Diana (34 page)

“Princess Anne has been working terribly hard for the Save the Children Fund and I’m her biggest fan because of what she crams into a day I could never achieve. We’ve always hit it off and I think she’s marvelous.”

But Diana and Princess Anne did not get along particularly well. Diana once dismissed her sister-in-law as a female impersonator. “I think she shaves,” she said. When a friend pointed out that Anne was the only female competitor at the Montreal Olympics not to have been given a sex test, Diana joked, “Results would’ve been too embarrassing. She’s Philip—in drag.” As for Philip: “The man has the warmth of a snow pea.”

“I am performing a duty as the Princess of Wales as long as my time is allocated. But I don’t see it any longer than fifteen years.”

On her relationship with the Queen: “I was a lamb to the slaughter.”

“Maybe I was the first person ever to be in this family who ever had a depression or was ever openly tearful. And obviously that was daunting, because if you’ve never seen it before how do you support it?”

“From the first day I joined that family, nothing could be done naturally anymore.”

“I was the separated wife of the Prince of Wales, I was a problem, full stop. Never happened before, what do we do with her?”

“[The royal family] hadn’t expected [the speech announcing her semiwithdrawal from public life].
And I’m a great believer that you should always confuse the enemy.”

“Once or twice, I’ve heard people say: ‘Diana’s out to destroy the monarchy,’ which has bewildered me, because why would I want to destroy something that is my children’s future?”

“I tried again and again to get [the royals] to hire someone like [political strategist and media dynamo Peter Mandelson] to give them proper advice, but they didn’t want to hear it. They kept saying I was manipulative. But what’s the alternative? To just sit there and have them make your image for you? Sometimes editors at newspapers would write editorials suggesting things they could do, but instead of paying attention one of the private secretaries would ring up and give the editors a rocket.”

Diana sometimes compared the royal family with the Mafia. “The only difference,” she told her cousin, “is these muggers wear crowns.”

She was amused when several other members of the royal family copied her dresses. “At least I got to wear them first.”

When, at lunch, former New
Yorker
editor Tina Brown suggested that Fergie’s “antics” don’t help the royal cause, Diana replied, “No, and it’s a shame for Andrew, because he really is the best of the bunch. I mean, people don’t know this, but he works really, really hard for the country. He does so much, and no one pays any attention at all. It’s the same with Princess Anne. She works like a dog, and nobody cares. And I keep saying to Prince Charles, ‘It’s no good complaining that people don’t care about your work. Until you straighten your head out and get things clear, people just won’t give you a break.’”