The royal family often dominate the headlines, with the late Diana, Princess of Wales being one of the most photographed women around the world.
When Lady Diana Spencer became engaged to Prince Charles in 1981, she was a shy nursery teacher’s assistant.
Their wedding at St Paul’s Cathedral was watched by millions and Diana was then thrust into the world of the Firm, finding her feet at public engagements and her charitable interests.
Despite her growing confidence in the latter years of her life, one royal commentator told HELLO!’s A Right Royal Podcast that she still experienced nerves around meeting people.
“I talked to Diana shortly before she died, she did tell me that she still got nervous going out and meeting people if there’s been something unkind written about her in the newspapers that day,” Majesty Magazine’s editor-in-chief Ingrid Seward reveals on the latest episode of the podcast.
Ingrid describes the moment she was summoned to the palace after Diana read an article she’d written that she didn’t like.
“Now, this is obviously something that’s passed on to Harry because Diana used to read all the time, everything that was written about her, which is how I came to be chatting to her because I’d written something about her in the Daily Mail and she didn’t like it so she got her secretary to call me and said, ‘Get Ingrid round here. We need a girly chat’.”
Speaking about her tea with the royal, Ingrid says: “I was really excited. It was wonderful. It was absolutely wonderful. I was very lucky to have that, I spent the whole morning there. So I was very lucky to have that opportunity.
“Diana was an interesting person because she talked to me like she had known me all my life. She was quite intimate with people. And that was another one of her character traits.”
Our guests talk about the challenges faced by those marrying into the royal family. Listen to the full episode here…
Royal expert and journalist Victoria Murphy also shares her thoughts on how she thinks the Prince and Princess of Wales will change things around the intensity that has traditionally come with joining the Firm.
She says: “I think we’ve already seen William show a very significant determination to change the trajectory. He did that himself for him and Kate. He saw what happened with his mother, he saw that his parents got married very quickly, and they clearly actually weren’t very happy.”
