Diana: Her True Story--in Her Own Words Paperback – June 27, 2017

This book is worth the read!

Tells the true Story. Even when you know this true story. You will admire Diana more on what she went through, She was God's light in the world. Her love and caring was felt my the many that saw her.How ever you will know, without a doubt, the Royal Family must go...

I liked the detail in the book. She was a troubled depressed person so it was hard to get through that repeated storyline. Would have liked to hear more about her time with her children

It is what it is about.

I don’t read many biographies but this one really interested me. I was a teenager when most of this occurred so I have memories of when Princess Diana and Prince Charles got married. I remember there being some issues with their marriage and I specifically remember watching on tv the accident and how long it took them to get her out of the car. I chose not to believe that she was dead. There had to be hope but the reality was that she would’ve been taken much faster than she was.I didn’t know much about the monarchy. I didn’t know if she and prince Charles were in love or was the marriage arranged. I assumed arranged because the whole Camilla nugget. What a horrible horrible thing to do. Why marry someone when you are clearly in love with someone else!?!? Horrible.It made me incredibly sad to read what she felt in her heart about herself. I just wanted to grab her and hug her and become her confidant. She needed one. I would’ve loved to be that for her.I enjoyed this book very much. I wanted to know more about her and her work. Mission accomplished!It makes me proud that Princes Harry and William remember her and carry on her legacy. I’m also proud that the traits that she felt were so important were indeed passed on. She would be so incredibly proud of her boys. I can see her holding a grand baby up in the air with a huge smile on her face.You did good Princess. You did good.Warning... ugly tears will happen when reading this book. There were some really tough moments. But so so worth it.

I started reading this about two weeks before the Queen passed away, and had finished all of the additional material in her own words and started the book portion. The introduction is also updated. I can only say that it is heartbreaking in many ways because Diana was nothing more than pawn in the game of royalty - marry to produce an heir. Charles was calculating and cold. Camilla had no qualms about continuing her relationship with Charles while she was married, before he married Diana, and while they were both married. Diana knew all along and frankly there were two in the relationship - Charles & Camilla, while poor Diana stood at the sidelines being used, verbally abused, belittled, and forgotten by the royal family. It's no wonder she had emotional issues that carried over into physical issues. Her childhood, as well, was poor, filled with abandonment and lack of love. Thankfully, she recovered, grew, and moved on, able to keep her title as the Princess of Wales and the People's Princess. I'm astonished frankly. Now that Charles is on the throne, I can't help looking at him differently after reading this book. I'm sure after 25 years since her death, 17 years of his marriage to Camilla, they have moved on and hopefully faced their own regrets, actions, and are worthy of the positions they both now hold. The book is a must-read for those who want to know Diana on a more personal level. She was so young, naive, and vulnerable at the beginning. If they hadn't put her face on the tea towels, like she said, before the wedding, perhaps she could have found the strength not to walk to the altar. But then we wouldn't have William or Harry or their descendants either.

It's hard to understand how so many readers have not noticed the red flags about Diana's personality in this book. Some things sound like blatant lies, others, half-truths. I will cite the most glaring behaviors and claims that caught my attention.1. Her bulimia started at the age of 19, when Charles (allegedly) made an insensitive comment about her having a little extra flesh around her waist? Not buying it. Eating disorders usually manifest much earlier in life.2. She threw up every day, several times a day, for approximately 10 years, but that didn't affect her teeth or her skin making it obvious to friends and family? And most importantly, she still managed to carry 2 pregnancies to term?3. She hired astrologists and clairvoyants? Spare me! What did she need them for if she had premonitions herself?4. Diana worked as a cleaning lady? She grew up with a staff! She probably did not even know what a vacuum cleaner was.5. Diana was cleaning her kitchen floor on her hands and knees when she told her friend about an invitation from Charles? She was a millionaire but she didn't hire a maid?6. Diana doesn't mention to Charles that there is a crowd of photographers outside her house after she had contacted the Palace for help on the matter?7. Diana grew up a millionaire, attending parties regularly, but only has one long dress, one silk shirt, and one pair of fancy shoes? Imagine the poor thing inside a gigantic semi-empty closet with a thermometer in her mouth and an ice bag on her head.8. She moves into the Palace and is not assigned a team? (no publicist, fashion consultant, assistant, hairdresser, makeup artist, bodyguard, personal trainer, vocal coach, etc.). And she was not presented with the Order of Precedence? - a document that outlines royal etiquette and protocol).9. She couldn't confide in her closest friends about how miserable she was, to avoid demystifying the fairy tale they had on their minds? How close were they?10. Charles told Diana that his father "had agreed that if, after five years, his marriage was not working he could go back to his bachelor habits." When did he ever abandon his bachelor habits anyway?11. "Her greatest luxury in life was to sit down with baked beans on toast and watch television." Right.12. Except that she really didn't have time for baked beans on toast and TV with such a hectic schedule: massage, aromatherapy, acupuncture, swimming at the Palace, workout with the London City Ballet, personal trainer, tai chi lessons, therapists, concerts, operas, skiing holidays, lunches and dinners with friends.13. After the separation, she had the Kensington Palace redecorated. Her day started at 7 a.m. with breakfast, followed by a workout at the gym. At 9 a.m. she had her hair done, and at 10 she made phone calls to friends and family. Later she went shopping as an antidote for boredom and depression. After she felt all better, she answered letters from the public, had lunch with friends, went to watch her sons play sports at school, and read novels in the garden, but through it all, she felt imprisoned. It sounds suffocating.14. "She missed her children badly." So much that when they came to stay with her every other weekend, she couldn't make an exception and skip the gym to have breakfast with them. Instead, she kept her usual schedule while the boys had breakfast with the nanny, who also supervised their dressing.15. When a close friend of Diana's who was dying from aids had to be transferred to another hospital because his condition worsened, she could not keep her promise of being by his side because she HAD to go on a holiday cruise on the Mediterranean aboard a yacht owned by a millionaire friend. Clearly, the friend who offered the best deal got precedence.16. Prince Charles borrowed a bed from William after breaking his arm playing polo and refused to give the bed back when William asked for it? How many bedrooms and beds are there in those houses again? And why would someone need to borrow somebody else's bed because of a fractured arm?17. "Her psychic abilities and uncanny empathy with those making their last spiritual journey strengthened her conviction that in another existence she had been a nun." Why not the Buddha or Cleopatra?18. "After a day watching native dancers in unbearable humidity or sipping a cup of some foul-tasting liquid, she often telephoned her friends to regale them with the latest absurdities.`The things I do for England,' was her favourite phrase." The superior being who could see the inside of people's souls in a spectacular display of lack of respect for other cultures and peoples! Ah! The empathy of an amoeba!19. "Why don't you rape someone else?" So, it's OK to rape someone as long as it's not her?! Tsk, tsk, tsk...20. Whether or not it is true that Charles was disappointed when he found out that Harry was a boy (Charles allegedly wanted a girl), it takes a horribly narcissistic mother to splash that information on the newspapers to attack her husband, disregarding the pain that would cause her son.I'm glad I have read the book to learn about the other side of Diana. This was certainly not the effect she expected when she had it written. Christopher Hitchens was right when he called her a ”disco-loving airhead.”