Princess Diana: the People’s Princess opens the window to the world that Lady Di married into as a barely legal teenager.
She and all of us were sold a romantic fairy tale with a dashing prince who would love and cherish her instead she got the poison apple from the hands of Camilla Parker Bowles and the jealous Prince Charles.
Watching the adeptly directed documentary by Ed Perkins and edited by Jinx Godfrey and Daniel Lapira told for the first time from start to finish it’s a shocking parallel to Meghan Markle married to her youngest son Prince Harry. I found the documentary riveting since my mother adored Lady Di and would always discuss the good works that she did. Looking back I don’t remember her ever saying anything about Prince Charles but I grew up in the USA so British royal news isn’t as widely covered as it is in the UK. What I found interesting was listening to Lady Di’s voice as she spoke about her life, children, marriage, and her hopes for after the divorce. I thought that Ed Perkins’s selection of the footage showed how her interaction with subjects and use of her position to highlight charity/inequality was unlike Prince Charles or Queen Elizabeth and any royal before her. The scene that really stuck out to me was during the tour of Australia and Prince Charles look when he realized the crowds wanted to see her. It’s such a strong parallel to Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan as their dedication to good works, charm, and speaking skills eclipsed Prince Charles, Prince William, and Duchess Kate. What makes this documentary fascinating is that Ed Perkins has used public records (interviews, videos, TV news footage) to allow us to look from afar at how Lady Diana shook the royal family and for a brief moment made a massive change as she grew into the title and herself as a woman. We watch her at first be beaten down by Princes Charles’s long-term affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles his married mistress and their emotional abuse, her depression, eating disorder, and being alone in the palace. She was able to break the chains holding her down in her place to be in Prince Charles’s shadow a step behind and instead she shone. She realized that she could use her position to carver her own path and be a different mother allowing her sons to have some normal experience.
The documentary shows how daunting it was to have all that attention on her without a support system to have her navigate it. This was back in 1981 when they got engaged so it was before the internet (I can’t help but imagine that Lady Di would have been better adept with social media) but the paparazzi was more than enough to deal with as they harassed her to death in the tunnel and still use her to sell papers/get clicks. While watching the Princess you will see it’s told in three parts. The first is the fairy tale leading up to the wedding when we first meet the virginal princess to be married to the ‘dashing’ old Prince. The second act is the mesmerizing accident that reveals cracks and the poisoned apple offered with the crown. It Princes Charles’s long-term affair with his married mistress Camilla Parker-Bowles, Lady Di’s eating disorder, mental anguish, loneliness, affairs, and her trying to be a good mother juggling the disintegration of the life promised. The third and final act was Lady Di coming into her own as a woman who refused to be in their shadow, that would use her position to bring awareness and good works around the world, the divorce and mysterious death. Watching the end when Queen Elizabeth had to be shamed to comfort people was shameful and seeing the boys forced to walk behind the funeral procession. It must have caused lasting trauma to Prince Harry and his brother Prince William.
The Princess documentary shows that all the pain and sadness Lady Diana faced did not change the Royal Family at all. Instead of embracing the fresh air of Prince Harry (his own son) and the woman he loved Duchess Meghan instead they used the royal rota (RR) to attack and destroy but unlike Princes Charles. Prince Harry would protect his wife and children from abuse and racist hatred
How do you feel about the documentary? I can’t help but notice the parallels between Lady Diana and her son Prince Harry and wife Duchess Meghan’s treatment when they started to eclipse Prince Charles and Prince William. Please leave your comments below!
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