Diana's Nightmare - The Family (11 page)

Charles found that, despite the age gap of twelve-and- a-half years, he could talk to his new partner. Although she cheerfully confessed to reading nothing more challenging than escapist Mills & Boon novellas, Diana had a deeper, more serious side which the receptive Charles found appealing. Her main aim in life, she told him, was to marry happily and to help others less fortunate than herself. Her father's behaviour which had driven her mother away from Park House had left painful emotional scars. The healing process would be helped by finding true love.

She had explained this need to one of her nannies, Mary Clarke, when she was nine years old. 'I can see her now, this child with fair hair down to her shoulders, rosy cheeks and downcast eyes, talking about love,' Mrs Clarke told Geoffrey Levy of the
Daily Mail,
i remember her saying, "I shall only get married when I am sure I am in love so that we will never be divorced". The abiding ambition of this child was simply to marry happily and have children.'

Charles's heart started to rule his head. He responded positively. Many of his own efforts to act as a catalyst, 'to send ripples across the pond to see how far they go', had been unfairly criticised. People laughed at him. Diana sympathised. He missed his great-uncle terribly. Diana comforted him. His spiritual quest had brought nothing but derision of a particularly boorish kind. Diana understood. They began to tune into the same wavelength, even if the music was a confusing mixture of modern and classical. 'Diana realised she had a chance and she was determined to make the most of it,' said a friend. 'But it was more than that; I'm sure she was falling in love and she started to believe Charles might love her.' She was three-quarters right. Charles very nearly fell for her.

An invitation to join the Royal Family on board the Royal Yacht Britannia during the Cowes Week regatta in August 1980, presented Charles with the perfect chance to size up the intriguing young blonde. When she donned the more revealing garb of a figure-clinging swimsuit, he liked what he saw. She was still 'a superb physical specimen'. He became attentive; she encouraged him, laughing at his jokes and treating him like a younger man, but always with respect. She continued to call him Sir.

It was on the banks of the River Dee during a trip to Balmoral, ostensibly to see her sister Jane, that the Press first zeroed in on Lady Diana Spencer. She was spotted watching Charles fish for salmon and the
Sun
reported gleefully on 8 September, 1980:
HE'S IN LOVE AGAIN! Lady Di is the new girl for Charles.
Her nickname had made its first appearance in print, and she hated it from the start. 'She cringes at the very mention of "Di",' said Kevin Shanley. The writer of the story was Harry Arnold, the paper's royal correspondent, who was noted for his Palace contacts. His source on this occasion, however, was Arthur Edwards, the paper's royal photographer. 'A very good friend of mine called Arthur saw this friendship going on at Balmoral,' said Arnold, 'and delivered the immortal words, "She follows him around like a lamb". I took the story from there.'

Charles was perplexed. When he flew to India in the autumn, he sought out the reporter, who was covering the tour. 'I had written that Diana had stayed with him at his new home, Highgrove in Gloucestershire,' recalled Arnold. 'At a reception on the lawns of the British High Commission in New Delhi, the Prince astounded me by walking over and striking up an extraordinary conversation about Diana. "Why do you think she is the girl I want to marry?" he asked me in a tone that was curious rather than aggressive. He went on, "What you don't understand is that just because a girl stays in the same house overnight, it isn't a case of 'Here we go, hooray and whoopee!' In my position I have to live an old-fashioned life." Then he added the prophetic words, "You can afford to make a mistake. I've got to get it right first time."'

'I have since thought long and hard about whether I misinterpreted the meaning of his words,' said Arnold. 'I thought then that he was saying, "How do you know she's the one I'm serious about?" In other words, "How did you rumble me?" I think now that he was very, very unsure - unsure to the point that she was nothing more than another girlfriend at the time and we rather railroaded him. He wanted to know why was I pressing her upon him.'

When Diana visited Sandringham in the New Year, the Royal Family were besieged by newsmen anxious to spot her. Diana knew every twist and turn of the lanes that criss-crossed the Sandringham estate and she used her local knowledge to give newsmen the slip. Her West London home was subjected to a stakeout from eight each morning until after midnight. She was followed to and from the Young England kindergarten in Pimlico. Newsmen were given a merry runaround as Diana became adept at switching cars, jumping red lights and using girlfriends as decoys. Once, she was almost run over. 'Diana was dashing across the road and she and the bonnet of my car ended up making contact,' said Sarah Kennedy. 'She wasn't hurt but it was a near thing.'

Once her initial fright at being followed had been overcome, she worked out a strategy based on a variant of the principle, 'If you can't beat them, join them'. To Diana, it became: If you can't beat them, use them.' She soon learned to manipulate the Press with great skill. This was the aspect of her character that had first concerned Charles over the see-through dress. The pattern now became more obvious. Eyelashes flashing coyly, Diana encouraged journalists to propagate the image of Shy Di, the innocent shrinking violet. Once her uncle, Lord Fermoy, vouched for her virginity ('Diana, I can assure you, has never had a lover'), they stopped looking for previous boyfriends, although a chap called George Plumtre was given the onceover. Young James Gilbey, who lived nearby, barely rated a second glance.

Instead, the Press concentrated on publicising her in a positive way, helped along by little nudges and winks. When her photograph started appearing in print, Diana, naturally enough, took greater care with her appearance. She was more than willing to learn from her mistakes. Thus she started a lasting love affair with her greatest ally, the camera.

'The royal photographers call her Blue Eyes,' said Arthur Edwards. 'She has her eyelashes tinted and it works wonders, giving her a wide-awake look. She has long, long legs and that means she looks good in everything from jeans to a ballgown.' Edwards had endeared himself to Diana one day when photographers blocked her car with empty beer barrels to delay her departure. She promptly burst into tears. The East Ender rolled the kegs away to clear a path and warned her: 'Don't let them see you crying.' 'Diana is a great flirt,' said Mike Lawn, who got to know her well, if you make eye contact with her, she'll start to giggle. She gets this rapport with men like us who she sees around a lot and it's obvious she knows that it makes them feel good. I can't think of any newsman who has met her and doesn't fancy her.'

For Charles, it was time to make up his mind. 'He was under great pressure to get married,' said Harry Arnold. 'The papers were calling him the Clown Prince, he was thirty-something and looking like a bachelor. I believe the Queen said words to the effect, "What's wrong with this one? You've got to marry some day and she seems very likable and attractive and the nation like her already". After a suitable period of vetting, which definitely goes on to see if there are any boyfriends to come out of the woodwork, let alone lovers, it was almost a
fait accompli.
She was crazy about him, but whether she was crazy about the Prince of Wales or Charles Mountbatten-Windsor, we shall never know. Film stars like Robert Redford have experience to fall back upon before they were famous to know if they are attractive to women. But in the case of royalty, they are born to it and it must be a great problem for a man in particular.'

Two days after Charles returned from a skiing holiday in Switzerland in February 1981, he formally proposed to Diana after dinner in the blue sitting room of his
pied-a-terre
at Buckingham Palace. It was the second time he had raised the subject of marriage. Nervously, he had made a trial run when Camilla and her husband arranged a secret meeting at Bolehyde Manor. Legend has it that the Prince of Wales, 'strangely stifled', in Diana's words, first broached the subject in the cabbage patch there, if I were to ask you, do you think it would be possible?' he said. It wasn't a formal proposal, and Diana told friends: 'I couldn't help giggling.' A little prematurely, Camilla opened the celebratory champagne, which was chilling in readiness on the ice. She had known the game plan all along. The Conspiracy had produced a result.

Diana had selected her engagement ring from a tray of rings at a dinner given by the Queen at Windsor Castle. 'The Prince had never been shopping in his life,' said Stephen Barry. 'After dinner, the Prince said to Lady Diana, "Here is the tray". She chose the largest ring on the tray and the Queen's eyes nearly popped out of her head.'

When Diana swanned into Headlines on Monday, 23 February, she found it hard to contain her excitement. Sitting in her usual cream leather chair away from the window, she blurted out to her hairdresser: 'By the way, Kevin, I'm getting engaged tomorrow.' She showed him the engagement ring. He kept her secret, but
The Times,
in a rare breach of protocol, pre-empted the official announcement which was made at eleven a.m. the following morning. An hour later Diana, wearing the sapphire- and-diamond ring (valued at £28,500 in the Garrard & Co catalogue), posed with Charles on the garden steps at Buckingham Palace. She stood one step below him to disguise the one-inch difference in height. The hem of her blue engagement suit from Harrods had been hastily lowered and the crease showed. Charles said that he was 'absolutely delighted and frankly amazed that Diana is prepared to take me on'. Were they in love? 'Yes,' Diana replied swiftly. 'Yes, whatever that is,' murmured Charles.

The Prince had his first row with his fiancée a few days later. After the see-through skirt episode, he thought he had made it plain that she had to dress becomingly. He was absolutely dismayed and frankly appalled when she chose a strapless taffeta ballgown for her first official function on the Court Circular. While the black dress contrasted nicely with her English rose complexion, the plunging neckline drew excited comment from other guests at an opera gala in the City of London. Flashlights exploded like Guy Fawkes' Night as she alighted from a Rolls-Royce outside Goldsmiths Hall and bent down to accept a pink rose from a well-wisher. 'She's been elevated to the cleavage,' quipped one headline writer. If this was the shape of things to come, Shy Di was more intriguing than anyone had thought possible. Charles was furious and he told her so.

This skirmish proved to Diana, still only nineteen, that she was expected to dress, and behave, in a manner acceptable to her future husband. Her own wishes came a poor third after the very particular needs of Charles and the intrusive demands of Palace advisers. Reluctant as she was to become simply an accessory on his arm, or a 'Throne Clone' to suit royal protocol, she was even more terrified of blowing her big chance. Her sense of destiny told her she was the Chosen One, her illness told she wasn't worthy of it.

The situation was saved by the timely intervention of Princess Grace of Monaco, one of the guests that night. Her Serene Highness drew Diana to one side at a Buckingham Palace reception which followed the performance. They chatted privately for a few minutes. 'What shall I do?' Diana asked Grace, according to one of her friends. 'Don't worry, dear,' Grace replied, it'll only get worse.'

Diana relaxed and smiled. Her sense of humour was one of her most attractive qualities. Even though she had been the actress Grace Kelly beforehand, Princess Grace knew all about the problems of switching to the royal stage. 'Sensing the young girl's timidity, Grace went out of her way to put her at ease, an act Diana never forgot,' recalled Steven Englund, Grace's biographer. The feeling was mutual. 'Grace told me over dinner in Monte Carlo that Diana was the daughter she wished she had had,' said an American friend. 'When Grace smiled, you got wobbly — the same effect Diana has on men.' Just over a year after Diana's wedding, Princess Grace was killed in a car crash in which her daughter Princess Stephanie had been injured. Diana represented the Queen at the funeral in Monaco.

Charles's bride had moved into the nursery section at Buckingham Palace not only to be near him, but to be protected from harmful outside influences. When Charles was away on solo royal duties, Diana felt cut off and abandoned. When he was at home, her isolation was even more deeply felt because he often dined alone with the Queen. When she strolled into the Palace kitchens, she was searching not only for between-meal snacks but some company as well. When she ventured outside the Palace walls, Paul Officer never left her side. This stifled any inclination she may have had to share her joy with other people.

Gradually, Diana withdrew into herself, her weight dropped alarmingly, and she began to feel trapped, a prisoner in the Palace that was supposed to protect her. She contacted Fergie, who made the first of several visits to the Palace. The situation had become tricky. Diana, naturally cautious, had hoped Charles would get to know her better during the course of a long engagement. The Queen, however, had told the couple that the wedding should take place without delay. She and Prince Philip were fed up with the fuss. It was disrupting more serious business. By tradition, royal engagements are short, but Diana felt that Her Majesty's advice sounded like an ultimatum. She asked Fergie if she would serve as her lady-in-waiting once she started her duties as the Princess of Wales. Her staunch new friend eagerly agreed, but the Palace vetoed the suggestion. At twenty-one, Miss Ferguson was considered too young, and probably too unruly, to undertake such a responsible position. Her reputation as a Sloane who loved 'going on the toot' was already established in the Chelsea wine bars.

Diana bowed to the pressure and the wedding date was set for Wednesday, 29 July. But it was still not too late to back out.