Princess Diana

Princess Diana (correctly titled: Diana the Princess of Wales) was, without a doubt, one of the most famous and photographed women of all time. Following her official engagement to Prince Charles on the 24th February 1981, the blushing 19 year old was wrenched from obscurity and thrust into the public spotlight. The Royal Wedding took place at St. Paul's Cathedral in front of a congregation of 3,500 guests whilst 600,000 spectators lined the streets outside. These numbers were dwarfed, however, by the 750 million viewers around the world who tuned in to watch the event on their televisions making it the most popular programme ever broadcast at the time.

Just a few months after the wedding, Diana became pregnant and gave birth to her first son William on the 21st June 1982 and later bore a second son, Harry, on the 15th September 1984.

Unfortunately, what the public didn’t realise at this stage was that Prince Charles’ long-running relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles was already putting strain on his marriage to Diana and as the marital relationship broke down, so too did Diana’s relations with the rest of the Royal Family.

Throughout her marriage to Prince Charles, Princess Diana became heavily involved in charity work making numerous appearances at hospitals, schools and other organisations taking a special interest in charitable work relating to serious illnesses including AIDS and leprosy (something most other celebrities steered well clear of). Diana became well-known for her compassionate nature and demonstrated an apparently fragile and sensitive personality that was troubled by depression and eating disorders.

Sadly, after 11 years, her marriage to Prince Charles broke down irrevocably and in 1992 the couple announced their formal separation. Having become the most famous and photographed woman in the world, Diana found it impossible to escape the intrusion of the paparazzi and it wasn’t long before her new relationship with Dodi Al-Fayed (son of Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed) hit the headlines along with intimate photos of Diana and Dodi together on holiday.

As we all know, the story had a tragic ending when Diana and her boyfriend Dodi were killed in a high-speed car accident in Paris on the 31st August 1997 and the nation mourned the loss of the people’s Princess.