This documentary uses the recordings Princess Diana made for the book that was written by Andrew Morton. In this documentary Diana narrates her life and the events that surrounded her.
Princess Diana began to record a series of video tapes in 1992. This was a different Diana, as she was uninhibited, free talking and candid. These videos were recorded by her speech coach.Princess Diana was a celebrity, a public figure, known to the whole world. But there was a private Diana, who was known only to a few people in her inner circle. The private Diana wanted to tell her story, and the videotapes were her way of doing that.
The account starts in 1981 after 2 years of the Thatcher Government. Unemployment was soaring and London was up in flames. Prince Charles was born to Princess Elizabeth in 1948. Liz became queen in 1953 in a public Coronation arriving in a gilded stagecoach. Andrew Parker Bowles in a stage boy at the same Coronation.
Diana was born in 1961 and was a rebel. She was not an academic and was more into dancing. But nobody saw the rebel side of her, including her parents.In 1969, Charles is Coronated as the Prince of Wales (the official heir to the throne). Elizabeth told Charles that it was a demanding job to be a Prince or a King. Charles said in an interview that when someone in his position has to marry, they chose carefully as the person would be the future Queen of the country.
Diana was 17 when Charles broke up with his girlfriend. A mutual friend introduced the 2 and they started going out. Diana never took unwanted comments and gave some back to Charles, and that's something that attracted him to her. Charles was 13 years her senior and yet Diana was besotted with the attention thrust on her.
When she was 19, she was invited to the Balmoral castle for the Royal retreat. She found Camilla Parker Bowles already there and met her for the first time. Camilla was everywhere Charles was. She went to the races, the polo matches, and was also a guest at the Balmoral. Balmoral was where Charles courted Diana.
Diana and Charles get engaged on Feb 24th, 1981. At an interview they were asked if they were in love, and Diana was exuberant in her affirmation, but Charles responded, "whatever does love mean", which threw Diana off completely.
They get married on July 29th, 1981. Andrew Parker is Camilla's husband and is Charles's very good friend. Diana and Charles were a fairy story that everybody wanted to work. She was a commoner, whose fairy tale had come true. Diana loved Charles desperately.
Soon, the honeymoon was over and within a few months Diana was in depression and openly tearful. By now she knew that Charles loved another woman. Diana did not know how to play by the palace rules as she was a newcomer, and everybody came down on her for doing things the wrong way. Diana felt that she wasn't enough for Charles and was devastated.
In 1982, the Falkland Islands were invaded by Argentina. As Britain went to war, pressure was on Diana to keep on a semblance of normality. She announced her pregnancy. William was born in 1983, and this was Diana's last attempt to save her marriage to Charles. England won the Falkland's war and for a time, everything was well.The concerns about Camilla never stopped. Diana asked her mother not to speak to Charles about Camilla and was determined to continue working at her marriage and hoped that with time things would get better.
Diana became bulimic and the family blamed the bulimia for the failure of her wedding to Charles and not his relationship to Camilla. Diana immersed herself in her public engagements. Diana & Charles were a good team in public but had issues in private.Buddy Manerkie was Diana's security officer who died in 1985, and Diana was very sad at his death. Diana admitted she was intimate with Buddy, but not sexual. Charles knew about Buddy and had him removed from the palace 3 weeks before he was killed.
Ken was the security officer that replaced Buddy. He immediately knew that Camilla was Charles's mistress, and that Diana was not prepared to accept that. Diana approached Elizabeth for help and was rebuffed. As she got more and more isolated, Diana involved herself with social work, starting with AIDS.By 1986, Charles was with Camilla and Diana was having an affair with the captain of the guards. By this time everyone on the royal staff knew that this was a marriage in name only.
At Camilla's sister's birthday, things come to a head when Diana confronts Camilla and Camilla retorts "what more would you want Diana, you have 2 wonderful boys". After this point, Diana gave up all hope of saving the marriage and immersed herself even more in her social engagements, without Charles. Diana was confident, modern, and flirtatious. Not everyone was pleased.
By 1992, 40th anniversary of Liz's rule, Windsor castle was burned, Princess Sarah Fergusson was found in sexual positions with a Texan billionaire and there was a campaign to discredit Diana to separate her from her boys. By Dec 1992, Diana files for divorce. It became a sign of British Nationalism to support Charles.
But Diana built her case with the people and swayed public opinion towards her. She hired a speech coach for the same purpose.Diana started to raise her public profile and people began to ask if Charles would ever become King. In 1994 Charles went on an offensive, where he put the blame of the breakdown on Diana and questioned her competency as a Princess and as a mother and even her sanity.
Diana smuggled the video tapes out of her castle with the help of a good friend. In 1995, she gave an interview to BBC's panorama telling her story. The manner of narrating that story, shocked the Royal family and gave the public sympathy vote to Diana.In 1997, Diana is seeing Dodi Al Fayed, when she and Dodi are killed in a car crash in Paris.
