In 1961, to her parent’s great chagrin, Diana Spencer was born a girl. The child could not ensure the continuation of the family line, for blue blood flowed truest through masculine veins. So disappointed were her parents that for the first week of her life, the child carried no name. The Spencers had given birth to two girls and one boy, the latter of whom had died a year before Diana’s birth. It was a cruel stroke of fate. The Spencer parents were shattered, and they bickered often. At the baptism, in the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene in Sandringham, little about the event seemed to herald the future of a princess. On that day, rays of sunlight shot through the stained glass windows to where the Spencers sat. Diana was entering her new life in faith. The priest poured holy water over her forehead. The child was baptised, but the family’s desire to birth a son in order to carry on their line was stronger than ever. “It was a terrible time for my parents and probably the cause of their divorce, because I don’t think they ever got over it,” Diana’s younger brother would later say. Diana grew up in Park House, on the Sandringham estate. But hers was a small world, and the dice were already thrown; her destiny written out. The British royal family often holidayed at Sandringham, and Diana played with Princes Andrew and Edward, the Queen’s sons.
Tensions continued to fester in the Spencer household, and the parents separated. After the divorce, Diana lived with her mother in London, then with her father, who had found comfort in the arms of a countess whom Diana hated, for she was abusive and unstable. Diana would later describe her childhood “very unhappy.” Diana did not excel in school, and failed her final exams twice. She enjoyed team pursuits, and found school education too individualist. Her life there was solitary, devoid of camaraderie. Despite this, her sense of community spirit won Diana a West Heath award, and although her academic results were mediocre, she developed many other talents including piano, swimming, ballet and tap dancing. After finishing school, Diana worked in various low-paying jobs as a dance instructor, a nursery school teacher, and even as a cleaner or receptionist. This was until one afternoon in 1977 when Charles, the Queen’s eldest son, was invited to a hunt at Althorp, the Spencer family’s 13,000-acre estate. The subject of Charles’ visit was in fact Diana’s older sister, whom he had lately been seeing. Charles announced his presence by rolling onto the estate in an Aston Martin cabriolet. This was the first time Diana and Charles had properly met. The future princess was then aged just 16. “I remember thinking what a very jolly and amusing and attractive 16-year-old she was,” Charles would later recall. “Great fun, and bouncy and full of life and everything.” Sarah and Diana were invited to attend one of Charles’ polo matches in 1980. It was then that Charles began to be seriously interested in Diana as a potential spouse, in spite of his love for Camilla Parker Bowles. The meeting was arranged by the royal family, who were seeking an ideal match.
As the wedding preparations were nearing completion, Charles told his friends that he was having serious doubts. He barely knew Diana, and had only met her 13 times. The night before the wedding, he admitted to his future spouse that he was still seeing Camilla, and that he was madly in love with her. Diana did not know how to react, and was on the verge of calling off the wedding. But the royal family would not hear of it; the eyes of the entire world were on the event, and despite these unhappy auspices the couple were wed.
Diana was just twenty years old. The “wedding of the century” was held in Saint Paul’s cathedral, London, in July 1981. On that day, church bells rang out across the United Kingdom. Crowds amassed in front of Buckingham Palace to witness the union between Prince Charles and Miss Diana Spencer. Union Jacks wafted in the breeze, and the banners fluttered. Teenagers wept as they watched the dream of an entire nation play out before their eyes. The Queen of England’s eldest son and Diana Spencer were about to say “I do.” Thousands of people chanted the prince’s name as his car rolled toward the cathedral. None had ever seen so many people gathered in the streets of London to witness this fairy-tale moment. Thirty-five thousand guests had gathered, and a billion T.V. viewers sat with baited breath in front of their sets, waiting to see the future Princess Diana. She strode down the cathedral’s red carpet, resplendent in her white dress with its twenty-five-foot train.
Alan Alfredo Geday