Before Instagram and TikTok analyzed every detail of the Royal Family’s lives, the public had to rely on daily newspapers to get their royal fix. For Princess Diana, the news coverage was “relentless,” per her former bodyguard Ken Wharfe, and he tells Marie Claire how the late royal was able to handle the level of interest in her life.
Wharfe, who protected Prince William and Prince Harry before becoming Diana’s protection officer in 1987, shares that the princess “was constantly pursued by the media.”
“I always remember Diana would go down to the kitchens at Kensington Palace, where the chef would lay out the morning’s newspapers across the deep freezer,” he says, speaking on behalf of Casino.org. “Inevitably, if she wasn’t on the front page, she’d be on pages three, four or five. There would always be a story about Diana—hopefully, and thankfully, about her work—but just as often about the state of her marriage, what her children were doing, and so forth.”
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Princess Diana meets fans in Blackpool, England in 1991.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Wharfe shares that even though Diana read all of the stories about her deteriorating marriage, “she lived with it” and “understood it was part and parcel of her job.”
“To read those headlines first thing in the morning, then get into a car or a helicopter, fly somewhere like Manchester, Nottingham, or anywhere else in the world, and immediately perform, that takes a remarkable level of professionalism,” he adds.
Diana kept up a steady stream of royal engagements every week when she was married to Prince Charles, and Wharfe says he “often wondered” about the “toll that constant barrage of newspaper coverage took on her.”
Fans reach over a fence to try and shake Princess Diana’s hand in 1990.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Wharfe recalls traveling with the late princess and wondering if she was “really going to be able to pull this off?” when Diana was going through a tough time, noting that officials “all want their part in the occasion, and if the star of the show isn’t performing, the whole thing falls apart.”
However, for Princess Diana, the show needed to go on, even after a tough day.
“The Royal Family is a bit like a traveling theater,” Wharfe shares. “You move from one place to the next, and the moment that door opens, you’re on stage. You’re only as good as your performance. The more professional your performance, the more popular you become. And in that respect, Diana was exceptional.”
One driving motivation for Diana was not disappointing Queen Elizabeth. “At that particular time, despite the unhappiness of her marriage, her commitment was to Her Majesty the Queen,” Wharfe shares, adding that Diana “was loyal to the workings of the British Royal Family and would never let them down, despite her personal unhappiness.”
