Diana and the Media

[Queen Claude]

Of course not. Charles was the "star" of the BRF when Diana married him so she expected to get attention as his wife, and she got considerable attention as his girlfriend and fiance. But when things really kicked in Diana and her image became an industry in and of itself and far surpassed the considerable attention that Charles got as a bachelor prince.

[Denville]

Originally Posted by Queen Claude

Of course not. Charles was the "star" of the BRF when Diana married him so she expected to get attention as his wife, and she got considerable attention as his girlfriend and fiance. But when things really kicked in Diana and her image became an industry in and of itself and far surpassed the considerable attention that Charles got as a bachelor prince.

Its hard to say. I dotn think she expected such crazy attention and admiration. At 19 or 20, I don't think she had any idea of the magic quality she had of attracitng the public and the camera "loving her". I think she felt that whatever attention she got would be as C's Princess, and a bit to do with her own looks and her own manner with the public.
Se said in her Martin Bashir interview that she was told that the attention would calm down after she was married, ro then after she had had a baby or 2.. (I may not be remembering exactly), but the idea being that it would cool down in a few years. But it didn't. And later on, she got more sophisticated at charming the public and the press and using her looks and charm deliberatley to win over the public, and push Charles out of the limelight...

[loonytick]

Originally Posted by CyrilVladisla

Did Diana have any idea that her position as The Princess of Wales would be followed as thoroughly by the media?

Absolutely not, because the sheer intensity of attention to her was like nothing that had come before. Not all because of her, mind you.

There were some really big changes in media ownership, tabloid saturation, etc. that roughly coincided with her entry into the royal family. One of the big factors was the Australian Rupert Murdoch buying publications on multiple continents and pushing them to aggressively cover lighter, more gossipy subjects. His success selling those issues created more intense focus on them from his competitors, as well, and his getting the most bang for his buck by sharing stories among his publications in various countries pushed gossipy stuff to be more international (not that it only British readers were interested in the BRF before, but there hadn’t been quite the saturation outside of the UK). And then, just as that new tabloid era was really hitting an ultracompetitive stage, she was introduced. The tabloids were in an arms race and here was this pretty blank slate of a royal fiancée for them to just run with and take advantage of, so they did to an unprecedented degree.

I really don’t think anyone could have anticipated the level of hysteria that sprung up around her because it was the result of a “perfect storm” of circumstances that hadn’t happened before and won’t likely happen again. And I think one of the (many) rifts between her and the rest of the BRF is that they looked at the changing media behavior and adjusted their engagement with reporters into a more locked-down, controlled mode while she instead adopted a method of trying to utilize the attention for good (and, as things broke down more and more, to use it for herself), which only ramped up the interest even more.

But no royal bride prior to her had experienced that crushing level of interest. So how could anyone have anticipated that she would?

[Mermaid1962]

The first criticism of Diana that I remember was in 1982, although I do remember a story that came out on her honeymoon about killing a stag and yelling at Prince Charles because she really didn't want to be out shooting.

Tina Brown's Vanity Fair article came out some time before Charles and Diana's Tour of the USA in 1985. After that article was published, they did the televised interview with Alastair Burnett in an effort to speak against it and other negative stories that were in the press.

Originally Posted by Curryong

AFAIR Tina Brown's article 'The mouse that Roared' in Vanity Fair, inferring that Diana was a woman of steel who was running Charles's life, sacking his staff etc, was the first sign that any journalist wanted to break the mould, and that was in 1986, I believe.

[Denville]

if she killed a stag why would she be "yelling at Charles that she didn't want to be out shooting?" doesn't seem to make sense..
and was she being criticised for shootng a stag or for yelling at Charles>?

[Missy-]

Originally Posted by Denville

if she killed a stag why would she be "yelling at Charles that she didn't want to be out shooting?" doesn't seem to make sense..
and was she being criticised for shootng a stag or for yelling at Charles>?

The story was that she wasn't keen to kill the stag, that she felt Charles pressured her into doing it, thus the outburst.

Mermaid1962, your post reminded me of those days so much, perfect synopsis. There was a time in the beginning where Diana got lots of criticism, from firing staff to getting rid of Charles' lab Harvey. Charles and HM had to intervene with the press at one point iirc.

[Mermaid1962]

The Queen met with newspaper editors late in 1981. I can't remember whether it was her Press Secretary or Private Secretary who spoke to them first. Then HM arrived and chatted with them informally. Well, as informal as the Queen gets in those situations.

[Mermaid1962]

For both IIRC.

Originally Posted by Denville

and was she being criticised for shootng a stag or for yelling at Charles>?

[Denville]

Originally Posted by Mermaid1962

The Queen met with newspaper editors late in 1981. I can't remember whether it was her Press Secretary or Private Secretary who spoke to them first. Then HM arrived and chatted with them informally. Well, as informal as the Queen gets in those situations.

That wasn't because of criticism of Diana, rather the contrary. It was because the Press were so interested in Di, that she was feeling pressured by their constalty being around...

[Denville]

Originally Posted by Missy-

The story was that she wasn't keen to kill the stag, that she felt Charles pressured her into doing it, thus the outburst.

Mermaid1962, your post reminded me of those days so much, perfect synopsis. There was a time in the beginning where Diana got lots of criticism, from firing staff to getting rid of Charles' lab Harvey. Charles and HM had to intervene with the press at one point iirc.

I've heard very various reports about the stag... so who knows what the truth is.
And from what I can remember about the story breaking, it was a bit of a shcok to the public that Diana might take part in blood sports.. so there was criticism of her for that. But I don't remember any story of her "yelling at Charles because he pressured her to do it." It sounds unlikely that he would do that.
She got a bit of criticism for firing staff etc, but that was more the occasional bad story that every royal gets when the "Oh how wonderful she is" mood wears off a bit...By and large her press coverage in the first years was pretty much Postive.. she could do very little wrong...

[Mermaid1962]

You're right, Denville. I was responding to the comment about the Queen meeting the press, not that the comment was specifically about criticism.

Originally Posted by Denville

That wasn't because of criticism of Diana, rather the contrary. It was because the Press were so interested in Di, that she was feeling pressured by their constalty being around...

[Denville]

It was unprecedented because the queen didn't usually do tings like that, but the Press had been very intrusive on Diana, because she was so popular. the public loved stories abouther, no matter how silly or banal.. so she was feeling pressured...