Diana Spencer

1. Diana Spencer Author: Ola Piegat 1c

2. She was born at Park House, Sandringham in Norfolk, England on 1 July 1961 at 6.45 p.m. Diana was the youngest daughter of John Spencer,Viscount Althorp, later the 8th Earl Spencer, and his first wife, Frances, Viscountess Althorp. Early life Diana's parents divorced in 1969.

3. Marriage Prince Charles had known Diana for several years, but he first took a serious interest in her as a potential bride during the summer of 1980, when they were guests together at a country weekend, where she watched him play polo. The relationship developed as he invited her soon afterwards for a sailing weekend to Cowes, aboard the royal yacht Britannia. This was followed by an invitation to Balmoral Castle, the Windsor family's Scottish home, to meet his family. Diana was well received at Balmoral by Queen Elizabeth, by Prince Philip, and by the Queen Mother. The couple then had several dates in London. The prince proposed on 6 February 1981, and Diana accepted, but their engagement was kept secret for the next few weeks.

4. Engagement and wedding Their engagement became official on 24 February 1981, with the heir to the throne presenting the princess-to-be with a walnut-sized £30,000 ring consisting of 14 diamonds surrounding a sapphire. Diana accepted the proposal immediately. The 20-year-old became the Princess of Wales when she married Prince Charles at St Paul's Cathedral, which offered more seating than Westminster Abbey, which was previously used for royal nuptials, on 29 July 1981 in what was widely billed as a "fairytale wedding" watched by a global television audience of 750 million. At the altar Diana accidentally reversed the order of Charles' names, saying Philip Charles Arthur George instead. She also did not say she would "obey," which caused a sensation at the time. The wedding started at 11:20 A.M. BST, and Diana wore a gown valued at £9000 with 25 foot train and the finest lace.

6. Children On 5 November 1981, Diana's first pregnancy was officially announced, and she frankly discussed her condition to the press. In the private Lindo wing of St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington on 21 June 1982, Diana gave birth to her first son and heir, William. There was some controversy in the media when she decided to take William, still a baby, on her first major overseas visit to Australia and New Zealand. A second son, Harry was born a little over two years later on 15 September 1984.Diana was a devoted mother and lavished her sons with love, cuddles and affection. They came first and foremost in her life. It was she who chose their schools, their clothes and planned their outings. She also negotiated her public duties around their time-tables. Prince William Prince Harry

7. Problems and separation In the early 1990s, the marriage of Diana and Charles fell apart, an event at first suppressed, then sensationalised, by the world media. Both the Prince and Princess of Wales allegedly spoke to the press through friends, each blaming the other for the marriage's demise. Charles resumed his old, pre-marital affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles. Asked what part Camilla had played in the break-up of her marriage, Diana commented during the BBC programme Panorama, "Well there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded." During the Panorama television interview, shown on 20 November 1995, Diana confirmed she had an affair with her riding instructor, James Hewitt. Charles had confirmed his own affair over a year earlier in a televised interview with Jonathan Dimbleby. The Prince and Princess of Wales were separated on 9 December 1992. While she blamed Camilla Parker-Bowles for her marital troubles, as early as October 1993, Diana was writing to a friend that she believed her husband was now in love with Tiggy Legge-Bourke and wanted to marry her.On 3 December 1993, Diana announced her withdrawal from public life. Cammila Parker-Bowles Wife of Prince Charles

8. Divorce In December 1995, the Queen asked Charles and Diana for "an early divorce". This followed shortly after Diana's accusation that Tiggy Legge-Bourke had aborted Charles's child, causing Tiggy to instruct Peter Carter-Ruck to demand an apology. Two days before this story broke, Diana's secretary Patrick Jephson resigned, later claiming that Diana had "exulted in accusing Legge-Bourke of having had an abortion". On 20 December 1995, Buckingham Palace publicly announced that the Queen had sent letters to Charles and Diana advising them to divorce. The Queen's move was backed by the Prime Minister and by senior Privy Councillors, and, according to the BBC, was decided after two weeks of talks.Prince Charles immediately agreed with the suggestion. In February 1996, Diana announced her agreement as well. The divorce was finalised on 28 August 1996.

9. Life after divorce After the divorce, Diana retained her apartment in Kensington Palace, completely redecorated, and it remained her home until her death. She publicly dated the respected heart surgeon from Pakistan, Hasnat Khan, who was called "the love of her life",for almost two years, before Khan ended the relationship due to cultural differences. She soon after began her relationship with Dodi Al-Fayed. These details were confirmed by witnesses at the inquest in November/December 2007. After her divorce, Diana worked particularly for the Red Cross and campaigned to rid the world of land mines. Her work was on a humanitarian rather than a political level. She pursued her own interests in philanthropy, music, fashion, entertaining and travel—although she still required royal consent to take her children on holiday or to represent the UK abroad. Without a holiday or weekend home, Diana spent most of her time in London, often without her sons, who were with Prince Charles or at boarding school.

10. Charity work AIDS awareness In April 1987, the Princess of Wales was one of the first high-profile celebrities to be photographed touching a person infected with HIV at the 'chain of hope' organization. She contributed to changing the public opinion of AIDS sufferers. Landmines In January 1997, pictures of the Princess touring an Angolan minefield in a ballistic helmet and flak jacket were seen worldwide. It was during this campaign that some accused the Princess of meddling in politics and declared her a 'loose cannon.In August 1997, just days before her death, she visited Bosnia with the Landmine Survivors Network. Her interest in Landmines was focused on the injuries they create, often to children, long after a conflict is over. She is believed to have influenced the signing, though only after her death, of the Ottawa Treaty, which created an International ban on the use of anti-personnel Landmines Starting in the mid- to late 1980s, the Princess of Wales became very well known for her support of several charity projects. This stemmed naturally from her role as Princess of Wales—she was expected to engage in hospital visits where she comforted the sick and in so doing, assumed the patronage of various charitable organisations—and form an interest in certain illnesses and health-related matters. Diana was a supporter of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a campaign that went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997.

11. Death The entrance to the Pont d'Alma tunnel, the site of Diana's fatal car accident. On 31 August 1997, Diana died after a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris along with Dodi Al-Fayed and the acting security manager of the Hôtel Ritz Paris, Henri Paul, who was instructed to drive the hired Mercedes-Benz through Paris in order to elude the paparazzi. Their black 1994 Mercedes-Benz S280 crashed into the thirteenth pillar of the tunnel. The two-lane tunnel was built without metal barriers in front of the pillars. None of the four occupants wore seat belts. Despite lengthy resuscitation attempts, including internal cardiac massage, she died at 4 a.m. local time. Her funeral on 6 September 1997 was broadcast and watched by an estimated 2.5 billion people worldwide.

12. An eighteen month French judicial investigation concluded in 1999 that the car crash that killed Diana was caused by Paul, who lost control of the car at high speed while intoxicated. Since February 1999, Dodi's father, Mohamed Al-Fayed (the owner of the Hôtel Ritz, for which Paul worked) has claimed that the crash was a result of a conspiracy, and has since contended that the crash was orchestrated by MI6 on the instructions of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. An inquest headed by Lord Justice Scott Baker into the deaths of Diana and Dodi Fayed began at the Royal Courts of Justice, London on 2 October 2007 and was a continuation of the original inquest that began in 2004. A jury decided on 7 April 2008 that Diana had been unlawfully killed by the grossly negligent driving of chauffeur Henri Paul and press photographers. The following day Mr. Fayed announced he would end his 10 year campaign for the sake of the late Princess of Wales' children.