I’m not Princess Diana photos that you would agree. However, as the rest of his generation, Celia McCorquodale not necessarily keep discretion. And Celia’s granddaughter late she princesses.

21 years old, the young girl on facebook posted a series of photographs that have caused uproar in Britain. In one of them, a young man drinking alcohol in her cleavage, and in another, Celia poses in the Queen consort Prince Philip in his arms.

Romanian language: 

   Nu sunt genul de fotografii pe care Prinţesa Diana le-ar agreat. Totuşi, precum restul generaţiei sale, Celia McCorquodale nu ţine neapărat la discreţie. Iar Celia e nepoata răposatei prinţese.

     În vârstă de 21 ani, tânăra a postat pe facebook o serie de fotografii care au stârnit rumoare în Marea Britanie. Într-una din ele, un tânăr bea alcool din decolteul ei, iar într-o alta, Celia pozează în Regina Elisabeta a II-a în braţele Prinţului consort Philip.

 Born in France in 1943, Demarchelier is a renowned French fashion photographer. In 1989 Demarchelier became the official photographer of Diana, Princess of Wales, becoming the first non British photographer for the Royal Family. He is also responsible for the several Vogue cover shoots she modelled.

 Testino

Testino was the photographer responsible for the engagement images of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Like Patrick Demarchelier, he too has produced some of the most famous images of the late Princess Diana, including her Vanity Fair cover. He has also produced work for fashion publications and brands such as Burberry, Gucci and Zara.

David LaChapelle

Well known for his vivid and sexualised images, David LaChapelle has photographed the likes of Madonna, Tupac Shakur, Lil’ Kim and Naomi Campbell. He grew up loving photography and the first photograph he took was of his mother in a bikini holding a martini glass whilst they were on holiday. Last year the photographer was also linked to singer Rihanna after she was accused of using some of LaChapelle’s work in her S&M video.

On the night of 31 August 1997, Diana and Dodi, and bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, were in a car driven by Henri Paul, Al Fayed’s security chief, pursued by a pack of paparazzi on motorbikes and in cars (including a white Fiat Uno that was never found). While speeding through an underpass the car, veering to the right as it attempted to pass a slower vehicle, spun out of control and crashed into a pillar. The car was left a mangled mess and the driver and Dodi were killed instantly, leaving Rees-Jones seriously injured and Diana near death. Rees-Jones survived the accident but, following surgery to restructure his jaw and set a broken arm, he lay in a coma for several weeks and has little memory of anything after the car left the hotel. Diana’s injuries were fatal.

What the Theorists Say:

Allegedly, the Royals were horrified by Diana’s liaison with Dodi for a number of reasons. Firstly he was a Muslim and any children they had in the future (the step-siblings of the future king) would be Muslim – which might create an unprecedented scandal. As well as this, Mohammed Al Fayed had been engaged in a long battle with the British government over their refusal to grant him a British passport.

Seeing his son married to the mother of the future king would have been a remarkable personal triumph for Mohammed Al Fayed and a corresponding slap in the face for the Royals. “Make no mistake, they were about to become engaged,” Mohammed Al Fayed told the Sunday Times in June 1998. “I have no doubt that on her return to Britain, the princess would have discussed Dodi’s proposal with her sons.

A widely held theory is that Diana was already pregnant when she was killed and that this information is being used by the Royal family to limit the amount of access and influence that Diana’s family have to her sons. Even more outlandishly, it has been suggested that Diana was not the target of the ‘accident’ at all. Rather Dodi was the target and it was unfortunate that Diana was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

One of the paparazzi involved, James Andanson, was found dead in mysterious circumstances in May 2000. He owned a white Fiat Uno. Not long after his death, his photo agency, Sipa, was raided by armed, masked men.

Former British intelligence officer Richard Tomlinson suspects that MI6 planned and executed the ‘accident’, causing Paul to crash by blinding him with a strobe flash-gun, in a version of the operation that had been originally planned for the assassination of the Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. CCTV cameras covering the route were inexplicably turned off.

Paul had received mysterious payments – Tomlinson suggests he was an MI6 informant. It has since come to light that in 1996 Diana recorded on tape her fears that Prince Charles would try to have her murdered…in a staged car crash.

The Official Story?

Paul is alleged to have been an alcoholic who was taking prescribed medication. The only witnesses who claim to have seen a bright flash in the tunnel are unreliable or possibly non-existent. Diana was known to be paranoid, so wild accusations against Charles may not be surprising. Extensive French judicial investigations have dismissed any conspiracy theory.

Should you be paranoid?

Al Fayed and others claim the investigations were a farce, that Paul’s blood samples were doctored to make it appear he was drunk and that any accusations of alcoholism were unfounded. However, even suspicious minds have to admit that if it was a plot, it was ill-conceived, because if Diana and Dodi had been wearing seatbelts, thy probably would have survived.

Voluntary Abdication of King Edward VIII (1936)

The Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson during their June 1937 wedding in France.

Great Britain owes its mystic and charm from the legendary monarchs who ruled the nation with natural compassion and magic since the Norman conquests. It holds a profound fascination among the adoring subjects who are mesmerized with pomp and pageantry of royalty. For more than four centuries, this powerful nation enjoyed prosperity and progress and hardly encounters humiliating headlines, consequently, no Kings in history dragged the nation into uncertainty and shame for a very silly reason-woman. But the nightmare of the highest throne on earth came into reality when Edward VIII, posed an uncomfortable situation in 1936 that eventually provoked a constitutional crisis.

Three months after his accession, Edward VIII, expressed his intention to marry his mistress as soon as she is free to remarry. For almost a year, the King is besotted with the American commoner, Wallis Simpson, once divorce and currently undergoing a troubled second marriage. To the royal family who uphold duty and tradition and to the British ministers who are as morally conscious as the King’s subjects, Edward’s choice of a wife is unthinkable. For a largely despised woman, who has nothing but two failed marriages in her name, to be called Queen of the British Empire is simply outrageous, so disgraceful that British Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, threatened to resign if Edward will proceed to marry the despicable Mrs. Simpson.

For several months, the country is plunged into anxiety and tension as the King struggled to keep his balance between emotion and decorum. His ministers were equally under pressure as they scrambled to steer Edward’s consciousness back to the weight of his duty, but then the monarch already conditioned his brain to give up the throne in case it is inappropriate to remain King and marry Mrs. Simpson.

Edward VIII, known to his family as Prince David before his accession, was the eldest child of Queen Victoria’s grandson King George V, he was often recognized as the most popular Prince of Wales in history. As heir apparent, Prince David had spent most of his life trying to balance things expected from him and at the same time struggled to create his own happiness, but as a future monarch, David, was not accorded to live a comfortable life of freedom, his every move and decision magnified to the public and any actions not conforming to his future role always ended up in criticism. But the Prince, in an effort to live a normal life, sometimes defied rules that his father often felt if David should need to be exorcised to be aware that he couldn’t just act freely, without considering the position of the monarchy.

His public appearances and speeches were mostly loaded with derogatory comments at the expense of Britain that King George V always cringed with anger. Still single at the age of 39, the peculiar immaturity behavior of David, and his inconceivable choice of pleasure, greatly disturbed his father. This made George V wished that his second happily married son Prince Bertie, the Duke of York, should take over the throne and eventually Bertie’s eldest daughter Princess Elizabeth, to save the British Empire from the possible disaster under David’s reign.

When the King heard that David is intensely involved with a married woman Wallis Simpson, he was finally convinced that his son had a brain of a moron. By the end of the summer holiday in1935, sensing his health is deteriorating, George V, rewrote his last will and disinherited Prince David financially, the elderly King redistributed his eldest son’s inheritance to his nieces and nephews, in case of David’s own accession, he would be forced to rely more on the crown’s property limiting his unnecessary expenses.

At the end of his life George V wanted to curse the primogeniture succession that barred his second son from succeeding the throne, though the King fretted Bertie’s stammering habit and nervousness in public, he admired the Duke of York’s happy and peaceful family life, which he believed, is very crucial in the survival of the monarchy. George V died on January 1936 from pneumonia, David immediately ascended as Edward VIII and his scandalous love affair became known to his subjects who despised Mrs. Simpson.

By this time Wallis Simpson is now free to marry as she divorces her second husband, but a divorce woman is a dreadful choice for a wife of a ruling British King. The British royal family warned the love-struck King that such decision could badly harm the future of the establishment, but Edward was too childish to take his family’s pleading. This prompted his private secretary, Sir Allan Lascelles, to comment: “It would be better for England had David was not born”. Finally, the cabinet ministers quickly moved forward to solve the crisis before the King plunged his nation into deep hysteria. After intense deliberation on the silly issue of romance, the Commonwealth Ministers arrived in a unanimous decision: either abdicate or abandon Mrs. Simpson.

On the snowy morning of December 11, 1936, the inevitable happened. Edward chose to announce his irrevocable voluntary abdication statement at the Clarence Tower of Windsor Castle. His voice echoed on the four corners of the earth, uttering such statements: “I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility to discharge my duties as King as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love”. Hearing what might have been the greatest theatrical piece to hit the planet since Romeo and Juliet, the world was shocked to hear him relinquished his empire just because of a woman with unbecoming background and who was dismissively called by his mother, Queen Mary, as “unholy lover”. But the King felt happiness and contentment would be too impossible without Mrs. Simpson at his side.

The night after his abdication, David banished from the British royal court forever, he left for Austria and joined Wallis Simpson in France six months later where they wed weeks after his brother’s coronation as King George VI. He was created Duke of Windsor with His Royal Highness status and would receive a lifetime allowance and pension for renouncing his title and inheritance. But the royal status was withheld to Wallis who took the name Her Grace the Duchess of Windsor, a rank given to a wife of a British Duke without the privilege of royalty. It was also agreed that their future children and descendants will never bear any royal titles and will not be eligible to succeed the British throne. Luckily for the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, they never had children.

Queen Mary was very furious with Edward’s decision that she refused to recognize Wallis Simpson as a member of the British royal family. Until Edward’s death in 1972 from throat cancer, Wallis never received a propriety gesture from the British royal family for creating acrimonious crisis in 1936. Edward VIII remained controversial in the anal of British history, he was the only British monarch to give up the throne voluntarily and one of the few monarchs in history to ascend but not crowned. Despite being ostracized from his Empire, the Duke of Windsor’s body was buried at Frogmore, a crown property near Windsor Castle next to Queen Victoria, her husband Prince Albert, her mother the Duchess of Kent and Queen Maria of Yoguslavia.

Watergate Scandal (1974)

This is the scandal that finished the second term of the 37th US President, Richard Nixon. Watergate scandal, which gone through different phases from Watergate to Saturday night massacre to Smoking gun, runs for two years before it stirred and crashed the hard walls of the Nixon Administration.

37th US President, Richard Nixon

The Watergate name was taken from a Watergate Office complex, a group of five buildings near John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the old cluster of structures in the neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The Democratic National Committee headquarters in 60s and 70s were found on the sixth floor of Watergate Office building. In June 1972, at the height of the reelection bid of Richard Nixon, a Republican, the headquarters were reportedly entered by five men who burglarized and photographed important documents and wire tapped telephones. It was later revealed after thorough investigations that the perpetrators were ordered by high ranking officials of the Nixon administration.

Seven men were then arrested, tried and convicted for conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping law violations. While undergoing a heated investigation, one of the accused wrote a letter to the trial judge holding the case that he was under political pressure to accept the crime, he then implicated several high ranking government officials of President Nixon. It was then revealed that one of the perpetrators of the June 1972 break-in was a security aide of President Nixon. Initial investigations showed that huge money was involved and thousands of dollars were transferred to the bank accounts of the burglars, their accounts directly showed the link to the 1972 Committee to Reelect the President. On October 1972, FBI reports also revealed that the Watergate incident was part of a massive campaign for political spying, sabotage by heads of Nixon re-election campaign. But despite this scandalous political affair, Richard Nixon won his reelection bid on November 7, 1972 through a historic landslide victory. His second term would eventually sink into the weight of scandal two years later.

Richard Milhous Nixon, who was born on January 9, 1913, was the only President in the history of the United States to resign from the office. He had a very interesting track record, a Lawyer before joining politics, he had served as Lieutenant Commander in the US Navy during World War II. After the war he was elected into Congress, representing the 12th congressional district of California in 1946 and in 1950 he won a California seat in the Senate.

In 1952 Presidential election, he was the running mate of Republican Presidential candidate Dwight Eisenhower, a decorated Second World War General who was serving the Allied forces as supreme commander. As war veterans always leave remarkable marks to the memories of the people, the two war heroes easily won. Nixon, who was only 39 years old when he was elected, became one of the youngest Vice Presidents in American history. In 1960, he became the Republican standard bearer but was lost to the young Massachusetts senator John F. Kennedy. In 1968, the year Kennedy’s brother Robert F. Kennedy assassinated, Richard Nixon run again under the Republican ticket, this time he won over Hubert Humphrey the man who picked the torch of the Democrat party after the death of the younger Kennedy.

Nixon’s most immediate job after swearing his oath of office was to find a resolution to the worsening Vietnam war where many American soldiers died each day, either from exhaustion, bullets or starvation. He easily waged a reelection campaign in 1972 but his victory was greeted with scandals that ultimately cost his political career. At the height of this political controversy, Nixon tried to deny his involvement for the cover-up in the Watergate break-in incident but succeeding evidences of the investigation was later on revealed that he had a tape recording system in his White House office and recorded many conversations.

The Supreme Court eventually ordered that the President must hand over the tapes. By this time impeachment in the House of Representatives started brewing and most of his allies already turned against him. It was found out that while the President was not directly involved in the break-in, he was deeply involved in the cover-up. Facing a possible impeachment trial, President Nixon tried to save face by announcing his resignation as US President on August 8, 1974. On the following day, Nixon read his resignation speech to the nation, and on that same day his family moved out from the White House and returned to California. He was succeeded by his Vice President Gerald Ford, who issued a pardon to Nixon a year later.

Richard Nixon, the 37th US President, became the favorite topic among political debaters and analysts since then, dissecting his involvement to the scandal and the political environment and status during and after it happened. After his retirement in politics, Nixon became a writer and took many trips abroad. Through his personal effort, he succeeded in rehabilitating his image as a credible statesman by promoting goodwill on behalf of his beloved country. He died in April 22, 1994 at the age of 81 from a stroke.

The Chappaquiddick Incident (1969)

Senator Edward Kennedy, dubbed as America’s most effective senator

For most of his life, Senator Edward Kennedy, was known to the world as the “last of the Kennedy brothers”, he carried the same genes of the Kennedy that made them famous and legendary through out history–charisma, appeal and intellect. After the assassination of his older brothers John and Robert, many believed he would rise in American politics and live up to his ultimate political destiny—the White House. There’s no reason to doubt after all, he belongs to America’s most charmed and fabled political family and had served the state of Massachusetts as Senator quite a number of years since the seat was vacated by his brother John after becoming President in 1960. He possesses an oratorical skill that made him a famous senator. However, succeeding circumstances and turn of events drastically changed his destiny, steering him to a different direction away from the White House—Forever.

Edward Moore Kennedy or Teddy to his family was the youngest of nine children, four boys and five girls, of former US Ambassador to Great Britain Joseph Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald. The Kennedys are staunch Catholics whose roots descended from Ireland. But the family is ravaged with series of tragedies. Edward’s eldest sister Rosemary who, after undergoing a failed Lobotomy operation, became mentally retarded. Another sister, Katherine Cavendish who married nobleman William Cavendish, a British Marquess, died in a plane crash in France. His older brother Joe who had served as a war pilot during the Second World War lost his life while doing an active mission in England. Nevertheless, the remaining Kennedy sons and daughters filled these misfortunes by being achievers. Teddy grew closer to his older brothers John and Robert and like his two intellectually gifted brothers, Edward finished a law degree and had a reputation of a skillful orator and debater. He had the same physical features of his brothers– strong, brood shouldered and lurking blue eyes.

the 3 famous Kennedy Brothers. From left: John, Robert and Edward

In 1960, his brother John, who had served as Senator representing the state of Massachusetts for seven years since 1953, won the American presidency and Teddy replaced him as Massachusetts Senator through popular votes. But three years later, while just barely making his own niche in the White House, JFK killed by an assassin bullet while touring on Dallas, Texas, this event traumatized the Kennedy clan and Teddy’s feeling on the death of his beloved brother was a kind of pain he would never want to experience again, not knowing another close brother would succumb the same fate five years later.

Robert Kennedy, attorney-general and a flamboyant senator from the state of New York, was on the verge of victory as Democrat standard bearer for the 1968 US Presidential election when on September 1968 barely five years after his brother’s John assassination, he was critically shot while monitoring the crucial California primary. Teddy was in San Francisco for a separate monitoring activity when he received the devastating news. He rushed to a California hospital where Robert was pronounced dead. Watching him walked to the room of his slain brother, a close Kennedy aide quoted saying that he never witnessed such a state of grief when he saw Teddy Kennedy. On the death of Senator Robert Kennedy, Teddy became the paternal head of the Kennedy clan throwing his attentions to his nephews and nieces left by John and Robert. But it seems a light portion of misfortune had distributed to Teddy that all hopes for another “Kennedy brother” in the white house quickly vanished into illusion.

After the funeral of Robert, where Teddy delivered an emotional eulogy praising his deceased brother, Kennedy supporters started making campaigns to draft him to the Democrat nominations for the next Presidential elections and continue the advocacies left by his brothers. He easily became the favorite among drafters, advertisements backed him, well, after all he came from an illustrious political family romanticized by an era called the Camelot. The glamorous Kennedy name shone upon him like a shooting star, and his magnetic appeal to the masses engulfed him like a giant halo, many believed he could make it to the finals, but then destiny tricked him like a curse and dragged him to a humiliating scandal that would forever haunt his political career.

Known for his oratorical skills and unmatched commitments to democracy and civil rights, Edward Kennedy however had a very controversial private life that did not escape from the scrutinizing eyes of the media. Married to Joan Bennett since 1958, his fondness for women and alcoholism often generated controversies, and in 1969 all came to a highlight.

On the night of July 18, 1969, Senator Edward Kennedy was attending a small party at Chappaquiddick Island organized by “Boiler room girls”, a group of young women who had helped the Presidential campaign of his late brother Robert in 1968. Shortly before midnight, Senator Kennedy was seen left with his car taking Mary Jo Kopechne, one of the boiler room girls, as his passenger. But the car swept off while crossing the Dike Bridge and plunged into the Pond inlet. Teddy managed to swim on shallow water, but not Kopechne who was stuck on the passenger’s seat, Teddy immediately left the scene and failed to rescue Kopechne, he also failed to report the incident to the police authorities.

The next day the accident was making frenzy headlines as his car was identified, which was recovered from the water carrying the body of Mary Jo Kopechne. This incident heavily damaged the reputation of Senator Kennedy, he was accused of a cover-up on the death of the young woman. But despite of the strong evidence of negligence against him, the senator was only punished with suspension in the Senate and two months in jail. Nevertheless, the incident badly tainted his political career and never recovered from the scandal ever since, pressured by criticism he withdraw his Presidential nomination bid in 1972.

In 1980, thinking the scandal already buried, he allowed himself to be drafted in a two-man race of the Democratic nominations but eventually lost to Jimmy Carter. Since then, the last of the Kennedy brothers closed his dream for a White House bid and devoted his life in the Senate. In 1983, he divorced his wife Joan and remarried seven years later. Senator Kennedy, serving 48 years as Senator from 1961 until his death in 2009, became one of the three longest serving senators in the history of America and recognized as one of the most effective.

Known as the “lion of the senate”, Senator Kennedy proposed and passed many bills than any of his colleagues mostly concerning civil rights and health care, the latter he frequently pronounced as the “cause of my life”. In an effort to revitalize the health care program of America, he declared support to Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential campaign. On May 2008 however he was diagnosed with brain cancer.

Senator Edward Kennedy, who spent nearly four decades as Senator, died at the age of 77 on August 2009 after a year long battle of brain cancer, he died two weeks after his sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver’s death. On his death, America lost a devoted, charismatic and outspoken senator. More than a politician, Teddy Kennedy became an icon of good governance and democracy, his effort to give every American a good health plan motivated and inspired his colleagues to pass the Health care bill which saw its light as 2009 closes.

Overshadowed by the Chappaquiddick scandal in 1969, Senator Edward Kennedy however remained one of the most memorable legislators in the world that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called him “A Senator of all Senators”. He could have been an effective US President had he pushed through with it. At the time of his death, he had outlived his three brothers with more than 30 years. He was also the only Kennedy son who did not die a violent death. His death marks the end of political era of the Kennedys with no possible heir to pick up the torch deliberately ending the Camelot. He was buried beside John’s and Robert’s grave, whom he frequently visited most of his life, at the Arlington cemetery. Two months before his death, he was awarded with Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama, a highest accolade a US President can bestow to citizens who displayed exceptional public service.

The Royal Scandal (late 80’s and early 90’s)

The Prince and Princess of Wales during their fairytale wedding at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, England.

The Prince and Princess of Wales’ most famous wedding in July 29, 1981 forever be remembered as the wedding of the 20th century- spectacular, magnificent, pompous, romantic and magical. More than 700 million people around the world had watched the fairytale union on live telecast at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London as the young and shy Lady Diana Spencer walked in the arms of the future King of England, Prince Charles. The modern fairytale pumped sensation of mystic and charm as the royal couple waved to the adoring crowd. It was widely believed they would live up to the legendary adage that goes: …and they live happily ever after. But destiny decreed otherwise…

Born The Honourable on July 1, 1961 at Parkhouse, Sandringham and became a Lady in February 1975 upon her father’s succession to the Earldom of Althorp, Diana Frances Spencer was a true picture of beauty and innocence. She exuded freshness and charm and her bubbly character and sense of humor easily made her a wonderful acquaintance, wonderful qualities that did not escape from the observation of Prince Charles. Though they became acquainted many years before as they came from the same class (the Prince of Wales briefly dated Diana’s elder sister, Lady Sarah, in 1977), Prince Charles did not notice Diana’s blossoming beauty until their close encounter on the fateful house party summer of July 1980.

The Prince of Wales, who is expected to uphold the old tradition of the royal family to choose a suitable bride with aristocratic background, felt pressured with his duty that he faced an agonizing decision whom he will spend the rest of his life. His favorite uncle, Lord Mountbatten, already warned him that “Love is not an option for a man who would be King of England; it is a consideration in marriage but not a guiding force”.

Though Diana, a descendant of King Charles II through her father Johnny Spencer, the 8th Earl of Althorp, was a high school dropped out and had worked as a baby sitter and an assistant in a kinder garten school, her career and educational background were not given so much importance because her birthright as daughter of a British nobleman with a royal pedigree was more important. She was declared by the House of Parliament and the Queen herself as the most suitable choice for a Queen Consort of England.

After intensive contemplation of his destiny, Prince Charles followed what Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, Charles V, had told his own son Philip II of Spain regarding marriage in royalty “you are not going to get married to enjoy sex but to produce heirs”, so the hesitant Prince of Wales proposed to Lady Diana Spencer on February 1981 at Windsor Castle. Prince Charles presented his future bride with an exquisite oval shaped blue sapphire engagement ring surrounded with 18 diamonds.

the late Princess of Wales, Diana, showing her elegant blue sapphire engagement ring.

But amidst her sunny façade and bubbly character, Diana was secretly battling a dreaded eating disorder called Bulimia, an insidious disease of eating and vomiting, which thrown her to extreme mood swing. The Prince of Wales, who was still attached to his old flame Camilla Shand now married to Andrew Parker Bowles and had children, began confused with Diana’s edgy behavior but the palace staff assured the Prince that it was nothing but pure wedding pressures.

And so it was..

The Prince and Princess of Wales, at the start of their lives together, looked like a perfect loving couple through the eyes of the public; they would often spend expensive holiday vacations abroad with their sons Prince William and Prince Harry and would often photographed with affectionate gestures. But privately the couple was reportedly did not get along and would often engage in terrifying shouting arguments, known to their staff. Eventually, the tabloids, who run the juicer bits, reported that all was not well with the royal couple. Soon rumors of Charles’ adultery and Diana’s suicidal attempts began spreading and speculations of separation dominated the British press, eventually it came. On December 1992, British Prime Minister John Major announced the couple’s mutual decision to separate.

Charles and Diana’s animosities were sensationalized by the media that it became a national past time picked up by the international press. It was even more intense with their confession of adultery, they even highlighted the controversy by allowing their private story to be published through their biographies. Charles had brought more damages to the monarchy when he called his parents, through his biography, as inattentive and cold, he also made sure his version of the story was more sensational by calling Diana a self-absorbed neurotic woman, a suicidal maniac and a crying wolf.

The prince finally yanked the loose thread of the monarchy, when he agreed to a television interview hosted by his biographer, Jonathan Dimbleby, where he admitted his adultery which, for many royalists, deemed inappropriate to discuss by the future King of England. One writer commented that the Prince, surely, was not the first heir to the throne who committed adultery but he was the first to admit before millions of people worldwide, the Queen was incensed with her son’s total indiscretion, while his father, Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh commented something on his son’s brain being sucked dry. Most of his future subjects were disappointed with Charles’ unreasonable behavior. Many of those subjects called the Queen to scrap him from the line of succession and passed the throne directly to his son Prince William.

The royal scandal climax came when Diana’s former lover Major James Hewitt sold his detailed story about his torrid affair with the Princess. The kiss-and-tell story of Major Hewitt was followed by a secret wiretapping of the passionate telephone conversation between Diana and her supposed lover James Gilby who called the Princess of Wales through out their conversation as Squidgy, this eventually dubbed by the media as Sgquidgygate scandal. In 1995, another secret telephone conversation was tapped involving Prince Charles having a “dirty talk” with his mistress Camilla Parker Bowles, the transcript of their explicit conversations were distributed among tabloids making the Prince of Wales a laughing stock among his subjects, this was later named as Camillagate scandal.

None in British history did the monarchy experience such outrageous misconduct among royal members, not even during King Henry VIII’s dumping and changing of wives, nor at the height of King Charles II’s shopping and hopping of mistresses. The British monarchy looked like a three ring circus, deeply shook with terrible controversies of adultery, misconduct, immorality and divorces, that many feared it would dissolve soon, the magic of the throne slowly eroding and the subjects felt they were being cheated. People began questioning themselves if they really need a monarchy. But Prince Charles was unrepentant, defending his actions as reasonable and appropriate.

The Prince and Princess of Wales struggled to put their names back to dignified positions by doing charitable campaigns, it was highly effective to the Princess of Wales, but not to Prince Charles who was largely criticized by the media as boring and uninspiring King-in-waiting. Diana was partly forgiven, sighting the sad plight of her loveless marriage and the callous behavior of Charles as the ultimate reason behind her adultery. The Princess, who captured the world’s imagination with her unique charm, kindness, compassion and humility, was even more loved and praised with her effort to redeem herself. She was also regarded as the most attentive parent to William and Harry. Tired and defeated with public competition against his wife, Prince Charles retired to the comforting arms of his mistress.

Great Britain now is reeling with international humiliation so the Queen finally moved forward to end the debacles. She urged the couple to divorce to spare their children from further emotional trauma. Diana at first hesitated, but Prince Charles was determined to end the misery. Finally, after seven months of stressful negotiations, the royal marriage disbanded on August 1996. The Princess of Wales retained her residence at Kensington Palace and as a mother of a future King, she remained a member of the British royal family.

But she did not live long to enjoy her life as a free woman, on August 31,1997, she died tragically in Paris, France when the car, she and her companion Dodi Al-fayed, was riding slammed on the 13th pillar of the Ponte d’ Alma tunnel. Her body was taken by Charles to England and was buried on her family estate at Althorp. Prince Charles made his relationship to Camilla public even before Diana’s death and on April 2005, he finally married her. As a divorce woman, Camilla will not be crowned as Queen when Charles someday ascended the throne, she would only style as Princess Consort.

This royal scandal almost cost the highest throne on earth, worst than the crisis created by Charles’ great uncle Edward VIII in 1936, the adultery and public disclosures of both Charles and Diana were disgraceful that people started analyzing if royalty is still worthy to be worshipped and praised. Nevertheless, many royalists predicted the monarchy’s survival, the only precautions they would take is to avoid the same scandals Edward VIII and Prince Charles gone through.

The media practically rotates around celebrities. They are everywhere – splashed across the pages of magazines, whistling through speakers of radios, parading around on our TV sets. What we sometimes forget are that these people are human like you and I. despite the airbrushing and the long flowing hair and perfectly tanned faces they also have flaws. They have good days, then they have their bad days. But that’s life and no one can stop that happening.

We have all done things we are ashamed of and managed to forget or cover it up somehow. But it might be a bit  harder if your misconduct is being blown out of proportion and put on magazines and TV sets for the whole world to see. Then what happens next? People start to judge, start to forget that those people we see on the TV are made of flesh and bones and feelings. Like us.

I think the paparazzi should respect the privacy of people and themselves.

Princess Diana’s accident, I believe, is due to her vehicle being chased by the paparazzi. Now I wasn’t there or anything but the truth is for everyone to see. If the paparazzi weren’t chasing after another peace of juicy story/meat it might not have happened.

Childhood Days

Lady Diana Frances Spencer’s birth took place on July 1st 1961, at Park House, Sandringham .  She was the third daughter of Viscount Althorp – who afterwards became known as Earl Spencer) and his wife Frances.  At eight years old, Diana entered Riddlesworth Hall prep school and later on went with her two elder sisters to West Heath school in Sevenoaks.  After a short spell at a finishing school in Switzerland , she came back in Britain and got a job as a kindergarten teacher: one which conferred her all-time love for children.

The Engagement

As a child, Diana knew Princes Andrew and Edward though she only actually got to be acquainted with Charles when he came to a shooting party at her family home when she was sixteen.

For the subsequent few years, Diana and Prince Charles were seen spending much time together and their feelings for one another began to grow deeper.  On February 24 1981, the couple declared their engagement to an eager nation.

The Royal Wedding in St Paul’s Cathedral

On the 29th of July 1981, above 700 million individuals all over the world viewed the wedding of the decade on television.  They looked in joy as the glowing bride walked down the passageway of St Paul ’s Cathedral to tie the knot to her prince.

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Wearing a dress of ivory silk taffeta with a 25ft train embellished with beads and with diamonds glistening in her hair, Diana was every inch the fairytale princess.  This attractive young lady has not just captured the heart of Prince Charles, but the hearts of a whole population.  Diana was the first English woman to marry a successor to the throne in more than 300 years and the inhabitants of Britain rejoiced by giving street parties in admiration of the pair who should one day be the King and Queen of their nation state.

Motherhood Experience

On 21st June 1982, some days before her 21st birthday, Princess Diana had her first baby boy, Prince William, in St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington.  The entire state shared the couple’s clear happiness and satisfaction.  Two years afterward the family unit was complete upon the arrival of their second child, Prince Henry, lovingly called Harry.

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The Ideal Family

Nothing gave Princess Diana added contentment than spending time with her offspring and she was firm in her resolve that her two sons should have as usual an upbringing as was feasible.  Diana took pleasure in taking them to burger bars and the cinema but William and Harry in addition went together with her when she visited old people’s homes, AIDs patients and the homeless as the princess believed that it was essential that they realized the troubles and fears of real people.

Diana was the first royal ever to bring her kids to a theme park and she persisted that they queue for the rides with the other children.

As Fashion Idol

The world observed, as over the years, the bashful young nursery teacher bloomed into a self-assured and stylish princess.  She made a look for herself that was chic and majestic, yet simultaneously very contemporary.  Princess Diana became popular for her stunning sense of fashion and millions of women throughout the globe attempted to imitate her look.

The Public’s Princess

Perhaps Diana’s best endowment was the profound love she felt for normal persons.  She altered people’s existence by offering them optimism and nerve and worked untiringly for the unwell and deprived.  She conveyed a twinkle of hope into the hearts of those who had nothing, she comforted the souls of the disadvantaged and her unlimited kindness encouraged and soothed people from all walks of life.  Princess Diana broke through fences of class, race, colour and religion to turn out to be a Queen of people’s hearts.

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Meeting Well-Known Faces

Due to her elevated public profile, Princess Diana met many famous persons; world leaders, politicians, pop stars, fashion designers, princesses and TV personalities, and she struck out deep friendship with several of them.  Besides, she made friends with many of the children who she met in hospitals as well and kept contact with them via birthday and Christmas cards, personal letters and telephone calls.

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Amending the Earth

Princess Diana embraced the sick, the underprivileged, the famished and the injured and with this simple gesture she did more to rise above public discrimination than numerous government movements.  When Diana spoke out about sensitive issues such as AIDs, leprosy, and landmines, the community paid attention.

A Playful Princess

Diana was a contemporary princess in-out who loved pop music, watching ballet, eating comfortable meals with her friends, shopping and sunny holidays overseas.  She teased journalists, played sensible jokes, loved throwing parties and had fun mimicking.  Princess Diana inhaled new life into the Royal Family and her sense of enjoyment enchanted and appealed  to every one who met her.

Official Events

In all places she went, be it a charity ball, a fund-raising occasion for one of the charities she sustained, a ballet or a pop concert, Diana at all times looked gorgeous and well-dressed.  She sold several of her ball gowns and cocktail dresses and raised almost two million pound sterling for her preferred charities such as the Royal Marsden Hospital Cancer Fund and AIDs Crisis Trust.

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The Diana We Will Never-Ever Forget

Princess Diana touched the lives of so many individuals all through the planet.  With a smile, a handshake or a nice word, she put people comfortable and her kindness and sympathy lit up the lives of everyone she met.  She will stay in our hearts forever.

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