40 Things You Never Knew About the Late Princess Diana
Lady Di was full of surprises.
Princess Diana was a trailblazer, activist, style icon, and one of the most influential people of the 20th century. Although she lived much of her life in the spotlight, under oppressive scrutiny, there's much you probably don't know about the beloved late royal. From her favorite fashion designer and pre-royal working life to her taste in music and her parenting style, here are 40 things to remember about the People's Princess.
She was the fourth of five children.
Princess Diana had two sisters, Sarah (now Lady Sarah McCorquodale) and Jane (now Lady Jane Fellowes), and a younger brother, Charles Spencer (now the Earl Spencer). Her other brother, John Spencer, died hours after his birth in January 1960, a year and a half before Diana was born.
Her parents divorced when she was 7.
Diana's parents, Frances Shand Kydd and Edward John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer, divorced when she was just seven years old. Diana's parents had a tumultuous relationship, and she cited cheating and physical abuse as some of the reasons for their separation.
Her grandmother was a lady-in-waiting to the Queen Mother.
Diana's maternal grandmother, Ruth Roche, Baroness Fermoy, was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. This meant she acted as a personal assistant and a companion. She was a close friend to the Queen and organized many of her parties.
She grew up on the Sandringham estate leased from Queen Elizabeth.
Sandringham House is located in Norfolk and is owned by the royal family. On the grounds is Park House, where Princess Diana's mother Frances was born in in 1936 and Diana was born in 1961. The estate is a royal family staple and Sandringham House hosts many of the family holidays.
She wanted to be a ballerina, but was too tall.
Diana studied ballet and wanted to become a professional dancer, but grew too tall to continue. Diana's ballet teacher Anne Allan opened up about her time with the princess in 2017, saying “she had dance in her soul. I realized the pure enjoyment that it gave her. She loved the freeness of being able to move and dance... I could see it helped to alleviate her emotional life."
She became Lady Diana after her father inherited a title.
Diana became Lady Diana Spencer in 1975, after her father inherited the title of Earl Spencer. "Lady Di" became her nickname, even after she got the title of Princess of Wales when she married Prince Charles.
School was not her strong suit.
Up until she was 9 years old, Diana was homeschooled before attending boarding school for the rest of her education. She failed her O-Level exams twice and dropped out of school when she was 16. She attended school in Switzerland for one semester before she met Prince Charles.
She worked as a nanny and a teacher.
Before she met Prince Charles and became a princess, Diana worked many odd jobs, including as a nanny and a school teacher. She was paid only $5 an hour to play with children, do laundry, and clean. She also worked as a kindergarten teacher part-time in London's Pimlico area.
She was the first royal bride to have a paying job.
When she married Prince Charles in 1981, Diana became the first-ever royal bride to have had a paying job ahead of her engagement to an heir. (The Duchess of Cambridge was the first royal bride to have earned a university degree.)
Prince Charles dated her older sister first.
Sarah and Diana were very close and often traveled together until the end of Diana's life. Diana said that Sarah was “the only person I know I can trust."
She was a distant cousin of Prince Charles.
Diana and Charles were actually distantly related. They were 16th cousins once removed, both descendants of Tudor King Henry VII.
Prince William is also related to his wife Kate Middleton. They are 12th cousins once removed, related through Sir Thomas Leighton. Leighton is Prince William's 12th generation great-grandfather, and Kate's 11th.
She only met Prince Charles 13 times before they got married.
Before they were engaged in 1981, Charles and Diana had only met about a dozen times. At the time, Diana was just 19, and Charles was 32. "They had only been together 12 times and at one point Prince Phillip pressured his son and said, 'You have to do the right thing.'" said Susan Zirinsky, senior executive producer of Princess Diana: Her Life, Her Death, The Truth.
Her wedding dress was record-breaking.
Diana's ivory taffeta wedding dress was made by husband-and-wife design team David and Elizabeth Emanuel. The gown boasted over 10,000 pearls and a 25-foot-long train, one of the longest royal trains the world had ever seen.
She was the first to give birth in a hospital.
It was royal tradition for heirs of the throne to be born at home. However, Prince William was the first future monarch born in a hospital, as Diana gave birth to both William and Harry at the Lido Wing at St. Mary's Hospital.
Her parenting style was very unconventional for a royal.
Diana was no ordinary royal mom. She was determined to raise Prince William and Prince Harry as "normally" as possible, including sending them to public school, taking them on public transportation, and bringing them fast food restaurants, on public transportation.
Her parenting style was very unconventional for a royal.
"She made sure that they experienced things like going to the cinema, queuing up to buy a McDonald's, going to amusement parks, those sorts of things that were experiences that they could share with their friends," said Patrick Jephson, Princess Diana's chief of staff for six years.
Catherine Walker was her favorite designer.
Diana's private couturier Catherine Walker had a "quasi-sisterly bond" with the princess. Walker designed many of Diana's most iconic looks and is given credit for her signature style.
Catherine Walker was her favorite designer.
On wearing a white halter dress designed by Walker in 1996, Diana wrote to the designer, "I was so proud and felt very confident to stride out there and deliver my first speech since the divorce. The compliments about your design and expertise would have made your ears burn."
She always wrote a "thank you" card.
Diana was famous for writing thank you cards to anyone that gave her a gift. She reportedly wrote thank you notes to the thousands of people who brought gifts to Prince William after he was born. Today, some of her handwritten letters have been auctioned off for anywhere from $2,000 to $2o,000, depending on the content and uniqueness of the note.
Sabrina Park is a Digital Fellow at HarpersBAZAAR.com where she covers news, fashion, and culture stories. When she’s not writing she loves hanging out with her cat, reading outdoors and scrolling the depths of TikTok.
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