Memories of Diana

[Kitty1224]

One thing that really helped Diana's publicity a lot is that she had her phone on speed dial to the Daily Fail and Richard Kay.

True but also she was the most photographed and famous woman at that time so it wasn’t hard to publicized her lol!

 

[Denville]

They wodl not have bothered with her if the public had not wanted to see pictures and stories about her....

 

[O-H Anglophile]

Yes she got more coverage because she was very popular. so did Chalres for a time when she and he were still working together and seen as the young and up and coming heir to the throne and his wife. now the RF has less "mega publicity".. Individual couples like Will and K have their fans, but its not "all over the news' the way it was years ago, when there were less media outlets.

And thank goodness that is the case now--there was a hysteria around Diana and it was disturbing at times.

 

[Osipi]

Actually, I have to believe that all the publicity and front pages and the demand to know what was up with Diana was a double edged sword.

On one hand, they hounded her, they pursued her and they made a lot of money off her but on the positive side, it was the adulation and the crowds that did show their appreciation for Diana which gave her the shot in the arm to boost her self esteem and let her know she was wanted and needed in this world during some very bleak times in her life.

The more we learn and "get to know" Diana, the more we realize just how complex of a woman she really was.

 

[Kitty1224]

They wodl not have bothered with her if the public had not wanted to see pictures and stories about her....

Exactly! Some forget it’s the public who wanted to see Diana and loved her. She was and still is a beloved figure.

 

[Mermaid1962]

And there's the rub. We wanted to see her pictures and read news about her, which increased her value to the papers and the magazines, which in turn created a need for more and more material about her. Then that eventually led to the paparazzi and the legitimate photographers bothering her more. I don't buy magazines like HELLO or PEOPLE any more, because I realize that it was, in part, our desire for Diana's image that led to her death. It was more complicated than just paparazzi harrassment, I know; but it was a factor.

 

[Kitty1224]

And there's the rub. We wanted to see her pictures and read news about her, which increased her value to the papers and the magazines, which in turn created a need for more and more material about her. Then that eventually led to the paparazzi and the legitimate photographers bothering her more. I don't buy magazines like HELLO or PEOPLE any more, because I realize that it was, in part, our desire for Diana's image that led to her death. It was more complicated than just paparazzi harrassment, I know; but it was a factor.

Oh I didn’t know that. I just liked the boilers and collectibles about her that’s all.

 

[Curryong]

Yes, actually there was a wave of anger against the Press immediately following her death. Reporters who tried to move among the crowds outside the Palaces reported it, and it wasn't just rage against Charles or the BRF. I saw it myself.

Columnists who had written negative stories about Diana before her death, papparazi, tabloid editors and certain reporters, magazine editors who had bought photos, were all believed to bear responsibility for her death in the tunnel.

Some received death threats even, and took leave for a week or two until after the funeral and things had calmed down. Some people said they would never buy a magazine again. I guess some kept to that. I haven't bought many since.

 

[Osipi]

I also remember that anger against the press. Back before Diana was killed, going through the grocery store check out, it seemed Diana's face was on just about every magazine and tabloid they had. After her death, at least the grocery store I went to refused to flagrantly display tabloid articles that promised all the "gruesome details" and if I remember correctly, the National Enquirer was even banned for a time and wasn't available for sale.

Perhaps if Diana hadn't courted the media as much as she did in order to "get her story out" and alerted the tabloids of where she'd be and kept feeding them, it wouldn't have gotten so bad. When it finally reached the point where she was getting so much negative press, there wasn't a damned thing she could do about it and most likely regretted courting them.

Richard Kay of the Daily Fail was one of the last people to talk to Diana before she died. That, right there, tells me something.

 

[Mermaid1962]

I remember Diana being big news that last summer because of her holidays and her new relationship with Dodi. Her reputation was really taking a hit for associating with the Fayeds and the headlines were awful.

 

[Kitty1224]

I also remember that anger against the press. Back before Diana was killed, going through the grocery store check out, it seemed Diana's face was on just about every magazine and tabloid they had. After her death, at least the grocery store I went to refused to flagrantly display tabloid articles that promised all the "gruesome details" and if I remember correctly, the National Enquirer was even banned for a time and wasn't available for sale.

Perhaps if Diana hadn't courted the media as much as she did in order to "get her story out" and alerted the tabloids of where she'd be and kept feeding them, it wouldn't have gotten so bad. When it finally reached the point where she was getting so much negative press, there wasn't a damned thing she could do about it and most likely regretted courting them.

Richard Kay of the Daily Fail was one of the last people to talk to Diana before she died. That, right there, tells me something.

I’m talking about Diana as Princess of Wales not when she was not.

 

[Osipi]

Other than mentioning things related to the time of her death, everything in my post related to Diana as The Princess of Wales. She spent much of that time courting the press, cooperated with Andrew Morton on getting her story out and had Richard Kay of the Fail in her back pocket on speed dial. She was very... ermmmm... cooperative in building up the Diana the public saw.

She was only divorced one year and three days.

 

[Denville]

I’m talking about Diana as Princess of Wales not when she was not.

She was still Diana Princess of wales... and still a public figure.

 

[Kitty1224]

She was still Diana Princess of wales... and still a public figure.

I’m talking about when she didn’t court the press like she did after her divorce. I’m talking about when she was an HRH and there was so much fascination for her that’s why I keep bringing back the booklets and collectibles.

 

[Denville]

I’m talking about when she didn’t court the press like she did after her divorce. I’m talking about when she was an HRH and there was so much fascination for her that’s why I keep bringing back the booklets and collectibles.

She courted the press for years before her divorce.....She invited editors to lunch, she briefed her favourite journalists, who included Richard Kaye....

 

[Kitty1224]

She courted the press for years before her divorce.....She invited editors to lunch, she briefed her favourite journalists, who included Richard Kaye....

That wasn’t when she was an HRH from 1981 to 1992 because she didn’t need it. She was well loved and popular.

 

[Osipi]

That wasn’t when she was an HRH from 1981 to 1992 because she didn’t need it. She was well loved and popular.

It sure was. Not only did she court the press but also during her time as HRH The Princess of Wales, she collaborated with Andrew Morton to get "her story" out and then the biggest clincher of all that drove the Queen to insist that they divorce, the Panorama interview. Diana was cunning about that and planned it to be aired on the Queen and the DoE's wedding anniversary.

Diana had the tabloids and the media in her back pocket for the majority of the years she was married to Charles. How she was presented in the media was important to her and she'd spend the morning pouring over the coverage of herself in the daily papers. She truly was the media's "cash cow" at the time.

Correction. Diana was HRH, The Princess of Wales from 1981 to 1996.

 

[Lee-Z]

That wasn’t when she was an HRH from 1981 to 1992 because she didn’t need it. She was well loved and popular.

Had this been a "Facts about Diana" thread you'd be wrong, but as this is a "Memories of Diana" thread you are right (memories are a personal impression).

 

[Denville]

That wasn’t when she was an HRH from 1981 to 1992 because she didn’t need it. She was well loved and popular.

No, she was well loved and popular, but she was courting the press. She tried to manipulate her media image for many years during her marriage and esp during the years she and Charles were separated. He did so to an extent during the separation but Diana did a lot as well, and was more expert than he at managing her image and winning popularity..(and yes she retained her HRH until her divorce in 1996).

 

[Lilyflo]

Diana was an expert manipulator of the media until the beast became too wild for her to control. I can understand why she started doing it because she was forced to live the lie of a happy marriage when from the start she knew her husband loved Camilla more than herself. It ate her up inside & was compounded by the lack of compatibility between her & Charles. He tried to be a good husband but he didn't really know how to because his heart wasn't in it. Diana used the press as a weapon to fight back against what she saw as an establishment plot to keep her quiet about her misery. Her insecurity & disappointment in marriage caused her to fragment emotionally & her life began its downward spiral.

 

[Denville]

I think she was not as expert as she believed. As many people have said she was a good short term manager of her image but she didn't think long term and so ultimately, the press did in effect eat her up. She was clever at getting good stories out abuot herself, but she began to be very obvious in doing this.. and the public got a bit tired of it.. And she did so much media manipulation that the Press I think got a bit sated.. and had little respect for her. During the war of the Waleses she did better than Charles, but the war went on too long and the public I think got tired of it...
Then when they were divorced, she tried to manipulate the press on stoires of "who will be her next boyfriend/husband" and did her best to publicise her affair with Dodi.. because she wanted to take attention away from Charles and Camilla and to tell Hasnat Khan that she had a new rich suitor. But that whole story misfired iwht tragic results.
I don't know if she wanted to use her press skills to get herself out of the RF.. I think that she went on, putting out stories, fighting in the papers and finally went so far that the queen ordered a divorce.. and she was then a bit taken aback that she had In effect talked herself out of the RF. As has been said, good at short term news management but not thinking long term. She didn't seem to realise that eventually it was liely that the public would tire of the story or that the RF would tire of her messing around and would put an end ot the marriage...

 

[Lilyflo]

I agree - as I said, she was expert at it until it got too big for her to control. I also agree about the short term/long term issue. Her ex private secretary Patrick Jephson talked about this in his book too where he touches on how she squandered her assets as a serious force for good & focused too much on celebrity style attention.

 

[Denville]

I think she pushed it to be too big.. She wanted a positon of strength, so that if she divorced she'd get a good settlement and remain popular iwht the public... so that they would still want to see her doing engagements. But I think that during the War of the waleses she went on wth her leaking stories and burnishing her image, a a bit too much, and the public began to get fed up wth her... and this was at a time when Charles was very unpopular.. so she had lost some of the goodwill that she'd built up....

 

[Elan]

It's unfortunate she couldn't find a way to mostly chill out with regard to new found press that circulated about her or Camilla. To want a whole series of particulars presented a certain way, when none of that really mattered and was of no real consequence to her.

Perhaps from habit she was taking herself much too seriously..without a necessary sense of humor. The opposite tack would've been better; embrace somber, quirky stories that showed she could laugh at herself in some way..which she often did, but not publicly.

 

[Curryong]

I don't know that the public were getting fed up with Diana in those last couple of years of her life.

Certainly the Fleet St columnists declared an open war on her. People like Jean Rook, Nigel Dempster and several others were critical and in some cases vitriolic.

However these years were before the London tabloids had online comment sections, talk back radio (BBC) was limited, and there was no social media, so we really do not know what the public at large thought. Certainly glossy magazines with Diana on the cover still sold in their millions.

I was in Britain during those last two years and I can remember people being a bit critical of Dodi as a boyfriend, but there was still tremendous sympathy for Diana among those I mixed with, largely because of her unhappy marriage and how it ended. So those who were completely turned off Diana due to her behaviour on that last holiday etc certainly weren't numerous among my family and friends.

I think there's a danger in drawing conclusions about the public mood towards a public figure at a particular time by solely pointing to press coverage and comment. That's especially true where the London tabloids are concerned. And IMO much of the newspaper columnists' invective towards Diana was due to their feeling (which is around today) of 'We built you up. Now we have a right to pull you down!' Also, I believe they felt that they could attack Diana because she no longer had the protection of being a member of the BRF.

 

[Ista]

As I recall, the Panorama interview was the point at which there was a shift in how the public perceived Diana. It was such an odd interview, and it so clearly had an agenda, and not an agenda that was friendly towards the royal family, that I think it did as much damage to her image as it might have done to Charles's.

I'm not sure the public was fed up, but there did seem to be a little more criticism/objectivity, and a little less OTT adoration.

 

[Curryong]

In Bedell Smith's biography of Diana she examines the public's reaction to the Panorama interview.

'Three quarters of the respondents in a Gallup Survey said she was right to appear on TV and 46% had a better opinion of Diana than before. Eighty five percent believed Diana should be given an ambassorial role for Britain.

Fourteen percent saw revenge as her motive while seventy seven percent thought Diana just wanted to present her side of the story. Eighty four percent regarded her as truthful, seventy four percent found her to be strong. Nearly a third found Diana to be manipulative and one quarter thought her unstable.

In the summer of 1993 only thirty three percent of Gallup respondents considered Charles unfit to be King. After Panorama that number had risen to forty six percent.'

Bedell Smith: Diana In Search of Herself. Page 351.

 

[Osipi]

The end results were that regardless if it was good publicity or bad publicity, Diana was always in the forefront media wise and the public ate it up and came back wanting more. It was big money to get that shot of Diana and the main reason that there was a gaggle of paps around the Ritz hotel on that fateful night.

Mania describes it best when it comes to coverage of Diana. The press learned that they were making big bucks publishing her pictures and her stories. Once the War of the Wales started, the public was given an unprecedented peep through the royal keyhole and the magic and the mystery disintegrated. It was the first time ever that a royal worked in tandem with the media and the results were not pretty. I honestly believe that, in the long run, it set the stage for what would end Diana's life.

 

[Denville]

I tink there was a move towards fed up. People were negative towards Charles as well, so in a way it was significant that there was more criticism of Diana who had been more popular - more the winner in th War of the Waleses. The war went on too long, people got fed up with it. The Press was more hostile, more critical of her. They were indeed in the mood of "we built her up, we can tear her down".. and as she was not a member of the RF any more they were less respectful.
Her relationship with Dodi and the Fayed family didn't win her much liking.. She was taking hospitality from a controversial figure and it seemed she was having one holiday after another in his and Dodi's company..and it seemed like she was trying her best to stay in the news, after complaining all the time that the press gave her no peace...

 

[Lilyflo]

I clearly remember thinking that her life had spiralled out of control & that she was chasing happiness without finding it. I know others around me felt the same too. The reason I know for sure that's how it seemed to us at the time is because I was woken up & told she had died & my first thought was that she'd taken her own life.