About Princess Diana

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Diana Frances Spencer was born on July 1st 1961 to Lord Edward John Spencer and his wife Frances Ruth Burke Roche in Park House on the Royal Estate of Sandringham in Norfolk, England. Diana's father is the equerry to Queen Elizabeth II. She was schooled at the Riddlesworth Hall Preparatory School and the West Heath School, and finishing school at the Institut Alpin Videmanette in Rougemont, Switzerland. Her parents were divorced in 1969 and her father took custody of her, her brother Charles and sisters Jane and Sarah. Diana met Prince Charles in 1977 at a hunting party. He was a friend of one of her sisters.

After her schooling, Diana lived in London with some roommates and worked as a children's nanny at a School in London. The romance between Prince Charles and Princess Diana began when the Spencer family visited the Windsors during the summer of 1980. Their engagement was officially announced on February 24th 1981. Diana was to marry the thrity-two year-old heir to the British Throne. Nearly 600,000 people lined the parade route and another 750 million watched on television as an English girl was married to a British Heir to the Throne for the first time in over 300 years.

Princess Diana and Prince Charles were the parents of two children, both boys. William was their first born and Henry was the second. Diana had problems after the birth of William that hurt her emotionally. Her depression was of concern to many people. However, they were good parents and made sure that their children were well educated and protected from the threats of the world, particularly since there were very high expectations for the sons of the Heir to the Throne.

Princess Diana's life was punctuated with important events and visits to other countries, foreign leaders and other influential people. She was often called on business by the Queen and represented the British Crown abroad. Some of the notable events she attended were as follows: The burial of Princess Grace of Monaco, an official visit to Australia with Charles, where she insisted that William attend or she wouldn't go herself, a visit to Italy with Charles and Princes William and Henry where they had a private audience with Pope John Paul II, a visit to Berlin where Diana became the honorary colonel of the Royal Hampshire Regiment, visits to AIDS victims, a visit to America where Ronald Reagan threw a huge gala in their honor, and many others.

It was almost common knowledge that there was something amiss in the marriage of Diana and Charles and many believed that Diana attempted to commit suicide because of her unhappy marriage. She was also devastated by the death of her father in March of 1992. By the end of 1992, it was clear that the situation wasn't going to repair itself. There were a few attempts by Charles and Diana to save their marriage. But, with all of these problems already in full swing, it was difficult to suppress all the news media's ramblings about unfaithfulness from both sides of the marriage. Charles did eventually admit that he committed adultery while married to Diana, but excused it due to the fact he thought the marriage was already over anyway. The separation of Charles and Diana was officially announced on December 9th, 1992, which was followed by all the procedures of breaking up the family. They were asked by the Queen to end their marriage in 1995, and after some stalling and divorce formalities, they were legally divorced in August of 1996. She was known as the Princess of Wales after the divorce.

Just after midnight of August 31st, 1997, Princess Diana was killed in an automobile accident in the Seine-Tunnel in Paris. The announcement devastated the world, and they mourned the loss of one of the most beautiful and influential women in British, and even world, history. Princess Diana left a legacy that will never be forgotten.

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