Diana (33 page)

On why her hemline is weighted with a bit of lead: “You’ve got to put your arm up to get some flowers, and you can’t have anything too revealing. And you can’t have hems too short because when you bend over there are six children looking up your skirt.”

On offering her high-heeled shoes to her sister: “Here, try on my tart’s trotters.”

She told her sister Jane: “I just love to get home and kick off my shoes, take off my smart clothes, and get into jeans and a sweater. Then I really feel like myself, the real me.”

Diana to Queen Elizabeth: “I will never let you down.”

“I didn’t have any idea what I let myself in for. One day, I was going to work on a Number Nine bus and the next, I was a princess.”

In 1994, Diana told the
Times
of London editor Peter Stothard: “My husband’s father once sent me a long formal letter setting out the duties of the Princess of Wales. There was ‘much [more] to it than being popular,’ he said. I sent him back a long letter in reply. He sent me a shorter one. And so on until I finally signed off with, ‘It’s been so nice getting to know you like this.’ One day these letters will be found in the archives. So will the
memos by which my husband and I communicate too. Can you believe it?”

“My [maternal] grandmother tried to lacerate me in any way she could. She fed the royal family with hideous comments about my mother, so whenever I mentioned her, the royal family always came down on me like a ton of bricks. Mummy came across very badly because Grandmother did a real hatchet job.”

After lunching with the Queen: “I was sitting there and the corgis came yapping all around me when I suddenly realized they were fascinated by my red tights. I thought, My God, what if they think my legs are steak? I had visions of the whole lot of them tearing into me and devouring my legs. I nearly burst out laughing but managed to suppress it. I wish I hadn’t worn those wretched tights though. I couldn’t wait to get out of there.”

On Fergie: “I really envy Sarah’s freedom.”

To Fergie: “They think we were crazy to start with, but we didn’t get crazy until we married into this family.”

In 1986, she and Fergie dressed up as policewomen and raided Prince Andrew’s stag party. “Did you see what I did the other night? Didn’t it cause a stir? You have to have a laugh sometimes. The wig was hot and uncomfortable, and my feet were killing me. The shoes were two sizes too small.”

“When I go to the Palace for a garden party or a summit meeting, I am a very different person. I conform to what is expected of me so that they can’t find fault when I am in their presence.”