of York during a television interview at the Royal Chapel of All Saints, Windsor, following the announcement on Friday April 9, of the death of the Duke of Edinburgh at the age of 99. Picture date: Sunday April 11, 2021. Prince Philip, was the longest-serving consort in British history.,Image: 604743242, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
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- August 31, 2017 marks 20 years since Princess Diana’s death. Diana Princess of Wales died from serious injuries in the early hours of August 31st 1997 after a car crash in Paris. Pictured: August 1981 – Princess Diana And Prince Charles. (Credit Image: © Globe Photos/ZUMAPRESS.com)
The nerve of her enjoying herself and being gracious and charming at places where she was a guest. (s)
Right?!!?? She sounds like a horrible scheming person. /s/
I’m laughing that we need to mark our comments as sarcasm bc you know some people will completely miss that lol.
Right? If I knew nothing about Diana and read this in a vacuum, she would definitely come across very negatively. A manipulative schemer. SMH.
As usual, Charles should be ashamed, but isn’t.
Lorelei the Sarah Bradford book is the best she un like some of the other writers she was not biased against Diana. The trouble is some believe the Diana gaslighting books.
If they don’t like you, the Windsors and their lackeys will always see you as Machiavellian. See Meghan, for example.
Taken on its own without the nasty implicit judgements, I actually read this as so Meghan-like! Gracious, sweet, sincere, bubbly, appreciative.
They have no concept how poorly it reflects on them that this frame of mind and behaviours are so alien to them that they act paranoid and appalled. The rot goes sooo far back.
Please…..this was a teenage girl who was trying to make a good impression.
Ewwww
Can you believe it ☹ it seems the only way to promote a woman in that Royal Family is to bring down another 😵😵 it’s a very weird strategy.
As @Kaiser said, there was a long term relationship between the Spencers and the Windsors. Diana and Andrew used to play together when they were kids. Essentially, they knew each other in that respect and were friendly. After Andrew’s romance with wealthy American, Kathleen ‘Koo’ Stark was aborted, Diana was responsible for introducing her good friend, Sarah Ferguson, to Andrew. AFAIK, there was never any romantic connection between Diana and Andrew, so I doubt marriage would have been agreed to by either of them.
Is this an effort to try to normalize what Middletons did to snatch up Wills?????
And I guess it’s easier telling the story of someone who cannot tell their story, but some of us are still alive to remember Diana’s story very well.
Seraphina, I think it’s because the Bm runs on autopilot and writes about “good” and “bad” royal women who marry into the family. See Kate acting the same way as Meghan where Kate is praised and Meghan attacked. KC has been married twice. I think they’re trying to rebrand Camzilla as the “good” wife and Diana as the “bad” one. Hence all of these stories recently.
@Seraphina … Yes, we are! I came here to say the same. As I recall, it was Philip who pushed Charles into marrying Diana (Philip ruled that roost, especially Charles, with an iron fist). I also recall that Philip’s objections to any of Charles’s other candidates was that they weren’t ‘intact’ and Diana was which, for Philip, was her best qualifying attribute. In 1980, Princes were still expected to sow their wild oats but to marry virgins.
Personally, I believe Diana may have formed a romantic fantasy about Prince Charles as a teenager while her sister Sarah dated him in 1977–perhaps imagining herself in the role of Cinderella or Snow White–and probably arranged to be in places where he was likely to be.
She was obsessively wrapped up in the romance novels of prolific romance writer Barbara Cartland (1901 – 2000), who was Diana’s step-grandmother. There are several photos of Diana sitting around reading Ms. Cartland’s novels as a teenager.
I don’t think Philip pushed Charles to marry her. It was more a matter of , don’t lead her on. He knew how much Charles dithered.
Many women read romance novels. Danielle steel books are romantic fantasized but are best sellers. Diana did not just sit home. She shared a london flat with friends and had two part time jobs. Charles decided to marry Diana it is on Charles alone not philip. Philip wanted Charles to break up with Diana if he did not want to marry her and not lead her on. Anna Wallace not a sheltered woman intrigued Charles. He was serious about her but imo Camilla helped break it up .
@Yvette I agreed w your point of view. Cartland’s Regency Romance novels were good for teens (no explicit sex scenes) & even if the hero didn’t love the heroine when they married (under some circumstances) or met, in the end he WOULD love her. I enjoyed reading Cartland when I was teens & young adult; but when I reread those novels many years after, I found them enjoyable but the simplification of the complexities of Love & characters in her books was a revealing to the matured me.
@Tessa. First, Danielle Steel wrote different kind of novels/romances to Cartland’s. I doubt Diana read any of them when she was a teenager. Second, please don’t put Ms. Steel as an example, at least Dame Barbara did not steal other (famous & better writer) people’s work.
People shape up by family life, schooling, what they read, friends (or social media) they interact, etc. when growing up. What becomes to us as a full adult in later years depends on a person’s willingness to learn, to change or not. Some become better person, some become sh1ttier person, and some remain as teenager.
I also believe Ruth Fermoys (Diana’s grandmother and the Queen Mother’s lady in waiting) and the Queen Mother were keen on Charles and Diana getting together. I think at least some of Diana’s willingness was her wanting to please her family.
Since she and Sally Bedell Smith keep portraying Diana as a psycho, it’s no surprise that they like the idea of marrying her off to the biggest Windsor predator. And she was almost young enough to fit his preferred demographic.
IIRC, my mom said that QE2 wanted (demanded) that KC marry a virgin. Diana wasn’t even a twenty-year-old when they got together. If not Diana, which specific virgin did the queen have in mind got her eldest son?
Thank you. Charles didn’t want to get married period. And the Queen made him. But he couldn’t just marry anyone. Diana was one of the very few who met all the rules they had. Charles and Diana was never a marriage of love. Or even emotion. It was to make Charles have children to carry on the monarchy. And the Queen did the exact same thing to William. Without all the rules. But she forced William to get married. And Kate was the only one who would do it. Everyone William wanted said no. And Charles didn’t even want to marry Camilla. He had to to get people to sort of like him again. Because of how badly he treated Diana. The soulmate crap they put out is just pr. I’m not even sure they really like each other.
While Charles and Diana might not have been “a marriage of love” — it’s far from clear that any of the adults involved in pulling the strings bothered to inform the very young, very inexperienced Diana.
I think Charles wanted legitimate heirs and needed to marry. He wanted his line to be monarchs. It was a marriage of love as Far as Diana was concerned. If Diana had said no there would be other aristo s to court.
I would say William settled but was not forced. He did not want harry to be king and if he did not marry harry and his future children would be heirs
And Diana would “breed height into the line “ (as Phillip said with approval)
I think the queen was not all that sold on Kate Middleton. She wondered what Kate did which seemed to be a round of parties and vacations. Carole wanted her daughter to marry William. Desperately.
That rule applied to women marrying the heir. They used to write that Diana hadn’t had any serious boyfriends before meeting Charles. When Andrew and Fergie became engaged, they wrote quite a bit about her past romantic life.
Fergie came with a lot of ‘baggage’ – former chalet girl and gf of the wealthy and much older Paddy McNally.
It wasn’t QEll, it was the standard of the time that the heir must marry a virgin. Everybody spoke openly about it. At the time I thought it was a dumb rule especially since Charles clearly enjoyed dating the field and no such rule applied to him.
Yeah, the issue in the 1970s was most of the class of young women who would be suitable for marriage to the future king were enjoying the sexual revolution of the time (see Camilla) and were not interested in being Charles’ wife. It was a nonnegotiable that his wife had to be a virgin-this was discussed ad nauseam by the press. It was a given he had to find a young woman and no one was even considering Andrew getting married before Charles. This tweaking of the story is ridiculous.
Do they still have Royal house parties at Sandringham? It doesn’t sound like something C&C would keep doing,
Diana should have stayed away from this family, not marry another narcissistic egoist.
The problem is that “stay away” from this family wasn’t an option. She was born into their circles, grew up on their estate. It’s long been established that Diana’s emotional intelligence was off the charts, but as a child/teen, she was not a good student and her long term plans were shaped by romance novels and an apparent lingering trauma from her parent’s divorce (I side eye that one because I’m the divorce generation of 1970s babies, and I know how easily it can be normalized for a child).
The only thing I believe that could have saved Diana was some exposure to a life beyond her romantic fantasies, a sense that marriage was not her only path to happiness, but as of 19 she never had that. And her interest in Charles specifically has been said to surround his inability as the heir to divorce. It’s very possible she was naive enough to not realize that legal marriage doesn’t ensure bliss.
I remember reading that Diana (as well as Charles) had serious doubts about the marriage— but Diana’s two older sisters (including one who had dated Charles) told her that it was too late for her to back out because her “face was already in the tea towels’ made up as souvenirs. Diana could have been “saved” if someone knowledgeable had cared enough to support her pre-wedding concerns, or even to encourage her to spend more time with Charles and his family before making a commitment to marriage. While Charles may have had a timeframe, Diana and her supporters could have negotiated for something different.
@Blithe – Yes, ITA with all of that, but even if Diana has cancelled the wedding, there’s still a high chance she would have married another Windsor or soulless aristo who wouldn’t make her happy. I think it was becoming a mother and discovering her own strength that turned her into the woman we saw in the 90s.
So Seward got a tasteless briefing from Charles’ and Camilla’s people to make him look like the poor victim in Diana’s schemes. It had been some time since they had last try to blame something on Diana just because she can’t defend herself anymore.
Diana was naive she fell for Charles line. This malevolent Diana bashing is horrible
Unfortunately for Seward, many of us actually have memories of what happened and can call out this bullsh!t. But shame on Charles for allowing it out there in an “authorized” bio. She’s still the mother of his children. Once again, he reminds us that he’s trash.
Apparently the RF did not learn in 1997 that the public wants no part of Diana bashing, and she’s still beloved all over the world.
Poor Diana. What a choice, the pervert or the philanderer. But yeah, there is a major effort on the internet to destroy Diana. They know that some of her biggest supporters are women my age (mid 60s) and older and we are dying out. They want to tarnish her reputation with the younger generation while making Crocmilla and Charles the true star crossed lovers. Harry of course gets in the way of that narrative, unfortunately for the Windsors.
Those of us who remember the TRUTH behind the Charles/Diana/Camilla story tell our children it all to make sure that history isn’t twisted and Diana’s real story is told. My girls know the story of the weak and dithering Charles and his many mistresses and the young, naive, in love Diana. They also know the story of the scheming, adulteress Camilla. Writers can try and twist the facts as much as they like, but people my age who lived through the royal’s shenanigans are not fooled, nor will keep quiet.
“But yeah, there is a major effort on the internet to destroy Diana.”
It will not work as internet stories have the life span of a fly.
Netflix and The Crown will live forever!
Could that be any more just yuck. Why can’t we leave Diana to rest in peace. She was beloved by so many who will not ever believe this disgusting drivel she should have married the pedo. Just yuck.
The Windsors are just terrible people. Whether Diana schemed or not is irrelevant. She was too young for Charles and there was nobody there to advise against the marriage. People were just desperate for Charles to settle down and to produce an heir and a spare. The sins of the the Royal family are still reverberating today with the ill-treatment of Diana’s youngest son and his wife.
She was a 19 yo virgin who was very naive at the time so, it’s not unreasonable to believe she thought she would marry a prince and live happily ever after. Once married into that family she found out the hard way that she had not only married a frog but, the wicked witch as well. I honestly believe she wouldn’t have fared any better with Andrew, as “that family” chew up good people and spit them out as a past time. Seward and her friends may try to re-write history but, there’s still enough of us around who remember how badly Diana was treated by the BRF.
I stopped buying are Ingrid s majesty magazine some years ago and wrote a letter of complaint about the bad things Seward wrote about diana.
Diana was 19 years and according to everyone a naive one to boot. Everyone else was older and knew better. Diana had no one looking out for her. The way C courted her, SHE thought it was a love match.
How convenient that neither woman is alive to speak for herself.
Diana never had any romantic feelings towards andrew
She didn’t have real romantic feelings for him. But she had a crush on him as a child. They played together as children. Charles first met her when he walked in a room at Sandringham and she was a 5yr old there playing with Andrew. She told her family she was going to marry Andrew, at Westminster abbey and be the duchess of york. That’s why her nickname was Duch, that’s what her siblings all called her. She had Andrews photo next to her bed at boarding school and told the staff there she was going to marry him. She wanted to be royal, to have a title. When her sister Jane got married Diana said “it will be Westminster abbey for me.”
Once she was older and Sarah starting dating Charles she realised she might be able to marry the bigger fish and be Princess of Wales instead. Also she probably noticed Andrew is rude and nasty to people, Charles is usually polite and kind. Most people given the choice between Charles and Andrew would choose Charles.
Diana admitted pretending to love balmoral and the outdoors. She laughed about the way she’d fooled them. Her friends/flat mates admitted advising her each night, on what to say/do next, to get Charles to marry her. She did set her sights on him but nowhere to the extent the middletons played William.
Diana as a child went to birthday parties of Andrew and Edward. She never had a crush on Andrew. Diana never said she wanted Andrew. Her family thought Sarah or jane would marry Charles and Diana would marry Andrew. Jane fell in love with and married a courtier. Diana could have married in the Abbey even if she did not marry a royal.charles was choosing the suitable girl and Diana was on the list. He courted her
Camilla was the one who advised Camilla what to say. Diana did not laugh about how she fooled them. She wanted to get to know Charles and went on walks with him.
Camilla advised Diana what to say.
Oh poor Charles, he was helpless against the manipulations of a 17–18 year old girl.
Nah. Whatever schemes Diana is purported to have hatched I put down to innocent teenage infatuation. Most of us were able to have them without being caught in a royal breeding trap.
I can’t believe these gutter people are still dragging her after all this time.
Charles and Camilla are supposed to be happy at last but their supporters can’t stop trashing Diana. It’s like William who got his way and harry and Meghan leave and he puts out stories about how he can’t stand harry and Meghan. Such petty people
Literally, Diana’s family nickname was ‘Duchess’ because it was assumed she would marry Andrew and be a Duchess. This isn’t a surprise.
That was the family plan. Diana never felt that way about andrew.
This whole premise is gross. Diana suffered enough. Let her rest in peace.
Her married lovers’ wives have also had Suffered enough.
Charles had married lovers. One was dale tryon and he said she was the only one who really understood him.diana went to the marriage in good faith. Diana was ditched by Charles after she had the children. Diana was never named co respondent in any divorce papers. She was serious about Dr khan who was single
@Tessa, I think the wives of Oliver Hoare and Will Carling might disagree with you. Diana was manipulated into thinking she was marrying a fairy tale prince and would live happily ever after. However, that does not make her a saint or a psycho depending on what side of the fence you are sitting on. The Andrew Morton book gives an insight into Diana’s unhappiness and erratic behaviour and this was written with help from Diana and her close friends. Diana was a troubled young woman who was treated very badly by her husband and in-laws but she was not flawless
I’m beginning to think that one of the worst things about being a dead famous person is that the live ones keep trying to put words in your mouth.
Clearly, the Windsors see wives as just commodities–just fit them into available slots and all will be fine.
At least Harry got smart and chose someone he really loved, regardless of what the family thought of her. His ten years in the military was no doubt the best thing that ever happened to him in making him one of the very few responsible and caring people in that supposed “family.” His children are better off being raised in California than with the royals, for obvious reasons.
“The crazy ex girlfriend is just a trope made up by men to gloss over the emotional trauma they cause to women in their wake”
Its by blind men who dont realize the harm they cause thinking only of themselves when someone else is dedicating their energy to you, but not getting anything in return. Sure, she then acts “crazy” (or like here, “manipulative psycho”). Then other people have somethign to point at, too, besides the real reason. (here, its the crown itself)