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CNN Special Reports
CNN Special: Diana: Chasing A Fairytale. Aired 9-10p ET
Aired May 12, 2018 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[21:00:13]
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CLARISSA WARD, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, HOST: The most famous and photographed woman in the world. A princess with style and substance. A loving mother.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Diana was absolutely born to be a mother.
WARD: A passionate advocate.
PRINCESS DIANA OF WALES: I've been trying to highlight a problem that's going on all around the world.
WARD: Through it all her every move scrutinized and scandalized.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was followed everywhere and frankly (ph) she found that time very difficult.
WARD: Behind the flashbulbs a life marred by loneliness.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She wanted her freedom. She wanted a life.
WARD: The tragedy that took her life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Princess Diana at the age of 36 has died.
WARD: Left the world devastated and in disbelief. Twenty years later, what do we know?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She went to her lawyer and said they're going to kill me and here's how.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She knew something was wrong.
WARD: Friends, family, those who were there speak out about Diana. A woman who transcended celebrity and transformed a monarchy. Diana, Chasing A Fairytale.
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CLARRISA WARD: Fall 1980, a non-descript apartment in the fashionable section of London called Kensington. Crowds of photographers, cameras ready anticipation great. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The media were pursuing her like nobody's
business.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rumors had begun to get around that she was the new girl on the block.
WARD: She is 19 year old Lady Diana Spencer, the new girlfriend of the most eligible man in the country. The chase begins.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Diana was the story.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was followed everywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think she found that time very difficult.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well she was completely alone.
WARD: No police. No security. No bodyguards. Lady Diana Spencer maybe dating the next King of England but she is not yet an official member of the royal family. So she is not entitled to any protection.
DICKIE ARBITER, ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: The attention that Charles and Diana were getting was unprecedented.
WARD: In 1980, Dickie Arbiter was a Royal Correspondent and later became the Palace's Press Secretary.
ARBITER: The palace wasn't making any attempt to control the media interest because they weren't aware or didn't believe at the time that there would be such media interest.
WARD: But there is an almost insatiable interest. Perhaps in part because Diana is bit of a mystery. Not a familiar fixture on the trendy London social scene, everyone wants to know who she is, where she comes from and if she has what it takes to be the next Queen of England. Diana grew up in the countryside. She was a country girl.
DR. JAMES COLTHURST, FRIEND OF PRINCESS DIANA: Absolutely. Loved it. Very familiar with it.
WARD: Dr. James Colthurst was a childhood friend of Diana's. The Spencer's leased a house on the Queen's country estate at Sandringham. Now Leonard Cheshire's Park House Hotel for Disabled People, then it was where Diana grew up and where Prince's Andrew and Edward often came over to swim.
COLTHURST: She had a childhood that was in a very aristocratic circle. She was very used to that lifestyle.
WARD: She is the third child of Viscount John and Lady Francis Spencer. Heart of the wealthy upper class, her parents were married at Westminster Abbey in 1954.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was indeed a brilliant occasion and likely to be remembered as the wedding of the year.
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WARD: Attended by the Royal family.
CHRISTOPHER ANDERSEN, DIANA'S BIOGRAPHER: You'd think the world was her oyster but in fact she had a desperately unhappy childhood.
WARD: According to Diana biographer Christopher Anderson, before she was born the Spencer's had been hoping for a boy. A son to follow two older daughters.
ANDERSEN: She had once said when I was born I was unwanted. When I married Charles I was unwanted. When I joined the Royal Family I was unwanted. I want to be wanted.
DICKIE ARBITER: Every child wants to be noticed. Every child of a certain age, look at me. Look at me Daddy. Look at me Mommy. Aren't I clever? And I suppose it effected Diana more.
WARD: More Arbiter says because of what happened in - -
[21:05:13]
WARD: - - 1967. Diana's parents divorced. The fight was ugly as was the public custody battle over the children.
CHRISTOPHER ANDERSEN: Her mother left the family, abandoned her. And from that point on Diana was kind of caught in the crossfire of her parents through a very, very bitter divorce. And I think that affected her tremendously.
MARY CLARKE, PRINCESS DIANA'S FORMER NANNY: She'd those iron cast eyes for which she became very famous. And she was very shy.
WARD: Mary Clarke was Diana's nanny at the time.
CLARKE: Her parents divorce had quite a profound effect on her. She said I will never, ever marry unless I'm really in love. Because if you're not in love, you're going to get divorced and I never intend to be divorced.
WARD: Johnny Spencer was given full custody of the children. They tried to settle back into their quiet life here at Park House in the English countryside. But more big changes were yet to come. By the time Diana was 15, her father was remarried. Her grandfather had passed and Johnny Spencer had inherited a huge estate called Althorpe.
CHARLES SPENCER, PRINCESS DIANA'S BROTHER: The main hall is called (inaudible) Hall and that's (inaudible) wonderful marble floor. And I remember one of her great fads were accompanists at tap dancing and it was perfect for that.
WARD: Living at Althorpe was quite an adjustment from the country home where Diana and her brother Charles grew up. CHARLES SPENCER: The inside of the house, very formal. There wasn't
even like a family chit-chat room. It wasn't fun growing up in this house.
PENNY WALKER, PRINCESS DIANA'S FORMER TEACHER: I think there was an awful lot of unrest in her home life.
WARD: But teacher Penny Walker says life at the West Heath School, 100 miles from home was full of fun and friends.
WALKER: She was part of a really lively group. They were fun and they were not naughty and they giggled a lot.
WARD: And of course, they talked a lot about boys.
WALKER: She was always known to adore Prince Charles and her little bedroom cubicle had pictures of him all over it. It was common knowledge.
WARD: Then one weekend Diana returned to school with a story to tell.
WALKER: She came back alive with this and said, I've met him. I've met him.
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PRINCE CHARLES OF WALES: What I remember thinking what a very jolly and amusing and - - and attractive 16 year old she was. And I mean great fun and fancy and full of life and everything.
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CLARISSA WARD: But not a love interest yet. It took a few more years for that jolly teenager to blossom into a beautiful, charismatic young woman. She didn't take a bad photo.
DR. JAMES COLTHURST: Not a bad photo and even then - -even looking bored at the end of a day, you know, it was good.
WARD: Winter 1979 in the French Alps, Diana was almost 18 on a ski trip with friends.
COLTHURST: She was great looking of course but the striking thing I think was the humor and the engagement. She was just fun to have in the group.
MARY ROBERTSON, TELEVISION PRODUCER: She was an absolute vision.
WARD: American Mary Robertson noticed how special Diana was soon after that ski trip. She interviewed her for a job when Diana first settled in London. Did you know that she was from an aristocratic family?
ROBERTSON: I should have known with that wonderful accent, the flawless manners, the poise.
ROBERTO DAVORICK, FASHION DESIGNER: She was in a way a sophisticated country girl.
WARD: Close friend and fashion designer Robert Davorick.
DAVORICK: She has no sense of fashion whatsoever. She didn't care even. And I think she never thought the magnitude of what her life was going to be.
WARD: While she doesn't yet know how big her life will become, Diana does feel it will be distinct. Once saying, I knew that something profound was coming my way and I was just treading water waiting for it. Soon treading water in a sea of sharks. The lonely journey to the palace when we come back.
[21:09:55] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:13:42] PAUL BURRELL, QUEEN'S PERSONAL FOOTMAN: It was 1980. The Queen said to me, we have a guest coming to stay for the weekend and would you meet her at the front door of Balmoral Castle.
CLARISSA WARD: It's early September in Scotland. Paul Burrell, the Queen's personal footman welcomes 19 year old Lady Diana Spencer.
BURRELL: I met this shy young girl with one suitcase and I took her to her room. And she said, I am completely out of my vet (ph). I don't know anything about this place. Charles invited me to stay the weekend and what do I do?
WARD: Despite being from an aristocratic, well-connected family, Diana is not prepared for a weekend with the Royals, especially the Queen. She has after all only been dating the Prince for a month. She has no clue what to expect, what to do and what to wear.
BURRELL: I brought my dress. I said, one. One dress? You're here for three nights. I'm going to have to find you other dresses.
WARD: Did you recognize something special in her even then?
BURRELL: She was innocent. She was naive. But she was special.
WARD: Royal photographer Arthur Edwards sees it too.
ARTHUR EDWARDS, ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHER: I'm driving along the river bank. The River Dee up in Balmoral when I see Prince Charles - -
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EDWARDS: - - fishing and with him is Lady Diana Spencer.
WARD: It's not the first time he stumbles upon the couple. Weeks earlier he spotted Diana at one of Prince Charles' polo matches. She's got this sort of natural pose doesn't she.
EDWARDS: Yes. Just really - - I mean she just - - just a matter of course.
WARD: Then Edwards filed the picture away thinking 19 year old Diana was too young to be dating 31 year old Prince Charles. Now, seeing the couple together again alarm bells go off.
EDWARDS: I'd take some pictures of them fishing. He gets angry with me. Prince storms off. They both storm off. He runs through the woods. All the girlfriends before have always been by his side. This one, you know, he's hiding. You know, he's protecting.
WARD: But Prince Charles cannot hide or protect Diana anymore. The picture of them makes the front page. When she arrives at work Monday morning she finds her world turned upside down.
MARY ROBERTSON: She said, Mrs. Robertson I have something to tell you.
WARD: Diana works part-time as a nanny for American Mary Robertson.
ROBERTSON: She looks down, blushes. She said, when you leave for work this morning, you'll notice that there are some reporters and photographers. They're actually here for me. I said, what have you done? And she said, well I spent last weekend up at Balmoral Castle and I guess - - I said was it Prince Andrew? And she said, no actually it was with Prince Charles.
WARD: Prince Charles, the country's most eligible bachelor. Diana, once anonymous is now famous.
ROBERTSON: I think it was overwhelming but she would still try to come to work because she couldn't spend her life cooped up in her apartment.
ARTHUR EDWARDS: She was good humor. Sometimes she'd stop for a chat.
WARD: But she never stops for an interview or poses for a photograph. That is until late September 1980 at this London kindergarten where Diana works part time.
EDWARDS: She came out with two of the children from the nursery and halfway through taking the picture the sun came out and we saw those beautiful legs. The headline was Charlie's girl and she was, I think a little disturbed about it. Because I think she said to someone I'll be the only girlfriend that never had a petticoat.
WARD: Diana knows one media misstep could impact her relationship with Charles. She'd seen it happen to her older sister Sarah several years earlier.
EDWARDS: Sarah talked about us about that brief romance with the Prince of Wales. They went skiing together. She said, I don't care for (inaudible) or King of England. I'd have to be in love to marry that person.
WARD: Soon after came the end of Sarah's royal romance. And Diana has not forgotten.
ROBERTSON: I remember Diana saying that when the phone rang at her flat she didn't want to pick it up for fear it would be Sarah prying into what was going on with Diana. And she just didn't want to talk to anybody about it, not even her own sister.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How are you coping with all the press attention?
PRINCESS DIANA OF WALES: Well as you can see, you can tell.
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DR. JAMES COLTHURST: I think she was very protective of him.
WARD: But every once in a while in private, a very giddy, very love struck 19 year old confides in those close to her.
ROBERTSON: She would gush about him. How intelligent he was, how perfect he was.
WARD: Her perfect Prince and most agree she could be the perfect Princess.
PAUL BURRELL: She'd never had a boyfriend. She was completely pure, untouched. The most eligible woman in the land to marry the heir to the throne.
WARD: So was she a perfect mate for Charles?
BURRELL: On paper, yes she was.
WARD: And by winter 1980 he's running out of time. Prince Charles is 32 years old. The future king needs to settle down to marry and to produce an heir to the throne.
MARY ROBERTSON: You just knew from the buzz in the air there was a lot of pressure on Charles to take a suitable mate.
WARD: Was it an arranged marriage?
PAUL BURRELL: Diana's grandmother, Lady Ruth Fermoy was Lady in Waiting to the Queen Mother. Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother doted on Charles and whispered in his ear about this beautiful young girl.
[21:20:16]
BURRELL: It was a set up.
DICKIE ARBITER: I think the phrase that she would be the perfect brood mare.
WARD: Brood mare.
ARBITER: That's how they viewed Diana.
WARD: For rearing children basically.
ARBITER: Right. Right. Charles would have to decide whether he wants to marry her. But who couldn't want to marry that beautiful young thing. And he thought that she would tow the party line.
WARD: Tow the party line. Behave like a royal and always put the monarchy first no matter what the circumstances.
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PRINCESS DIANA OF WALES: Pretty amazing.
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WARD: In February 1981, barely six months after they started dating it become official. Charles and Diana are engaged.
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PRINCESS DIANA OF WALES: Wonderful sapphire and diamond.
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WARD: It is Diana's first official press appearance.
PAUL BURRELL: I watched this young girl appear on the terrace for the world's media. A lamb to the slaughter really.
WARD: A lamb to the slaughter.
BURRELL: An innocent brought into this dynastic family. She was entering into something which she had no comprehension of.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Has it been a strain trying to carry out a courtship without anyone knowing?
PRINCESS DIANA OF WALES: Yes it has. But I think anyone in the position we've been would feel pressure (inaudible).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WARD: An intense pressure Diana seems willing to endure.
DR. JAMES COLTHURST: I think she was absolutely determined to have it work out.
MARY ROBERTSON: I knew how badly she wanted this and I was just so happy that she was going to get her dream.
WARD: But there are already signs of trouble ahead with the world watching, the reporter asks Charles and Diana if they are in love.
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PRINCESS DIANA OF WALES: Of course.
PRINCE CHARLES OF WALES: Whatever in love means.
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ROBERTSON: That should have been her tip-off right there. It never occurred to me that if he really didn't love her at the start that he would learn to love her. And I believed in the fairytale completely.
WARD: Everyone does, including Diana. But her prince charming many insiders now say is following his duty and not his heart. Charles' true love Diana will soon find out is for someone else. When we come back. Diana crumbles with the world watching.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The bride to be burst into tears at a polo match.
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[21:22:58] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:26:50] CLARISSA WARD: Goldsmiths' Hall in London. Diana's first public appearance since her engagement to Prince Charles. As the royal car pulls up Diana mischievously peers out. Prince Charles knows why.
ARTHUR EDWARDS: When he got out of the car he said do you want to see what's coming next?
WARD: A new Lady Diana Spencer emerges.
PAUL BENNETT, PHOTO EDITOR: So starting the firing gown the whole of her life in blazes of camera lights and attention.
WARD: Photo editor Paul Bennett.
BENNETT: When she got out of the car and that shawl dropped I thought, just hope you know what you're doing girl.
ARTHUR EDWARDS: She wore this fantastic dress. I'll never forget. But very low cut and showed everything that she had.
WARD: Diana picked it herself says designer Elizabeth Emanuel.
ELIZABETH EMANUEL, FASHION DESIGNER: For the first time she looked like a princess, very glamorous and I think that was quite a transforming dress for her.
WARD: It's all anyone can talk about.
EMANUEL: The very next day the budget was going to be announced. All of that went to the back pages and all there was on the front pages was Diana wearing the low-cut dress getting out of the car.
WARD: Despite the public attention, Diana is increasingly isolated and lonely. Right after the engagement, Diana moves out of her flat away from friends and family. She now lives at this royal residence Clarence House. MARY ROBERTSON: I think it was very atypical run up to the wedding.
You know when you're stuck inside those walls, it's not a totally joyous, free fun experience.
WARD: Do you think she felt lonely?
ROBERTSON: I'm quite sure she felt lonely.
WARD: Diana writes letters to stay connected.
ROBERTSON: I am continually surrounded by grown-ups and sometimes search for my own age group.
PAUL BURRELL: I think she's desperately lonely and she sought friendship downstairs. It was odd with Diana. She spent more time downstairs with the staff than she did upstairs with the guests.
WARD: Making matters worse, Charles is often absent.
ROBERTSON: She definitely expected to get a whole lot more support and reassurance and guidance from him and that didn't materialize.
WARD: One month after their engagement Charles departs for a five week world wide royal tour.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His fiance Lady Diana Spencer saw the Prince off at London's Heathrow Airport. She kissed him twice then walked away with tears in her eyes.
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DR. JAMES COLTHURST: It was a time when most girls might expect to be very happy and I think she retreated a bit. And she wasn't very happy. She didn't like being seen when she was unhappy.
WARD: Behind closed doors, Diana is developing a serious eating disorder. Something she'll struggle with for many years to come.
PAUL BURRELL: She's a young girl. She has - -
[21:30:15]
BURRELL: - - bulimia. She didn't know how to cope with it.
ELIZABETH EMANUEL: We were surprised at how much weight she lost. She was 19 and I suppose like a 14 but as we continued to make this dress she lost so much weight. And she was transforming into a size 8, a model size.
WARD: At Diana's request Elizabeth Emanuel and then husband David are now designing the world's most anticipated wedding dress.
EMANUEL: We had packed the press outside our door. We had people across the road renting space so that they could just look through our windows.
WARD: The dress is kept in a secret vault with security guards protecting it around the clock. She came to a lot of her fittings alone.
EMANUEL: Yes. I think a couple times she brought her mother and then she was there with the bridesmaids. But yes, she was on her own with a detective who waited outside.
PAUL BURRELL: She didn't really know what she was stepping into. And I do think she had second thoughts on whether she would get married to the heir to the throne of England. I had second thoughts about whether she wants to be queen one day.
WARD: And second thoughts about the Prince's true feelings.
BURRELL: I think Diana always knew that Charles was in love with someone else.
WARD: That someone else, ex-girlfriend Camilla Parker-Bowles. Diana later says in tapes she secretly records, that before the wedding she overhears Charles on the phone with Camilla. He says to her, whatever happens I will always love you. Charles maintains they were just friends at the time.
BURRELL: She thought she could change him. She's a beautiful young thing. She thought she'd turn his head. And he would fall desperately in love with her.
WARD: But things don't change. The pressure on Diana is mounting.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The bride-to-be burst into tears at a polo match.
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CLARISSA WARD: Shortly before the wedding somehow it gets worse.
CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON: Diana discovered a bracelet that Charles had made for Camilla. And the bracelet had the interlocking letters F and G which stood for Fred and Gladys. And these were the secret nicknames that Camilla and Charles had for one another. Diana was devastated.
WARD: The night before the wedding guests are arriving at Buckingham Palace for a ball.
MARY ROBERTSON: She said, oh Mrs. Robertson I'm so glad you're here.
WARD: But as soon as the long receiving line ends, Diana slips away.
ROBERTSON: We did not see her for the rest of the evening so this was troublesome. I gather she was upstairs that evening talking to her sister saying maybe this isn't going to go the way I hoped it would. DR. JAMES COLTHURST: One of the sisters said actually tough. It's
tomorrow. You're image is on the tea towels and it's on the mugs and all the other merchandising. You're - - you're going to have to go ahead with this.
WARD: No turning back.
COLTHURST: Exactly.
WARD: The next morning July 29th, 1981 is the wedding day.
ELIZABETH EMANUEL: We were waiting at the top of the stairs at the parents house for the coach to arrive. And there was silence, complete silence from everybody. I think that was the moment it really sunk in that - - how big this occasion was. Because we could hear the crowds outside yelling and cheering.
WARD: The streets of London are packed. An unprecedented 752 million people are watching the pageantry, the majesty, the unbridled excitement as the horse drawn carriage carries Lady Diana Spencer to Saint Paul's Cathedral.
EMANUEL: She looks like a butterfly emerging from the chrysalis. Completely different world for her. She was going to be a princess.
WARD: As she drifts down the aisle, the only word that seems to fit is fairytale. But her friends know better.
MARY ROBERTSON: She looked tentative. She looked pale. She looked tense.
ROBERTO DAVORICK: She's looking to the left. She's looking to the right. She's looking if Camilla's in the church. And Camilla was in the church and that was the beginning of what then became a nightmare.
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PRINCE CHARLES OF WALES: I, Charles Philip Arthur George, take thee Diana Francis - -
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PAUL BURRELL: Diana was a romantic.
[21:35:14]
BURRELL: She dreamt of falling in love with a prince. She kissed him and she thought that frog would turn into a prince. Years later she said to me, I kissed a frog and found a toad.
WARD: Diana confronts Charles and Camilla when we come back.
[21:35:33] (COMMERICAL BREAK)
[21:39:29] CLARISSA WARD: From the high seas to the windy shores August 1981 is the summer of love for the world's most watched newlyweds.
PAUL BURRELL: They were having a wonderful honeymoon. She loved being Mrs. Wales.
DICKIE ARBITER: He couldn't keep his hands off her. They'd - - they'd be on public engagement and his hand would wander to her bottom and he's squeeze it in public. That was something had never been seen by the royal family and certainly never done.
WARD: And no one has ever seen a princess quite like Diana.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you cooked her breakfast yet?
PRINCESS DIANA OF WALES: We don't eat breakfast.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[21:40:16]
CLARISSA WARD: At just 20 years old she is the new star of the Royal family. Something Prince Charles seems at the time to accept, even enjoy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRINCE CHARLES OF WALES: On our recent three day visit to Wales, which was overwhelming is all I can say. And entirely (inaudible) to the effect that my dear wife has had on everybody.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WARD: Diana wants to be the perfect princess. To bear an heir is her most important duty and just months after her historic wedding she accomplishes it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In England, glasses are raised in pubs and messages of congratulation come from the House of Commons to news that Princess Diana is expecting a baby.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WARD: Anticipation and excitement builds. Crowds fill the streets outside the hospital. Finally, June 21st, 1982 a son is born, Prince William Arthur Philip Louis.
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PRINCE CHARLES OF WALES: He's in very good form. He's marvelous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WARD: From marriage to motherhood in less than a year and then a little more than two years later Prince Harry arrives.
MARY ROBERTSON: Diana was absolutely born to be a mother. She was just the most devoted committed mother you can imagine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRINCE WILLIAM: Believe it or not, you and I are both in this photograph.
PRINCE HARRY: Why?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WARD: The Princes' recently spoke in depth about their mother for the first time in a documentary on ITV.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRINCE HARRY: She would just engulf you and squeeze you as tight as possible. And being as short as I was then, there was no escape. You were there. And you were there for as long as she wanted to - - to hold you. Even talking about it now I can feel the hugs that she used to give us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CLARISSA WARD: Different, many believe from royals in the past.
CHRISTOPHER ANDERSEN: She was really the first royal to connect with her own children. Charles had been raised by nannies. He did not go to school as a young boy. She made sure that both of her sons went to nursery school. They were around other children.
WARD: And like most mothers, Diana drops them off at school. But unlike most mothers the entire world is watching.
KEN WHARFE, PRINCESS DIANA'S BODYGUARD: We got into the car outside Kensington Palace and I just turned to him and said now Sir William when we get to the school you've got to behave yourself. Because there will be lots of photographers OK. So no mucking about. And I go, do you understand that? And he sort if hummed and hawed and he sort of looked below the peak of his cap and he said, I don't like "togrophers". Given that they were sort of locked in a royal palace for most of their life, she wanted to give them as near a normal lifestyle as possible.
PAUL BURRELL: They were exposed to people on the street, homeless, people with HIV and Aids. They saw life, real life.
WARD: A normal life or as normal as Diana can make it.
WHARFE: Diana would take them to, you know burger bars in Kent High Street or go shopping for fish fingers in a supermarket. You know, go into the cinema. Going go-kart racing. The sort of things that other children did.
WARD: But while Diana shines as a mother, she struggles as a wife.
CHRISTOPHER ANDERSEN: I think she felt she could bring Charles around but it never happened. He never fell out of love with Camilla.
WARD: All these years later, Charles former flame Camilla Parker- Bowles is still in the shadows.
PAUL BURRELL: So from the very early days, Camilla was always there. On honeymoon, Diana found the cuff links. Charles were two intertwined C's.
WARD: For Charles and Camilla.
BURRELL: Camilla. And Diana said, oh lovely Chanel cuff links. Not Chanel.
DR. .JAMES COLTHURST: I think she understood at that stage that maybe this was going to become quite a big issue.
PAUL BURRELL: Prince Charles had produced his heir and a spare and gave him the opportunity then to return to a former life.
WARD: He spends more time away from Diana at his estate Highgrove.
BURRELL: The princess would arrive every weekend with the boys and leave on a Sunday afternoon. And Camilla was the next visitor an hour later. So one went out of the front door and one came in the back door.
CHRISTOPHER ANDERSEN: At one point Diana actually confronted Camilla.
WARD: It is Camilla's sister's birthday party, February 1989.
KEN WHARFE: And I don't think the crowd expected Diana - -
[21:45:16]
WHARFE: - - either.
WARD: She is on a mission to find Camilla. Bodyguard Ken Wharfe is there.
WHARFE: We eventually went to this basement area in this house and there was Camilla and Charles sat towards each other.
WARD: Diana confronts her about the alleged affair. Something Camilla has never acknowledged. Diana later tells a reporter, Camilla is not willing to leave Charles. Saying, you've got everything you've ever wanted. You've got all the men in the world to fall in love with you and you've got two beautiful children. What more do you want?
CHRISTOPHER ANDERSEN: And Diana said, yes but this is my husband. The situation was just intangible for someone like Diana. I mean, as Diana herself said, you know, there were three of us in this marriage from the start. So it was a bit crowded.
KEN WHARFE: Diana had realized there was no chance or little chance of a reconciliation.
WARD: Did she seem depressed or humiliated or upset after the experience?
WHARFE: The thing about that, what I - - I remember the following day was probably the brightest and liveliest that I've actually seen her in some time and there after. There was a huge build of confidence.
WARD: Confidence Wharfe says to go solo and at 27 years old chart her own course. Or as Diana once described it, cut my own path.
ARTHUR EDWARDS: We went to Nigeria to a leper colony and she was literally holding the lepers hands. We went to Brazil and she held babies born with HIV.
DICKIE ARBITER: When Diana went to a hospice she would sit on the bed and hold the patient's hand. When Charles went to a hospice he'd stand by the patient and he'd be very sympathetic. They had a different approach. Diana was touchy feely.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRINCESS DIANA OF WALES: And as a mother - -
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WARD: And it's not just actions but Diana's words that are different.
DR. JAMES COLTHURST: So this is how a speech might turn out. She'd send the one from the organization with a little post-it note attached saying I wonder what your views are. And she wrote a bit.
WARD: Old friend James Colthurst helps Diana craft new, more personal speeches. It's April 1991.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRINCESS DIANA OF WALES: HIV does not make people dangerous to know. So you can shake their hand and give them a hug. Heaven knows they need it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLTHURST: This was a game changer for her. Normally her appearance at a charity might get a mention in the inside pages just to say she'd been there. The first speech ended up being reproduced verbatim on the front page of the two broad sheets. It was a big moment.
WARD: Princess Diana the advocate is an instant star.
PATRICK JEPHSON, PRINCESS DIANA'S PRIVATE SECRETARY: Particularly as Diana came more accomplished, more sure of herself, more confident it seemed her husband but also some in his family saw Diana for - - was a bit of a mystery, but ultimately with hostility.
ROBERTO DAVORICK: The people were going crazy about her and he was like a shadow next to her.
DICKIE ARBITER: Diana goes one side of the road. Charles goes to the other side of the road. The side that got Diana cheered. The side that got Charles jeered. And that's how it was all the time. So it was difficult. And yes, he probably did get resentful. She was on the front page of newspapers. Lead story on - - on television it was always Diana.
WARD: Publicly Prince Charles jokes about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRINCE CHARLES OF WALES: Well I've come to the conclusion that really it would have been far easier to have had two wives to cover both sides of the street. And I could have walked down the middle directing the operation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WARD: But privately by the early '90s Charles and Diana are living separate lives.
DICKIE ARBITER: They do a state banquet or something involving a state visit together and then Diana would come back here and Charles would go back to Gloucestershire to Highgrove. So Diana came back here alone. She led a lonely existence. She was a prisoner.
WARD: And desperate to let the world know. It's February 1992. Touring India, Diana goes to the Taj Mahal without Charles. That picture somehow came to be emblematic of the end of a marriage and also of her loneliness.
ARBITER: Yes. Tilting her head to one side. You know, sort of putting her head down. She was very good at that and there were all sorts of interpretive headlines. Wistful, pensive, thoughtful.
WARD: And you think that was deliberate on her part?
ARBITER: Up to a point yes. It was deliberate.
CHRISTOPHER ANDERSEN: Diana was a master manipulator of the media. She was someone who was very shrewd.
[21:50:14]
CLARISSA WARD: That is until the summer of 1992, when we come back.
DICKIE ARBITER: And she phoned me at 5 and said what do I do? I said your Royal Highness you're already done it. I suggest you pour a very large scotch.
[21:50:30] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:54:28] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUEEN ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF ENGLAND: 1992 was not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CLARISSA WARD: A startling and revealing admission from the notoriously private and composed Queen Elizabeth.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUEEN ELIZABETH: It has turned out to be an anest (ph) or ribulous (ph).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WARD: Declaring 1992 a horrible year.
PATRICK JEPHSON: She actually found a very neat way of saying, yes it's tough and I don't mind telling you it's tough.
WARD: Tough times that start early February in Jaipur, India. Diana is at a - -
[21:55:15]
CLARISSA WARD: - - polo match with Charles. After his victory, the Prince goes in for the ceremonial, celebratory kiss from his Princess.
ARTHUR EDWARDS: This is the kiss that missed. This is when the Prince was expecting to get a kiss on the lips and the prize.
WARD: (inaudible) moment.
EDWARDS: Got the booby prize I'm afraid. Yes, she turned her head.
KEN WHARFE: I think it did signify to the world at that point exactly where the state of the marriage was and this wasn't unexpected. It was just waiting for a sort of royal admission that things were really wrong here.
WARD: But according to palace insiders, Charles is not about to do that. They say the people on his team have other ideas.
PATRICK JEPHSON: They set out to diminish Diana in the public's eyes. This was an attempt to intimidate us. It was a bullying tactic.
WARD: What Diana's private secretary Patrick Jephson calls a smear campaign that he says began in 1991.
JEPHSON: For Diana's 30th birthday Charles wanted to throw a birthday party for her. And she saw this as a PR stunt so that his people could say, look, here he is, the loving, devoted husband putting on a birthday party for her. Her reluctance to have a big birthday party was prominently reported on the front page of the tabloids.
CHRISTOPHER ANDERSEN: And these are the kind of games that they played throughout their marriage to win over the public through manipulating the press. And no one could do it better than Diana. DR. JAMES COLTHURST: She was determined to say something. There was
no stopping there. It was inevitable I think as a vent for the anger.
WARD: So Diana asks her old friend for help.
COLTHURST: I said a book would be a better format than a mad article or TV thing. Because she - -she could have control of it.
WARD: A book like no other. Diana's own story personally told to a reporter of her choosing, Royal watcher Andrew Morton. But Diana can't be seen meeting with Morton here at Kensington Palace so she hatches a secret plan. It was almost like you were in a sort of James Bond movie kind of.
COLTHURST: It was much simpler in a way than people make.
WARD: Starting in the summer of 1991 Colthurst bikes to Kensington Palace as he has for years to visit Diana. But this time he carries a small tape recorder and a long list of questions hidden in his bag.
COLTHURST: Cycled, then had lunch. Made a few questions before lunch and a few after and then - - then off again.
WARD: Off to deliver the tapes to Andrew Morton who weaves them into a revealing book. More revealing than anyone expected.
COLTHURST: She was very open indeed about everything. Indeed to a level to where I was almost worrying - - cautioning about what was being said.
WARD: From her struggles with bulimia, depression, to her husband's alleged infidelities and her multiple suicide attempts one of them happening when she was just three months pregnant with Prince William.
COLTHURST: She threw herself down the staircase and Charles just went out the door and she was very badly bruised. It apparently didn't affect her pregnancy.
COLTHURST: This was a letter - -
WARD: By the end of 1991, the book is finished and Diana is getting ready.
COLTHURST: - - obviously we're preparing for the volcano to erupt and I do feel better equipped to cope with whatever comes our way.
WARD: Was she excited by that?
COLTHURST: I think relieved.
WARD: Book excerpts finally hit the newsstands in June 1992. How did you know she was behind it?
DICKIE ARBITER: It was too much in it not to have her fingerprints all over it.
WARD: Diana panics.
ARBITER: She phoned me at 5 and said what do I do? I said your Royal Highness you've already done it. I suggest you pour a very large scotch.
PATRICK JEPHSON: She got condemned for speaking, for revealing the truth. Rather than having the royal establishment respond to the - - to the message, they just shot the messenger.
WARD: And while the palace doesn't support her airing of royal dirty laundry, many ordinary people relate to her.
COLTHURST: She had huge letters of support saying that she - - you've done a pretty good job in a public role. So, you know, don't back off.
WARD: Was she concerned at all about how this might effect the boys?
COLTHURST: I think she was mostly concerned but if she kept being crushed, as she saw it, by the system that would be more damaging for them.
WARD: The war of the Wales' is on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARY TILLOTSON: We're talking about the troubles for the Royal House of Windsor.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They might not love each other at all but they love themselves very greatly.
WARD: From the - -
[22:00:16]
