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cooperated with Morton because they believed that Diana faced a choice of either letting it all out
or self-destructing (Brown, 2008, p. 333). It was Diana’s recklessness that impelled her to go ahead
with the project regardless of the consequences: she wanted to expose the sham of her marriage
and her role in the Royal Family (Bradford, 2007, p. 208). Nonetheless, Diana’s role in the making of
the book was covered up (Smith, 2007, p. 218), and it was only revealed three months after her
death (Brown, 2008, p. 330).
While waiting for the publication of Morton’s book, Diana continued to carry on her own public
relations campaign, and in February 1992, when she travelled with Prince Charles to India she was
photographed sitting alone in front of Taj Mahal, where Prince Charles himself had been
photographed twelve years earlier and said that he would one day like to bring his wife there
(Bradford, 2007, p. 218). It was the most vivid example up to then of her use of photographs to
make a point, and the first in a series of potent photos executed by Diana during that spring (Smith,
2007, pp. 220-221), because the press, aware of Prince Charles’s words twelve years earlier,
interpreted the photo as a proof of a marriage in trouble, which is exactly what Diana had intended
(Bradford, 2007, p. 218), as she was also well aware of what Prince Charles had said before (Brown,
2008, p. 325). Diana followed this Taj Mahal photo with a missed kiss photo at a polo match where
she turned away from Prince Charles as he was leaning in to kiss her, and these two images that so
clearly displayed a marriage in trouble caused consternation at the Palace, where rumours of the
Morton book had already been picked up (Bradford, 2007, pp. 218-219).
Not long afterwards, on March 29, 1992, Diana’s father, Johnnie Spencer, died suddenly of a heart
attack (Smith, 2007, p. 221), when Diana was on a family skiing vacation with Prince Charles and the
boys at Lech in Austria (Brown, 2008, p. 335). As a result, Diana prepared to fly home without Prince
Charles (Bradford, 2007, p. 219), because she did not want to travel home with her husband and
pretend that everything was right between them for the sake of their public image (Brown, 2008, p.
335). Many people, including Prince Charles, tried to persuade Diana to go with her husband for the
sake of the public image of the Prince and of their marriage (Bradford, 2007, p. 219), but it took a
telephone call from the Queen to persuade her to make a joint journey back to England (Morton,
2010, p. 180). However, on arrival at Kensington Palace, Prince Charles departed immediately for
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Highgrove, leaving Diana alone to grieve for her father, and when, on April 1, she drove down to
Althorp for the funeral at the family church of St Mary the Virgin, Great Brington, Prince Charles
flew over by helicopter to join her in the car for church, maintaining the image of a supportive
husband although immediately after lunch he flew back to London (Bradford, 2007, p. 219).
During the spring of 1992, Diana was already worrying about the consequences of the Morton book,
which was due to be published on June 16, as some Palace officials were aware of the project, but
not of the extent of Diana’s involvement, and they were trying to figure out what line to take (Smith,
2007, p. 221). According to Bradford (2007), with less than a month to go until the serialization,
Diana had begun to be apprehensive and terrified of the consequences of what she had done.
However, even Diana had underestimated the bombshell effect that the public revelations of the
reality of the marriage of the heir to the throne had when serialized in the Sunday Times beginning
on 7 June 1992. At the time, Diana denied any responsibility for the book (pp. 220-223).
Nevertheless, the book created widespread sympathy for Diana, even though it nearly destroyed
Prince Charles (Smith, 2007, p. 224). The nation was shocked and angry, and there was
disillusionment with the Royal Family, and hence the monarchy, which had already been building
over time (Bradford, 2007, p. 222). Even though Diana may have succeeded in explaining herself to
the public with the book, she had alienated her husband, his family, and their retainers, as well as
members of her own family and the establishment, whose support she needed, in addition to
exposing a group of her friends to press harassment (Smith, 2007, p. 224). Furthermore, after the
book was published, the press became relentless and declared open season on the Royal Family
(Brown, 2008, p. 346).
On June 8, the day after the serialization of the Morton book began, Diana and Prince Charles met
at Kensington Palace to have the first real conversation about the state of their marriage (Brown,
2008, p. 340). Until then, Prince Charles had believed that their marriage could survive (Smith, 2007,
p. 227). Before reading the extracts from the book, Prince Charles had hoped that it was Diana’s
friends and not Diana herself that had provided the inside information for it, but the extent of
Morton’s knowledge forced him to acknowledge that it was in fact his wife that had provided the
information, and in Prince Charles’s world talking to the press was unforgivable and because of that,
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as far as he was concerned, their marriage was effectively over (Brown, 2008, p. 340). According to
Bradford (2007), both the Queen and Prince Philip then rallied to Prince Charles, and it was in this
atmosphere that the Queen and Prince Charles discussed for the first time whether he should seek
a separation from Diana. However, even though the Queen and Prince Philip took Prince Charles’s
side, they were not totally unsympathetic to Diana, because they disapproved of Prince Charles’s
adultery with Camilla because it had brought scandal on the monarchy. Even so, they wanted to
salvage the marriage for the sake of the boys and the monarchy. Nevertheless, the royal show went
on and the traditional celebration of the Queen’s official birthday, Trooping the Colour, went ahead
with Diana as a part of the family standing on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the RAF fly-past
as if nothing had happened (pp. 224-226).
The second instalment of the serialization was published a week later, on 14 June, while the Royal
Family was at Windsor for the racing at Ascot (Bradford, 2007, p. 226). Two days earlier, Prince
Charles had first discussed with his mother the pros and cons of seeking a separation from Diana
(Smith, 2007, p. 228). The next day, 15 June, the Queen and Prince Philip had a meeting with Prince
Charles and Diana, during which divorce was mentioned but rejected, and the Queen was led to
believe that Diana would stand by Prince Charles and she suggested a six-month cooling-off period
(Bradford, 2007, p. 226), during which the façade of normality was to be maintained (Morton, 2010,
p. 216). A separation at that stage was not acceptable (Brown, 2008, p. 342). In addition, Diana
never wanted a divorce: she still loved Prince Charles and saw him as her husband (Bradford, 2007,
p. 224). Diana and Prince Charles agreed to have a second marital counselling session with the
Queen and Prince Philip the next day, but Diana did not attend (Brown, 2008, pp. 342-344). At the
end of July, both Prince Charles and Diana attended a dinner to celebrate the Queen’s 40
th
anniversary on the throne and in August, after a brief, unsatisfactory family holiday, they flew up to
Balmoral for the annual family holiday (Bradford, 2007, p. 227). However, by the autumn of 1992,
Prince Charles and Diana were each consulting lawyers, but Prince Charles was unwilling to initiate
formal proceedings for formal separation, and while Diana vacillated and Prince Charles hesitated,
events forced decisive action (Smith, 2007, p. 231). According to Morton (2010), meetings between
Prince Charles and Diana to discuss the issues that are involved in a formal separation were
invariably emotional and highly strung, and a venerable lawyer was brought in to arbitrate on the
constitutional questions which were raised by the prospect of formal separation. In addition, the
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