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(2008), Diana understood the press in a unique way compared to the rest of the Royal Family,
because she was their audience and knew exactly how to hold their interest. In addition, the
narratives of the tabloids shaped her worldview. At last Diana had found something that she was
good at and that was media relations. Diana’s gift with the press first intrigued and then profoundly
irritated Prince Charles’s friends, but Prince Charles was impressed with the way Diana was
conducting herself with the press (pp. 131-133). In earlier years, Prince Charles had been quite
cordial to the press, but had turned sharply against them after they had begun stalking his various
girlfriends (Smith, 2007, p. 91). Diana herself had witnessed the press destroy her sister’s chances
with Prince Charles and was both attracted and repelled by them (Smith, 2007, p. 84). Already, she
seemed to have a cool understanding of the peril as well as the power of media attention, and she
could avoid all the mistakes her sister had made by being too eager, too available, and too recklessly
indiscreet, but she also knew that boring denials would not work either (Brown, 2008, p. 131). Diana
read everything that was written about her (Smith, 2007, p. 90) and began to look for approval from
the press (Brown, 2008, p. 85), which might have been due to her psychological complexes that had
their roots in her childhood.
In the beginning, Diana found the media attention quite funny, but as it continued relentlessly it
began to frighten her (Brown, 2008, p. 139). Diana understood that the reporters had a job to do,
but she had a hard time dealing with the fact that they were following her every move (Morton,
2010, p. 35). However, even though Prince Charles was concerned about the effects that the press
harassment might have on Diana, Diana did not complain to Prince Charles about it, because she
thought it would be inappropriate (Smith, 2007, p. 91). Nevertheless, Diana learned to evade the
reporters, and she and Prince Charles managed to slip away for a series of weekend meetings that
would be in the tabloids only after they had already happened (Smith, 2007, p. 88). In addition,
Prince Charles also took elaborate precautions so that he and Diana could meet in London without
attracting press attention (Bradford, 2007, p. 69).
In the press, Diana was portrayed as the perfect companion for Prince Charles; well-born, pretty,
virginal, and charming (Smith, 2007, p. 34). Reporters were so eager to make Diana the perfect fit
for Prince Charles that they ignored the problems that their differences in age, culture, and
28
education could present in the future (Brown, 2008, pp. 130-131). In addition, according to Smith
(2007), the press mostly ignored the fact that Diana’s parents had been divorced and that it might
have caused Diana lasting damage. If it was mentioned, it was something that Diana did not think
about anymore (p. 34). Captivated by the effusive press coverage, the public fell in love with Diana
as well, and as the relationship between Diana and Prince Charles developed, the reporters became
Diana’s fierce advocates (p. 85). By then, Diana had become a subject for the tabloid media and had
no way to control how she was portrayed, even though she thought that she was the one who was
in control, not the press (Brown, 2008, p. 140). The British tabloids were as much players as
observers in Diana’s life (Smith, 2007, p. 7).
During that autumn, Diana received even more invitations from the Royal Family. In October, the
Queen Mother invited her to her own Balmoral residence, Birkhall, and she was clearly in favour of
Diana as a possible bride for her beloved grandson (Bradford, 2007, p. 66). After the Birkhall visit,
Prince Charles invited Diana to see his new house, Highgrove (Brown, 2008, p. 133). Diana visited
Highgrove three times that autumn (Bradford, 2007, p. 68). When there she would wander around
the house and gardens alone and wait for Prince Charles to return from hunting, which was very
much a foretaste of her life to come (Brown, 2008, p. 133). After tea and an early dinner together,
Prince Charles drove her back to London (Bradford, 2007, p. 68). Prince Charles asked Diana to help
him decorate the house although they were not yet even engaged, which Diana thought was
improper (Morton, 2010, p. 39). Highgrove would become the base for everything she most disliked:
horses, Camilla, and boring neighbours (Brown, 2008, p. 133). On November 14, Diana was invited
to celebrate Prince Charles’s thirty-second birthday with the Royal Family at Wood Farm (Bradford,
2007, p. 69). However, what was planned to be a long weekend for Diana was cut short because of
the masses of media that gathered at the gates (Brown, 2008, p. 135). Both the press and the royal
staff were convinced that an engagement would be announced (Bradford, 2007, p. 70).
While Diana was still at Wood Farm, the “Royal Love Train” scandal broke: on 16 November the
Sunday Mirror printed a story that on the nights of November 5 and 6 Diana had slipped into the
royal train as it stood in a Wiltshire siding to spend the night with Prince Charles, but as far as Diana
was concerned the story was untrue (Bradford, 2007, p. 70). Since Diana was not a member of the
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Royal Family, or even a fiancée, Buckingham Palace was not officially obliged to protect her, but the
Queen and Prince Charles were incensed by the report and its implication of sexual liaison, so
instead of ignoring the story, as the tabloids expected and which had been the norm, the Queen
countered with an unequivocal denial from her press secretary (Smith, 2007, p. 93). The Palace
denied the whole incident and the official line has always been that there was no truth to the story,
but many people still believe that the story was true, but the woman in question was not Diana, but
Camilla, and that the Palace denied the story so that Diana would not be spooked by it (Bradford,
2007, p. 70), while some others think that it was Diana, but to protect her image as the virgin bride
it was covered up (Brown, 2008, pp. 137-138). Diana later traced her mistrust of Camilla to this
period, although she did not specifically mention the story (Smith, 2007, p. 93). In a sense, the Royal
Love Train incident was the moment Diana first became a Royal, because the Palace supported her
in concealing the truth, whatever it might have been, because they had their own agendas, and the
only way in which she was not yet Royal was that she still remained outside the physical protection
of Palace walls (Brown, 2008, p. 139).
After the Royal Love Train incident, Prince Philip gave Prince Charles an ultimatum, or at least advice
that Prince Charles interpreted as one, that he should either propose to Diana or stop seeing her,
as he would damage her reputation and expose her to persecution by the press if he continued to
do so without proposing (Bradford, 2007, p. 71), especially now that the Royal Love Train story had
cast Diana in a bad light by implying that she and Prince Charles had slept together (Smith, 2007, p.
95). The Queen refrained from commenting, as was her style, but the Queen Mother counselled
strongly in favour of marriage (Bradford, 2007, p. 71). For Prince Charles, it was difficult to see Diana,
the smitten, romantic teenager, as a future wife, let alone the future Queen of England (Brown,
2008, p. 141). Prince Charles himself was in a confused and anxious state of mind, because he was
in love with Camilla, who satisfied his every need and was his “Girl Friday” as well as his lover, and
he was not sure what he should do, even though he knew what was expected of him (Bradford,
2007, p. 73). However, while Prince Charles was uncertain about Diana, he might have been even
more uncertain about marriage itself and how his bride would cope with all that it entailed (Brown,
2008, p. 144). Prince Charles did not appear to be in love with Diana at the outset, but he was fond
of her, and he hoped his feelings could grow into love through a deepening of shared values and
interests (Smith, 2007, p. 98).
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