Diana (9 page)

“My husband and I had to keep everything together because we didn’t want to disappoint the public, and yet obviously there was a lot of anxiety going on within our four walls.”

“I think in any marriage, especially when you’ve had divorced parents like myself, you’d want to try even harder to make it work and you don’t want to fall back into a pattern that you’ve seen happen in your own family. I desperately wanted it to work, I desperately loved my husband and I wanted to share everything together, and I thought that we were a very good team.”

When journalist Arthur Edwards asked her whether she intended to go watch Charles play polo, she replied, “No, I’m not going. I hate the game. I don’t understand it and I never have. I also hate the sycophants who hang around it. So I’m not going at all this summer. The boys won’t be going either. They don’t like it and, anyway, it’s a waste of quality time.”

While touring Italy in 1985, Diana told Gianni Versace: “I miss my sons dreadfully. I love them so much, but in different ways. They are so very different. Speaking to them on the phone only makes me miss them more.”

During her first pregnancy

“I hope it’s a boy. But we’ll have to wait and see.”

“Some days I feel terrible. Nobody told me I’d feel like this.”

Before William’s birth, Diana adamantly told her physician, Dr. Pinker: “I shall of course be breastfeeding for as long as possible. I believe it
is a very important part of bonding between mother and child.”

For more than the obvious reasons, Diana felt tremendous relief when William was at last born: “I felt the whole country was in labor with me.”

“Everybody was thrilled to bits. It had been quite a difficult pregnancy. I hadn’t been very well throughout it, so by the time William arrived, it was a great relief.”

On her postpartum depression: “When I came out of the hospital I could barely put one foot in front of the other. My stitches were killing me. It was such a strain to stand there and smile even for just a few minutes. As soon as the car disappeared around the corner out of sight of the photographers, I burst into tears.”

Diana told a woman in the crowd waiting to see her in Nova Scotia: “I wish I had William with me. We’ve been away a few hours, but I miss him very much. I’m really sorry we couldn’t bring him.”

When William told the press that his greatest interest was “exploring wastepaper baskets,” Diana whispered in his ear, “Who’s the little superstar, then?”

On a visit to an orphanage, a thirteen-year-old asked Diana why William wasn’t with her. “I didn’t bring William today because he’s a little pest. He won’t do as he’s told and touches everything.” Then, while watching a seventeen-year-old demonstrate break dancing, she jokingly told him: “I’ll buy you a new pair of trousers if you split those.”

Diana vowed to protect her sons from frequent public duty for as long as possible. “My sons won’t be pushed into doing anything public—unlike the Queen and Princess Margaret, who appeared in public at a very early age during the teens. William and Harry will definitely be broken in gently.”