“When you are truly happy, you are able to forgive many things.” Perhaps this is one of the quotes by Diana, Princess of Wales that best defines how she was the People’s Princess and why today she continues to awaken an astonishing intergenerational fascination, almost three decades after her death. Her public image was marked by style and charisma, but Diana was also one of the most significant humanitarian figures of the late twentieth century. However, we should pause to observe the distance between the woman who knew the world and the person her family knew. Who was Diana when the cameras disappeared?
Perhaps it is one of the most interesting premises of The Swan Song. Diana, My Sister, by Charles Spencer, published by Plaza & Janés. The brother reconstructs the life they shared and the princess’s last days, but also how he lived firsthand the news of her death. The importance of this testimony lies in telling how the intimacy of Diana, Princess of Wales was from her childhood. The book, without a doubt, is a revealing intimate revelation that brings us closer to a facet of her personality that is less known.
There is no doubt that the relationship between the siblings was special and unconditional, as reflected throughout the volume. In fact, the private nicknames they used for one another are striking: “Duch” for Diana, for her behavior full of elegance and grace, and “Charles,” as the princess herself called him in Spanish, as proof of their brotherly love, somewhat curious. Although not everything was rosy in their childhood, some bitter moments could cloud the personality of both.
Diana of Wales, the Swan Behind the Icon
Spencer portrays Diana, Princess of Wales, as a fun and unconventional figure, but above all as a cheerful person, beyond the image that was sold to the world of “a unhappy woman.” In fact, his brother does not hesitate to demonstrate the importance he attached to being a real person, with mood swings and his own contradictions. Because, after all, the difference between the adolescent who was just beginning to discover herself and the woman Charles knew was not the same as the one that existed regarding the public figure moving in the complicated arena of the British royal family.
El canto del cisne. Diana, mi hermana, de Charles Spencer.
No cabe duda de que la perspectiva de Charles Spencer puede haber sido como un dardo venenoso para una de las instituciones más sólidas de las monarquías europeas, sobre todo frente a las numerosas biografías que han intentado explicar la vida de su hermana con un éxito abrumador. Pero hay un momento que marca la diferencia y revela qué quiere conseguir el hermano de la princesa del pueblo: “Contar la verdad sobre Diana desde la perspectiva de un hermano, igual que intenté hacerlo cuando hablé en su funeral. Como ocurrió con mi panegírico, quiero hablar en nombre de Diana y hacerlo de un modo abiertamente positivo”.
Uno de los momentos más dolorosos fue la noche del 31 de agosto de 1997, cuando se conoció el fallecimiento de Diana en París. Pero, más allá de ese duro trance, Charles Spencer recuerda la llamada del actual rey Carlos III a su hermano, en la que relata: “Parecía eufórico, como si le hubiera tocado la lotería. Sospecho que la primera reacción del príncipe debió de ser pensar más bien en cómo este suceso le permitiría casarse con la mujer a la que amaba, en lugar de lamentar la pérdida de alguien a quien no amaba”.
La princesa de Diana de Gales disfrutando de la infancia de su hijo, el príncipe de Harry.
Let us not forget that, for Charles, Diana was the sister who existed behind the princess. Everything changed when she became a global icon, but not her personality. Her empathy toward the most vulnerable and her social commitment to those living on the margins of society marked a before and after for the British Crown. Just like her role as mother to William and Harry, a fundamental dimension of her identity. In fact, Charles Spencer describes the contrast between the public figure who seemed to belong to the whole world and the woman whom his family continued to see as sister and daughter.
The Sister the World Never Knew
The deterioration of her marriage and the increasing press pressure meant a deep exposure of her privacy. Added to this were deplorable comments such as those made by England’s Charles: “Well, aren’t you a little plump around here?” Diana suffered from bulimia, and that was devastating for her. “Later she told me that her waist reduced from 29 to 23½ inches [76.6 to 59.69 cm] between her engagement and her wedding.” For this reason, the gaze of Earl Spencer has an invaluable value: he has been able to portray that swan song of his beloved sister, but this time from within.
Diana of Wales alongside her brother, Charles Spencer, in an archival image.
“Ten por seguro que la olvidaremos muy pronto.” Diana’s death, in August 1997, was one of the hardest moments, especially due to the alleged remarks by Charles toward Diana’s brother, all in the midst of a controversial funeral in which Queen Elizabeth II had no choice but to bow her head. The tensions experienced in the London streets during the hearse’s procession were harsh, but necessary to understand the complexity of the marriage of the Princess of Wales up to its fatal end.
Diana of Wales, an icon of style and humanitarian work.
Ultimately, the will to preserve the memory of his sister from a personal perspective, without reducing her to the frivolity of her fame and to her sad end, makes The Swan Song. Diana, My Sister a complete ode to discovering the more personal side of one of the most relevant figures of recent times, from a unique perspective. The less-known Diana is not the one who hid secrets, but the ordinary woman who existed behind a public persona.
“Diana was the very essence of compassion, a sense of duty, style, and beauty. A champion of the rights of the truly oppressed, a very British girl who transcended nationality. She demonstrated in her last years that she did not need any monarchical title to continue wielding her particular magic.” Thus Charles Spencer defined his dear sister in his funeral oration, a love declaration that will endure forever. Yet we should reflect after this reading: how much can we really come to know a woman whose life seemed to belong to the whole world?
