Princess Diana experienced both negative and positive press throughout her life, and endured a number of personal challenges in the public eye. Namely, the former Princess of Wales split from King Charles, an event which was voraciously reported on by the tabloids. According to her former butler, there was one particular thing that Princess Diana really wanted “people to understand” about her life.
In his book, A Royal Duty, former royal butler Paul Burrell claimed, “All she had ever wanted was for the British people to understand what she had gone through, how difficult it had been. And while she felt that [King] Charles had truly made her suffer, she had learned from her suffering.”
According to Burrell, the princess’s divorce knocked her confidence in a major way, after a lifetime of self-doubt.
“She felt her low self-esteem had taken root in childhood when she had acquired many of her ideas about herself,” the former butler wrote. “She had taken that poor self-image into the marriage with [King] Charles.”
“She had taken that poor self-image into the marriage with [King] Charles.”
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Paul Burrell
‘A Royal Duty’
Burrell continued, “In [Charles], she focused solely on deriving a boost to her ego, through his recognition of her achievements. When it was not forthcoming, she said she felt rejected.”
According to the former Royal Family butler, Diana also had to learn to come to terms with the emotions she was experiencing.
“The princess also needed to realize, and I think many people told her this, that anger was a natural emotion, but she felt many women found anger distressing,” he wrote.
Burrell further explained, “She even hired a boxer to come to [Kensington Palace] with his punchbag so that she could rid herself of her anger. Diana, Princess of Wales, could certainly pack a mean punch.”
“All she had ever wanted was for the British people to understand what she had gone through, how difficult it had been.”
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Ultimately, Princess Diana had to go through some incredibly difficult moments in her life, while navigating her role as a famous person, which can’t have been easy.
