When did your opinion of Diana change and why?

[TheTruth]

I agree that Penny Junor is probably telling the thruth on this point but she's not a writer I appreciate. Her little pleasure is to bring down Diana for everything and I don't follow her on that, like I wouldn't with someone who would do the same for Charles or Camilla.

To come back to her anger, I think that when the problems started she was angry with herself. She couldn't believe how wrong she had been and why Charles would prefer Camilla to her. There was also the terrible insecurity she couldn't stop even after marrying, the bulimia and so on. All the factors were there to push her a little more down. But then with the fame, she saw that she could have everything she ever wanted and had the support of many. Unconsciously, people around her made her thought and told her she didn't have to take it on herself, that the cause of her unhappiness was created by others. From that moment, her anger turned upon others : that's where all the problems began. I'd say that she was wrong to blame others for all her miserableness but most people around her encouraged this anger so it's very complicated to blame only one.

[Roslyn]

Originally Posted by TheTruth

I agree that Penny Junor is probably telling the thruth on this point but she's not a writer I appreciate. Her little pleasure is to bring down Diana for everything and I don't follow her on that, like I wouldn't with someone who would do the same for Charles or Camilla.

Don't shoot the messenger! If Junor's description of those facts and circumstances is accurate, Diana's conduct was appalling. There can be no excuse for her behaviour which was thoughtless and selfish and apparently designed to cause discomfort to her employee. But she had a long history of behaving inappropriately with respect to employees.

[Skydragon]

Originally Posted by COUNTESS

-SNIPPED-Charles was a CAD, just not a good looking one. He is spoiled, selfish and was a terrible husband-SNIPPED-

You know this how?

Originally Posted by COUNTESS

-SNIPPED - No one of us, has the right to judge how and what she felt when she made these foolish decisions.-SNIPPED

And yet many presume to judge Charles.

Originally Posted by WARREN

Another victim of Diana's erratic behaviour towards friends and staff was Victoria Mendham.-SNIPPED- This time Victoria said she could pay the airfare to the Caribbean but they had stayed at the K Club where beach-side villas cost £1,700 a night, and paying that kind of money was out of the question. When the Princess learnt that her husband had footed the previous bill she 'went through the roof' and Victoria was frozen out as others had been before her."

Oh what a wonderful person she was! Why do people find excuses for all the nasty incidents, she was ill, it was a cry for help, the way she was treated is to blame, she was driven to it, etc, etc.

[TheTruth]

Originally Posted by Roslyn

Don't shoot the messenger! If Junor's description of those facts and circumstances is accurate, Diana's conduct was appalling. There can be no excuse for her behaviour which was thoughtless and selfish and apparently designed to cause discomfort to her employee. But she had a long history of behaving inappropriately with respect to employees.

I didn't say she didn't do it or that it was forgivable Roslyn. Just that I don't believe everything Penny Junor writes.

[Madame Royale]

Diana did suffer a spychological illness. Whether people wish to believe it or not, for whatever ill felt means they grasp, does not change that fact.

[Skydragon]

Diana did suffer a spychological illness. Whether people wish to believe it or not, for whatever ill felt means they grasp, does not change that fact.

Do you have a link to the specialists report confirming that she had an illness, or is it more the case that it is the only way people can excuse the nasty things she did?

She 'may' have had a psychological illness, but that does not explain away many of the things she did.

[ysbel]

I've just deleted an exaggeratedly polite but pointless catfight between two members. The rest of us are not interested in reading your personal comments about each other.

The affected parties will receive pms from the moderating team with explanations later.

ysbel
British forums moderator

[georgiea]

Originally Posted by Skydragon

Bulimia, as I am sure you must know, although now recognised as an eating disorder, manifests for many reasons. To say this was the reason for treating people as she did, is a dis-service to others who 'suffer' from this illness. I would suggest you read some of the books/comments/articles about Diana's childhood, before she 'suffered' from bulimia, when her treatment of people couldn't be blamed on anything but her nature!

Princess Diana as a child treated most of her nannies badly after her mother left her. Skydragon, who else did she hurt? I think her actions to her nannies show a little girl who really hurt for her mother. I never had a nanny, but not having your mother around would hurt me and maybe make me act in ways I would not normal act. She really only had one nanny that worked out - Mary Clark.

Originally Posted by Skydragon

To say that Diana suffered a psychological illness, which is an excuse for her nastiness, without corroborating evidence from a reliable source is lax. For those interested, these are fairly accurate articles about Bulimia, (a subject I have taken an interest in for many years as a close friend 'suffered' from it and she was a really nice person!)

Skydragon, Princess Diana's actions in my opinion show a paranoid person with depression as well as a bulimic. What a terrible combination to have. Her numerous affairs, her Morton Book, the TV interview, and mostly her letter about Tiggy shows (in true form) a person under pressure gets sick with mental illness. It is documented that Princess Diana was still bulimic in 1993 after most of the damage and affairs took place. I don't know if your bulimic friend had a family and husband to love her, but what I have read about Princess Diana is that she really did not have anyone and her friends where all compartmentalized.

It looks like Diana's positive legacy is living on from the response of this thread. My opinion of Princess Diana has not changed or will NEVER change. I liked and admired her because she was human. She showed the world even a Princess could suffer from a mental illness brought on by pressure and still contribute to society in a big way. Just look at the Crown Princess of Japan who is fighting mental illness. The Japan Royal family have her under treatment and hidden from the pressure. If Diana would have done treatment for her illness early in her marriage, she would still be married to Prince Charles. I just wish Charles would have made her do it.

[Skydragon]

Originally Posted by georgiea

Princess Diana as a child treated most of her nannies badly after her mother left her. Skydragon, who else did she hurt? I think her actions to her nannies show a little girl who really hurt for her mother.-SNIPPED - in my opinion show a paranoid person with depression as well as a bulimic

The young girl at school who was taken before the head teacher and the subject of a police investigation to name one, how many girls would go so far as to send hate mail and make malicious calls to a step parent! Diana like most girls of her breeding, would have had a nanny before being sent to boarding school and they don't act in that way, with or without an absent parent. The spite show against some of her nannies is beyond a young girl missing her mother.

The facts are that Diana was never diagnosed with anything, it is only the 'labels' others have given her (or that she gave herself), normally IMO, to excuse her bad behaviour. It is so much easier to say 'she was ill', rather than accept she was not very nice at times.

[ysbel]

Originally Posted by Skydragon

Do you have a link to the specialists report confirming that she had an illness, or is it more the case that it is the only way people can excuse the nasty things she did?

She 'may' have had a psychological illness, but that does not explain away many of the things she did.

I think with Diana's sister's history with anorexia and the fact that her uncle committed suicide, it is safe to believe that Diana suffered from an eating disorder and it makes it understandable that she engaged in acts of self-harm.

I think its a bit simplistic to say that one illness or the other caused Diana to act the way she did but her overall psychological makeup could have been the deciding factor in many of her actions.

Unfortunately I think one of the side effects of Diana's public attacks against the Royal Family is that it encouraged people to want to assign blame to someone for the failure of the marriage. By the Panorama interview, I think Diana wanted the public to blame Charles and the Royal Family and as others have mentioned, Diana didn't sound that convincing on some things in that interview. So if one suspects that message not being true, its tempting to take the opposite stance and say that Diana rather than Charles was the cause of the breakup of the marriage.

But that is simplistic too. I think the truth was that they both made mistakes that they could have prevented however the marriage had severe problems that they could not solve that doomed the marriage.

[jcbcode99]

I never knew that Diana was the subject of a police investigation when she was young for sending hate mail to a step-parent. That is really just over the top. I used to feel sorry for her, but she apparently never learned from the mistakes of her youth and then after marriage to Charles she was excused for all of her actions because she was "unhappy". I find it deplorable that she was not held accountable for her actions.
I know that Diana did a lot for charities and that she had a caring heart and engaging personality, but the way she treated the people in her own life is a direct contrast to the way she wanted to be perceived by the public. Sometimes it just really floors me when I read about how she really was. I konw that many believe that it was Charles' indifference to her that put her over the edge (I doubt he was indifferent to her), but I really do think it all started in childhood, and since she was never held accountable for her actions then, why, at least in her own thinking, should she have been held accountable as an adult? Neither was blameless in this marriage, but the way they conducted themselves was vastly different, and I have to say that Charles showed the most decorum.

[TheTruth]

Originally Posted by ysbel

I think with Diana's sister's history with anorexia and the fact that her uncle committed suicide, it is safe to believe that Diana suffered from an eating disorder and it makes it understandable that she engaged in acts of self-harm...

And like you pointed out, her uncle suicide was another reason why people, and in particular some of Charles' friends, came up with the borderline disease. I'm not saying they were wrong but Diana could be destabilized very easily and for someone with already alot of emotional problems, it can become very depressing. I don't think she was deeply ill, at least not more than the averge person.

[Skydragon]

Originally Posted by ysbel

I think with Diana's sister's history with anorexia and the fact that her uncle committed suicide, it is safe to believe that Diana suffered from an eating disorder and it makes it understandable that she engaged in acts of self-harm.

I have to agree, on the whole, with the majority of your balanced view.

Originally Posted by TheTruth

And like you pointed out, her uncle suicide was another reason why people, and in particular some of Charles' friends, came up with the borderline disease. I'm not saying they were wrong but Diana could be destabilized very easily and for someone with already alot of emotional problems, it can become very depressing. I don't think she was deeply ill, at least not more than the averge person.

Soames suggested Diana was paranoid after the Panorama interview, he never said anything else to suggest she had a BPD. I don't recall any of Charles' other friends making any comment about her mental state.