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Princess Diana's niece finally reveals baby daughter's name

<p>Princess Diana's niece, Lady Kitty Spencer has finally revealed the name of her daughter, almost four months after confirming her <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/family-pets/princess-diana-s-niece-secretly-welcomes-first-child" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arrival</a> on Mother's Day in the UK. </p> <p>The notoriously private royal took to Instagram to share a black and white photo of her sitting by a window, while holding her daughter. </p> <p>The new mum was pictured kissing her daughter's head as she stared out the window. </p> <p>"Athena watching the world go by," she captioned the photo, with a white heart emoji. </p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/C81dKqtOcmI/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C81dKqtOcmI/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Kitty Spencer (@kitty.spencer)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>Royal fans were quick to share their delight and the chosen name. </p> <p>"Such a beautiful name!" one wrote. </p> <p> "What a beautiful name and photo," another added. </p> <p>"Athena is so gorgeous!! Like her mama," a third commented. </p> <p>Kitty, who is the late Princess Diana's niece and daughter of Diana's brother Earl Charles Spencer, shared the post over the weekend. </p> <p>She announced the arrival of her first child with husband Michael Lewis, earlier this year. </p> <p>"It's the joy of my life to be your mummy, little one. I love you unconditionally. Happy Mother's Day to those who celebrate today," she wrote at the time. </p> <p>She had kept her pregnancy private, and many were surprised to learn that she was a mum. </p> <p>Athena was reportedly born in late 2023.</p> <p><em>Images: Instagram</em></p>

Family & Pets

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“Grief eats you away”: Prince Harry's candid interview about losing his mother

<p>Prince Harry has spoken candidly about his ongoing struggles with grief following the death of his mother, the late Princess Diana, when he was just 12 years old. </p> <p>Upon his brief return to the UK, the Duke of Sussex opened up in a new interview as part of his role as global ambassador for Armed Forces charity Scotty’s Little Soldiers, who work to support children who have lost parents in the military, admitting that “grief eats you away”.</p> <p>Harry detailed how difficult it was losing his mother at such a young age, admitting he spent nearly two decades “not thinking” about her death and was forced to eventually get help after years of “total chaos”.</p> <p>He added that learning how to celebrate a late loved one is difficult for a child, as it made them “sad”.</p> <p>“But ­realising if I do talk about it, and I’m celebrating their life, then things become easier,” he said.</p> <p>Harry went on, “You convince yourself that the person you’ve lost wants you, or you need to be sad for as long as possible to prove to them that they are missed … Especially when every defence mechanism in your mind, nervous system and everything else is saying ‘do not go there.”</p> <p><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YY-W6VEXlZM?si=SBQyGGCKAOhELxlv" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p>"But then there’s this realisation of, no, they must want me to be happy”.</p> <p>The 39-year-old royal shared how, after decades of silent mourning, he learned suppressing grief was “in fact not” the best form of coping with loss.</p> <p>“It can be for a period of time,” he went on to say.</p> <p>“But…if you suppress this for too long, you can’t suppress it forever it’s not sustainable and it will east away at you inside."</p> <p>“Once realising that if I do talk about it and I’m celebrating their life then actually things become easier.”</p> <p><em>Image credits: YouTube</em></p>

Caring

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Princess Diana's brother shares "immensely sad" personal news

<p>Princess Diana's younger brother Charles Spencer has shared that he and his wife are divorcing after 13 years of marriage. </p> <p>The Earl's relationship with his wife, Karen Gordon, reportedly broke down while Spencer was writing his harrowing memoir which detailed the physical and sexual abuse he suffered at boarding school. </p> <p>Revealing the split to the <em><a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13509355/charles-spencer-sad-divorce-wife-memoir.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mail on Sunday</a></em>, the 60-year-old said, "It is immensely sad."</p> <p>"I just want to devote myself to all my children, and to my grandchildren, and I wish Karen every happiness in the future."</p> <p>Spencer and Gordon, a Canadian philanthropist, first met on a blind date at a restaurant in Los Angeles in 2010, and got married just one year later in June 2011 on the Althorp estate, where Princess Diana is buried. </p> <p>The couple share a 12-year-old daughter named Charlotte Diana, while Spencer also has four children from his previous marriage to his first wife, Victoria Lockwood, and two children with his second wife, Caroline Freud.</p> <p>Karen was notably absent at events held at Althorp and Spencer House in London in mid-March to launch the Earl's tell-all book, <em>A Very Private School</em>.</p> <p>Charles Spencer told the <em>Mail on Sunday</em> that the five years of work on his memoir has deeply affected him and led to him undergoing residential treatment for trauma late last year.</p> <p>In a March interview with <em><a href="https://people.com/charles-spencer-reveals-he-was-sexually-abused-by-a-woman-as-a-child-at-boarding-school-8606246" target="_blank" rel="noopener">People</a></em>, Spencer opened up about how “supportive” Karen had been throughout his healing journey as he recalled the traumatic details of his childhood.</p> <p>“I think it was very challenging for her to have a husband going through what was essentially four and a half years of the most profound therapy with very difficult undertones to it. And she supported the idea of me doing it,” he said.</p> <p>“I think she always hoped I would come out happier and healthier and that seems to be the case very much. So, I’m grateful to have her standing by me while I went through this, what I now realise was an essential process.”</p> <p><em>Image credits: Splashnews.com/Shutterstock Editorial </em></p>

Relationships

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Princess Lilibet turns three

<p>Princess Lilibet turned three on Tuesday without much fanfare, but according to <a href="https://people.com/meghan-markle-prince-harry-celebrate-princess-lilibet-3rd-birthday-party-montecito-home-8655331" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>People</em></a>, the family have already celebrated her birthday in an intimate ceremony over the weekend. </p> <p>The magazine reported that Meghan and Harry held a small party for friends and family, at their home in Montecito, California. </p> <p>However, the Sussexes did not mark their daughter's official birthday publicly, and they did the same thing for her older brother Prince Archie's birthday on May 6. </p> <p>The royal family have also not released any official photographs of the young royals, with the last official image of Lilibet shared by her parents on her first birthday in June 2022. </p> <p>"In recent years and certainly since King Charles III's reign began in September 2022, we have only seen public messages from the royal family's social media accounts for working members of the royal family," royal correspondent Danielle Stacey previously told <em>HELLO!</em></p> <p>"Such as the Prince and Princess of Wales and their children, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh and the Princess Royal."</p> <p>The Sussexes have stopped sharing images of their children altogether, with fans only catching glimpses of them through grainy photos or snippets from the couple's Netflix docu-series <em>Harry and Meghan</em>.</p> <p>According to The Sun, Prince Harry has been adamant about protecting their children's privacy, and the two will not be feature in their parent's upcoming series with Netflix, with Harry planning to release a show about polo and Meghan planning to release a lifestyle show. </p> <p>"Harry and Meghan have not always agreed on how much they should expose their children to the media, but, in this case, Harry has clearly won,"  an insider told <em>The Sun</em>. </p> <p>The couple have also mentioned their desires to protect their children's privacy in their docu-series. </p> <p>"We've been really conscious of protecting our kids as best as we can," Harry said. </p> <p>Meghan added: "Protecting our kids as best as we can and also understanding the role that they play in this really historical family."</p> <p><em>Images: Netflix/ Misan Harriman/The Duke and Duchess of Sussex</em></p> <p> </p>

Family & Pets

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Experience a unique glimpse into the private life of Princess Diana

<p>When you think of the royal family, most people picture their most high profile moments and the same anecdotes that have been recycled for years. </p> <p dir="ltr">But there is much more to them as a family, and as an institution, than meets the eye. </p> <p dir="ltr">For many royal fans, they have their favourite members of the family who they share an unspoken affinity with, and are often yearning to find out more about the princes and princesses. </p> <p dir="ltr">Around the world, there are few members of the royal family who are as fiercely loved as Princess Diana. </p> <p dir="ltr">Now, for the first time in Sydney, royal fanatics can take a never-before-seen look at the emotional private journey of the People’s Princess through the lens of one of her most trusted confidants: official royal photographer Anwar Hussein. </p> <p dir="ltr"><em><a href="https://princessdianaexperience.com/sydney/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Princess Diana: Accredited Access Exhibition</a></em>, launching in Sydney on Wednesday April 10th, reveals the inside look at royal life from Diana’s perspective, while exploring the deep personal relationships between a princess and her photographer. </p> <p dir="ltr">Royal fans will learn about all sides of the late Princess of Wales, from how she portrayed herself in the public eye, to how she interacted with her inner circle behind closed doors. </p> <p dir="ltr">While the one of a kind exhibition covers all things Princess Diana, royal fans will also see the parallels of Anwar’s relationship with Diana, compared to Anwar’s sons, who went on to photograph Diana’s sons Prince William and Prince Harry, and their lasting relationships with the royal family at large. </p> <p dir="ltr">Throughout the exhibit, Anwar Hussein and his sons Samir and Zak, share their first-hand accounts of the stories behind the world-famous moments of Princess Diana and her family, recounting experiences they shared with the royals over their collective four decades working side-by-side with the royal family.</p> <p dir="ltr">Named one of the "Top 12 Immersive Experiences Around the World You Need to Visit” by CNN, the<em> Princess Diana: Accredited Access Exhibition</em> has sold out in Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, and Puerto Rico, and recently wowed audiences in Melbourne. </p> <p dir="ltr">Guests of the <em>Princess Diana: Accredited Access Exhibition</em> will embark on a captivating exploration through various themed sections covering all aspects of royal life, and will be guided by an easy to use audio guide. </p> <p dir="ltr">When arriving at the exhibit (which is housed in an accessible building for those with mobility issues), guests will be instructed to download an audio guide on their smartphone, letting guests move through the exhibition at their own pace. </p> <p dir="ltr">After being provided headphones, guests control the easy to use audio guide at their own speed, with each photograph corresponding to a number on the guide where the audience can learn the inside story behind each captured moment. </p> <p dir="ltr">If guests are hard of hearing, fear not. Each part of the audio guide also features the written script of the Hussein’s commentary, making sure visitors don’t miss any vital information.</p> <p dir="ltr"><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2024/04/Diana-instructions.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /></p> <p dir="ltr">Working your way through the exhibit can take anywhere up to one hour, with royal fans bound to leave with a new sense of connection and understanding to princess Diana’s private life, and the royal family at large. </p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Princess Diana: Accredited Access Exhibition</em>, presented by leading entertainment discovery platform<a href="http://feverup.com/sydney" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Fever</a>, in partnership with global entertainment agency, SBX Group is a family-friendly experience that will leave visitors with a new perspective on royal life. </p> <p dir="ltr">Sessions run from 9am to 3pm on Wednesday to Friday, and 9am to 6pm on Saturday and Sunday, with the exhibition running until the end of May 2024. </p> <p dir="ltr">This is not a story you have heard before. Whether you are a hard-core fan or new to her legacy, you will be blown away by the fascinating depth and detail shared by the Hussein family.</p> <p dir="ltr">To purchase tickets, head to<a href="http://princessdianaexperience.com/sydney" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> princessdianaexperience.com/sydney</a>, to not miss out on this incredibly unique insight into the behind the scenes world of the royal family. </p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Supplied</em></p>

Art

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"First day of school": Charles Spencer shares unseen snap of Diana

<p>Charles Spencer has shared a previously unseen photo from his school days with his late sister Princess Diana. </p> <p>The sweet photo shows a young Charles and Diana in their school uniforms standing side by side on what was their first day of primary school in 1968.</p> <p>Earl Spencer, 59, captioned the photo, "My first day of school, in September 1968: my father took this photograph of me and my sister, Diana, just before he drove us to Silfield, a really lovely primary school in King's Lynn, Norfolk."</p> <p>"The headmistress was Miss Jean Lowe, a warm and thoughtful lady who loved her boys and girls."</p> <p>"I was there till 1972, when I headed off to the place I call - in my memoir - A Very Private School."</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/C5TfsiIoQL8/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C5TfsiIoQL8/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Charles Spencer (@charles.earl.spencer)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>Three years after the photo was taken, Charles was separated from his sister to attend a boarding school, Maidwell Hall Prep School.</p> <p>Throughout the Spencer children's schooling life, Diana was always "very protective" over her brother and "just wouldn't settle" in class until she knew he was okay. </p> <p>Charles told <a title="HELLO!" href="https://www.hellomagazine.com/royalty/516378/charles-spencer-shares-poignant-childhood-anecdote-princess-diana/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>HELLO</em>!</a> that he and Diana had a unique bond when they were growing up. </p> <p>"My mother [Frances] left home when we were young – I was two or three, and Diana would have been five or six – so we were very much in it together," he said.</p> <p>Diana soon fell into a caretaker role, and would look after her brother after their mother left. </p> <p>"Diana looked after me because she was nearly three years older than me," Charles Spencer said.</p> <p>"She said that the worst part was hearing me cry down the hall because she was terrified of the dark and couldn't come to me."</p> <p><em>Image credits: Instagram </em></p>

Family & Pets

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Princess Diana's brother reveals tragic secret

<p>Charles Spencer has bravely detailed the alleged sexual abuse he experienced as a child.</p> <p>The younger brother of Princess Diana, now 59, initially made the revelation that he was abused as a child while in boarding school when he was 42. </p> <p>Now, the 9th Earl Spencer is recalling the alleged trauma in his new memoir <em>A Very Private School,</em> and the first moment he told anyone about the abuse he experienced. </p> <p>“I was doing a 10-day course of very deep introspection and therapy,” he told Fox News Digital.</p> <p>“My therapist said to each of us, ‘Whisper to me one secret you’d never told anyone.’ I whispered to him that I was sexually abused as a child by an adult.</p> <p>"And I remember him looking so shocked, and he had heard it all. Afterwards, he took me aside and said, ‘This is very serious stuff.’”</p> <p>He added that at that stage, he already had children, and having kids of his own made him realise how devastating his experience was. </p> <p>“I suddenly put it into context. What if one of my children of either gender had been subjected to this as an 11-year-old? It made my blood boil," he said. </p> <p>"I then started to allow myself to feel the full devastation of what had happened to me.”</p> <p>Spencer was eight when he was enrolled at Maidwell Hall, an elite English boarding school, and he claimed that it didn't take long for him to witness and experience incidents of alleged abuse. </p> <p>He claimed that  he was groomed and sexually abused at age 11 by an assistant matron at the school, who was 19 or 20 years old. </p> <p>“It was a brutal experience,” he claimed in his memoir. </p> <p>“The headmaster was a sadistic pedophile. He staffed a very small number of teachers in this place who were either … perverted or would never tell tales against him. There wasn’t really anyone to go to.“</p> <p>He added that the beatings had become "a ritual part of every day," and his parents had no idea the extent of what was going on behind closed doors.</p> <p>The royal also alleged that one student was whipped so badly he struggled to take off his pants at night because the dried blood and clothing stuck to his skin, and that it took two weeks for him to recover. </p> <p>Spencer claimed he was allowed to write a letter to his parents once a week, with the messages being supervised so he was unable to tell his parents what was going on. </p> <p>“We were just left there at the mercy of some really dangerous people,” Spencer alleged.</p> <p>He said that meeting with other former pupils was what motivated him to write the new memoir, and revisit the painful memories of his past. </p> <p>The historian recalled the moment he met another former student, who kept quiet about the abuse he experience because it was so traumatising. </p> <p>"He told me how he was made to feel worthless every day, how he’d been seriously sexually assaulted as a nine-year-old three times by somebody who was meant to protect him," he recalled.</p> <p>“I took 10 pages of notes, stopped and said, ‘This is too terrible — I can’t tell this story.’ He reached across, grabbed my arm and said, ‘Somebody has to do it – it’s got to be you.’ That convinced me, the truth needed to be shared with the world.”</p> <p>The 9th Earl also said that he is undergoing “a very effective” post-traumatic stress disorder treatment, as well as Tai Chi and breathing exercises.</p> <p>“I’ve got a whole armoury of support techniques to try and get to a better place,” he shared.</p> <p><em>Image: Getty</em></p> <p> </p>

Caring

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Princess Diana's niece secretly welcomes first child

<p>Lady Kitty Spencer, 33, surprised royal fans when she revealed she secretly welcomed her first child with husband Michael Lewis, 65. </p> <p>Spencer, who is Princess Diana's niece and the daughter of Earl Charles Spencer, took to Instagram on Sunday to share a reel of her celebrating her first mother's day in the UK. </p> <p>"It's the joy of my life to be your mummy, little one," her post began. </p> <p>"I love you unconditionally 🤍 Happy Mother's Day to those who celebrate today 🤍," she added.</p> <p>In the clip, Spencer can be seen doting on her baby girl as they spend time together at the beach and at home. </p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4U3U4Fs70Z/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4U3U4Fs70Z/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Kitty Spencer (@kitty.spencer)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>Her sisters were quick to comment on the post, followed suit by royal fans.  </p> <p>"My perfect little niece,"  Eliza Spencer commented. </p> <p>"The most perfect angel in the world," added her sister Amelia Spencer. </p> <p>"What wonderful news dear Kitty! Congratulations on your precious little one," wrote one fan with a bunch of white love hearts. </p> <p>"Oh wow! Didn’t know you had a little bub. How gorgeous! Congratulations x," added another. </p> <p>"Oh Kitty! So happy for you❤ Happy Mother's Day!" wrote a third. </p> <p>Spencer tied the knot with Lewis in a lavish ceremony in Rome in 2021. </p> <p>She wore <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/lifestyle/beauty-style/lady-kitty-spencer-shows-fans-bts-look-at-her-five-wedding-dresses" target="_blank" rel="noopener">five custom Dolce & Gabbana wedding gowns</a>, and her two brothers walked her down the aisle as her father was unable to attend the wedding at the time due to a shoulder injury.</p> <p>The couple first met in 2018, and later got engaged in 2019, but had to postpone their wedding due to COVID-19.</p> <p>Her husband has three children from a previous marriage.</p> <p><em>Images: Instagram</em></p> <p> </p>

Family & Pets

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Queen Elizabeth’s secret “anger” at Lilibet’s name

<p dir="ltr">Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s decision to name their daughter Lilibet allegedly greatly “angered” the late Queen Elizabeth, according to an explosive new book. </p> <p dir="ltr">In the new biography <em>Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story</em>, by veteran royal journalist Robert Hardman, a source close to the royal family shared the secret anger about the Sussexes using Her Majesty’s childhood nickname for their child. </p> <p dir="ltr">The affectionate moniker was used frequently during the late Queen’s childhood, after it emerged from her own mispronunciation of her name as a child. </p> <p dir="ltr">The nickname was used only by her late parents, her sister Princess Margaret, husband Prince Philip, and closest inner circle.</p> <p dir="ltr">Meghan Markle gave birth to her daughter in June 2021, naming her Lilibet Diana, in tribute to both the Queen and to Prince Harry’s late mother, Princess Diana. </p> <p dir="ltr">According to the explosive new book, a senior palace source described the late monarch as being “as angry as I’d ever seen her” when the couple said in a statement she’d approved the use of the name for their second child. </p> <p dir="ltr">In the wake of the new claims, the Daily Mail’s royal editor Rebecca English added that aides told her at the time that the Queen had felt her name had been “taken”.</p> <p dir="ltr">“‘I don’t own the palaces, I don’t own the paintings, the only thing I own is my name. And now they’ve taken that,” they reportedly told her.</p> <p dir="ltr">English added that she’d been told the Queen was “taken aback” when Harry informed her of his intention with the name, but “didn’t feel, given the circumstances, she could say no”, describing it as “being pushed into an impossible corner.”</p> <p dir="ltr">The claims of the Queen’s disappointment first began to swirl shortly after Lilibet’s birth, but a law firm representing Harry and Meghan quickly fired off a statement to news organisations, suggesting the claim was false and defamatory.</p> <p dir="ltr">“The duke spoke with his family in advance of the announcement – in fact his grandmother was the first family member he called,” the message read.</p> <p dir="ltr">“During that conversation, he shared their hope of naming their daughter Lilibet in her honour. Had she not been supportive, they would not have used the name.”</p> <p dir="ltr">In the days after Lilibet’s birth, Buckingham Palace released a statement saying that the Queen and other senior royals were “delighted with the news.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Getty Images / Instagram</em></p>

Family & Pets

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Princess Di misquote in final Crown season sparks outrage

<p>Fans of <em>The Crown</em> have shared their fury over a quote from Princess Diana, after details of a pivotal scene from the royal drama have emerged. </p> <p>The sixth season of the show, which will be <a href="https://oversixty.com.au/entertainment/tv/major-twist-in-store-for-final-season-of-the-crown" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released</a> on Netflix on November 16th, features a key part of Princess Diana's life, in which she dedicated much of her time lobbying for an international treaty banning landmines and her support of victims.</p> <p>Just three weeks before her death in a car crash in 1997, she visited Bosnia and Herzegovina to meet with affected communities.</p> <p>In the upcoming episode of the show, Diana – played by Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki – tells her boyfriend Dodi Al Fayed, played by Khalid Abdalla, about the horrors of the explosives and how they are responsible for thousands of deaths.</p> <p>“A man called Ken Rutherford drew my attention to it. He started the Landmine Survivors Network. After his jeep hit a landmine in Somalia he lost both of his legs,” Diana explains to her boyfriend on-screen.</p> <p>Diana then makes a bold statement, likening stepping on a landmine to her ill-fated marriage to Prince Charles. </p> <p>“He said to me every survivor has a date of the day they stepped on the landmine. He said, ‘Mine was December 16, 1963’. I said, ‘Mine was 29 July, 1981 — my wedding day’.”</p> <p>In the scene, Dodi laughs in response.</p> <p>The inclusion of the presumably fictional quote has been criticised by royal biographer and <em>Majesty</em> magazine editor Ingrid Seward, who had a personal relationship with Diana.</p> <p>“Diana would never have said anything like that. I think it is an unfortunate comparison,” she told <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/tv/24707487/the-crown-risks-angering-royal-family-diana-wedding-charles/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>The Sun</em>.</a></p> <p>“I think the mere fact that <em>The Crown</em> is depicting Diana’s life and her death is exploiting her memory so they can put into her mouth anything that they want to — however distasteful people might find it.”</p> <p>Seward went on to emphasise the significance of landmine awareness to the late princess.</p> <p>“It was very important – it was her big thing and it was a great success too. It is something that she will always be remembered for,” she told the publication.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Netflix </em></p>

TV

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Princess Di's relative lays to rest longstanding burial myth

<p>Princess Diana's relative has corrected a longstanding myth about where the late Princess of Wales is actually buried. </p> <p>Countess Karen Spencer, who is married to Diana's brother Charles, responded to a fan on her Instagram account to address the claim. </p> <p>Since Princess Diana's death in 1997, there have been many rumours about where she was actually laid to rest. </p> <p>After a large funeral in Westminster Abbey, Diana's casket was returned to her family home for burial. </p> <p>She was buried within a mausoleum on the Oval Lake, on an island in the middle of the Althorp estate, where she grew up. </p> <p>Lady Diana spent her childhood and teenage years at Althorp House, a 90-room stately home located in Northamptonshire, prior to marrying the Prince of Wales in 1981.</p> <p>There is no public access to the island where Diana is buried, with a seperate memorial laying elsewhere on the Althorp grounds for members of the public to pay their respects.</p> <p>Since the Princess's death, she believe she is not buried at Althorp at all.</p> <p>Instead, it's claimed the late Princess of Wales was laid to rest alongside her late father John, who died in 1992, in the Spencer family vault at St Mary's Church in Great Brington.</p> <p>But the countess has now publicly denied such claims.</p> <p>Sharing an innocent photo of the Oval Lake to Instagram, one person asked the countess about the rumour. </p> <p>They said, "I saw online that she may have been buried in the family crypt with her father in a church which was used by the Spencer family".</p> <p>Karen commented below, "The law in the UK is that she would have needed to be creamated [sic] in order to go in the crypt and that was not what she wanted, so that wasn't possible."</p> <p>Another person added to the conversation, "Thank you for publicly addressing this longstanding myth. A statement from the family has been the missing piece in 26 years of speculation."</p> <p>While another comment said, "Agreed this is the first public statement from the family. A bit bizarre it's in the Instagram comments section but at least it's now been addressed!"</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p>

Caring

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Princess Diana's childhood home up for rent

<p>The house Princess Diana spent her childhood and teenage years in is now available for the public to rent. </p> <p>Althorp House, located in West Northamptonshire in England, is owned by Diana's brother Earl Spencer, who has lived on the sprawling property as custodian of the estate since 1992. </p> <p>The expansive property has been listed for royal fans with deep pockets to rent on <a href="https://www.elysian-estates.co.uk/althorp/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elysian Estates</a>, an upmarket equivalent of Airbnb.</p> <p>Althorp House, which is a 90 minute drive out of London, was built in 1508 and has been in the Spencer family for 19 generations.</p> <p>Lady Diana lived in the 90-room stately home for most of her childhood and teenage years, before she married the then-Prince Charles in 1981.</p> <p>Not just one grand property, the estate covers 13,000 acres of countryside as it encompasses cottages, farms, woodlands and villages, which are open to visitors but only at certain times of the year.</p> <p>Now, the home is once again available to rent via Elysian Estates.</p> <p>"Althorp offers unparalleled levels of service, privacy and luxury to rival the finest properties anywhere in the world; yet retains the truly welcoming and homely feel that makes Althorp so special," the listing says.</p> <p>"Walk in the footsteps of kings and queens, feast or celebrate in spectacular surroundings, marvel at the sense of history and artwork, and slumber in pure luxury."</p> <p>In the main house, there are six state bedrooms to choose from offering "a level of opulence befitting royalty, with these very rooms playing as much a part of English history as any royal palace".</p> <p>Prices for the rental are not yet publicly available as an enquiry must be sent to reserve the opulent property.</p> <p>The listing stated that the stay includes "butler service, a team of private chefs and housekeeping, with a dedicated concierge service".</p> <p>Althorp is today most famous for being the final resting place of Princess Diana following her death in Paris.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images / Instagram</em></p>

Real Estate

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Princess Di's black sheep jumper sells for 14 times over asking price

<p>Princess Diana's famous "black sheep" jumper has sold at auction for more than $1.1million.   </p> <p>The iconic red and white (and one tiny bit of black, of course!) jumper fetched precisely $1,143,000 at Sotheby's in New York - making it the most expensive piece of clothing owned by the former Princess of Wales to sell at auction, as well as the most expensive jumper to ever be sold at auction. </p> <p>There were a total of 44 bids within the final 15 minutes of a two-week online bidding process for the famous item of clothing - during which the bidding leapt from $190,000 to $1,143,000, which ultimately pushed the sale to a staggering 14 times over the initial asking price of $80,000.  </p> <p>The woollen jumper was worn by Lady Di to a polo match in Windsor in June 1981, just one month before she married the then-Prince Charles. </p> <p>Soon after Diana wore the garment, it was returned to Sally Muir and Joanna Osborne, founders of the label Warm & Wonderful because of a tear at the cuff.</p> <p>It was sent back to the designers along with a note from Buckingham Palace, requesting that the jumper be either repaired or replaced.</p> <p>A new jumper was knitted for Diana, with Osborne believing the original garment had been lost after the replacement was sent to the Princess of Wales, which she wore to another polo match in 1983. </p> <p>However, Osborne later discovered the jumper, which had been preserved underneath an old cotton bedspread, while searching her attic looking for an old pattern. </p> <p>She got in touch with Sotheby's auction house which gave the garment an auction estimate of around $80,000 - $120,000.</p> <p>Speaking to <em>The Telegraph UK</em>, Osborne said, "We didn't think we had any of the original sheep jumpers, because at the time, we were so desperate to complete orders that we never owned one ourselves, so I couldn't believe I'd found the original Diana sheep jumper."</p> <p>"It took a while to sink in. And we're so lucky it's not fallen to pieces."</p> <p>Sotheby's said of the now-iconic design, "The Black Sheep sweater is one of the most iconic pieces worn by Princess Diana to ever come to market."</p> <p>"The cultural impact of this moment from the 1980s is exemplified by the head of Rowing Blazers, Jack Carlson, who in 2020, requested to partner with the original designers and license the sheep design to be reproduced for his own fashion line."</p> <p>"Since stumbling upon the sweater ... we have been reliving the fond memories of Princess Diana appearing on the front pages of every newspaper in 1981, wearing our very own sweater.  </p> <p>"While we are forever indebted to her for the impact this had on our business, our deepest appreciation lies in the knowledge that she shared a unique connection to the black sheep design. We are thrilled that this cherished sweater has now found a new home, carrying with it the enduring legacy of Princess Diana."</p> <p><em>Images: Getty</em></p>

Beauty & Style

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Princess Diana's dresses fetch an eye-watering sum at auction

<p>Three dresses worn by Princess Diana have sold for $2.5 million (AUD) at an auction in Beverly Hills, California. </p> <p>The gowns were sold in a <em>Legends: Hollywood And Royalty</em> sale, by Julien's Auctions and featured over 1,400 items to celebrate 100 years of Warner Bros. </p> <p>All three dresses sold for six-figures, with one selling for almost triple it's estimated price. </p> <p>Martin Nolan, the executive director, said the record-breaking sale of Diana's dresses "exceeded all expectations".</p> <p>Princess Diana's black and jade gown was the most expensive item, selling for $895,580. </p> <p>The dress was made by Catherine Walker - her personal designer for over 16 years - which she wore to a gala event in Toronto, Canada, in October 1991. </p> <p>The second most expensive dress sold was a red silk dress made by Bruce Oldfield, which she wore to the premiere of<em> Hot Shots</em> at the Odeon Leicester Square the following month. </p> <p>The Oldfield dress fetched a stunning $895,547 - which was almost triple it's estimated  $312,000 price tag.</p> <p>The final dress was a custom-made black velvet and ivory gown Diana wore to a private function, which was also designed by Walker, and fetched $796,070. </p> <p>The original price of the velvet and ivory gown was estimated to be around $93,000 - $125,000. </p> <p>The three dresses have not been seen in public for over 30 years, according to the auction house.</p> <p>They were originally bought by American businesswoman Ellen Petho, who bought five of Princess Diana's dresses for $234,000 at an auction in New York. </p> <p>Petho, who passed away in January aged 82, ended up only keeping three of the dresses, which her husband has now sold to help raise money for a scholarship fund for mature art and design students in memory of his wife.</p> <p>Petho's daughter Karrie, told the <em>Mail</em>:  "Our mother read the inscription inside [the auction catalogue] about Prince William telling his mother that the dresses should not sit in her closet, that they should be out in the world and doing good. I think that's what inspired her."</p> <p><em>Image: Brian Lawless/PA Images via Getty Images</em></p>

Beauty & Style

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Charles Spencer shares rare photo in sad tribute to Princess Di

<p>Charles Spencer has shared a rare photo with his late sister Princess Diana in a sad tribute on the 26th anniversary of her death. </p> <p>The Earl took to Twitter, now known as X, to share a summertime throwback photo with the Princess when they were younger. </p> <p>Princess Diana looked very similar to her granddaughter Charlotte in an adorable pink dress, as she put her arm around her brother Charles. </p> <p>The Earl donned an all-blue look with a striped polo shirt and shorts. </p> <p>Although the Earl didn't caption the sentimental post, it racked up over 192,000 views with fans flooding the comment section with their love and support. </p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="zxx"><a href="https://t.co/jUhe7odlaL">pic.twitter.com/jUhe7odlaL</a></p> <p>— Charles Spencer (@cspencer1508) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspencer1508/status/1697062072025059367?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 31, 2023</a></p></blockquote> <p>"Adorable photo. Diana was so lovely and I’m sure the best big sister, too. I grew up loving Diana like most of this world did. You help keep her goodness and spirit alive by being the person you are. Thank you for that," tweeted one person. </p> <p>"Lovely photo, very poignant. Must be a difficult day for you every year. X" another commented. </p> <p>"Thinking of you and all the family on the 26th anniversary of her untimely and tragic death. RIP Diana , a shining example of kindness, compassion and beauty. Never forgotten, always loved," commented a third. </p> <p>"I miss her being in the world. I’m so grateful you are here, doing a phenomenal job teaching the world about the Spencer family, grounding us all, connecting us to history. It gives us all a great deal of security. Thank you for your efforts," wrote a fourth. </p> <p>"Such a beautiful picture. Thinking of you and your family," commented another. </p> <p><em>Image: Twitter (X) </em></p>

Family & Pets

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Princess Diana’s twin nieces' major announcement

<p dir="ltr">Lady Amelia and Lady Eliza Spencer have announced that Australia’s most prestigious race wear event, Fashions on the Field will go global for the first time ever. </p> <p dir="ltr">The competition will be open to international fashion-lovers as they will be accepting digital entries, with a new category allowing them to compete for the Best Dressed and Best Suited awards. </p> <p dir="ltr">The international winners will then be flown to Flemington during Cup Week to experience the glitz and glam of the races, and compete in person during the live final against Australian state and territory finalists on Thursday November 9. </p> <p dir="ltr">Princess Diana's twin nieces championed the prospects of international entries to the prestigious event and worked together with the Lexus Melbourne Cup trophy to make it a reality. </p> <p dir="ltr">"Racewear fashion really is its own fashion category and I know there will be some amazing international entries for the Melbourne Cup Carnival Fashions on the Field competition," Lady Eliza said.</p> <p dir="ltr">"It was great to discover some wonderful Australian labels at our Melbourne Cup Carnival Fashions on the Field shoot in London and I can't wait to see the style and creativity of entrants this year,"  Lady Amelia added. </p> <p dir="ltr">Victoria Race Club Chairman Neil Wilson also shared his excitement for opening up the event to internationals. </p> <p dir="ltr">"Fashion is a universally appreciated expression of people's individual style and we look forward to racing enthusiasts across the globe showcasing their unique take on race wear on track at Flemington or virtually, which will include the new international competition for the first time," he said. </p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Victoria Racing Club</em></p>

Beauty & Style

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"Thoughtful and sensitive": The Crown's plan to recreate Diana's death

<p><em>The Crown</em> have announced that they will be covering the death of Princess Diana in the upcoming season of the show, saying they will be handling the recreation "carefully". </p> <p>The Netflix drama based on the story of the royal family will be returning later this year for season six, which is expected to be the final season of the show. </p> <p>The final season of <em>The Crown</em> is set to take place between the years of 1997 to the early 2000s, including a delicate recreation of the death of the late Princess of Wales. </p> <p>Producer of the show Suzanne Mackie spoke of the upcoming season at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, saying it took a long and careful conversation to reach the decision to cover Diana's death on the show. </p> <p>She said, "The show might be big and noisy, but we're not. We're thoughtful people and we're sensitive people."</p> <p>"And so there was a very, very careful, long, long, long conversation about how we do it – and I hope, you know, the audience will judge it in the end, but I think it's been delicately, thoughtfully recreated."</p> <p>Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki will be returning as Diana after her portrayal of the late Princess in season five. </p> <p>Mackie said Debicki was an "extraordinary actress" who treated the subject carefully.</p> <p>"She was so thoughtful, considerate and loved Diana," Mackie said.</p> <p>"So there was a huge amount of respect from us all. I hope that's evident when you see it."</p> <p>Season six of the show is also set to include the early days of Prince William and Kate Middleton's love story, beginning when they met while at St Andrew's University in Scotland in 2001. </p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p>

TV

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The truth about Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Diana’s relationship

<p><strong>The Queen and Diana</strong></p> <p>Queen Elizabeth II and her daughter-in-law, Princess Diana, were more alike than you may realise: They both gave their lives to public service, they were strong in their own ways, and both were devoted to their families and subjects alike. But Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana were also very different. The Queen is silent and traditional; Diana was modern and outspoken.</p> <p>Lady Diana Spencer, an aristocrat with many links to the royal family tree, married the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, in July 1981. They had two sons, Princes William and Harry, who are Queen Elizabeth’s grandchildren. After several publicly tumultuous years in their marriage, Charles and Diana divorced in 1996, and Princess Diana died the following year.</p> <p>What was the relationship between Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana really like, though? Much of the information that’s been used to form the narrative is a bit lopsided. “There’s a fundamental asymmetry in what we know about this relationship,” says Arianne Chernock, an associate professor of history at Boston University focusing on modern British history and the monarchy. “Diana perhaps told too much – she disclosed quite a bit about her life and her private feelings and emotions to the press. The Queen throughout her reign has had a very different, much more careful, choreographed approach. And so we don’t know what the Queen thought of the relationship. In a way, Diana gets to narrate the story for us.”</p> <p>And although much hearsay has been written about how the two royals felt about each other, this is what we know from the women themselves about their complicated relationship.</p> <p><strong>When did Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana meet?</strong></p> <p>The Queen had known Diana Spencer – or at least known of her – for most of the younger woman’s life. “The Spencers were a prominent family with close royal ties,” Chernock says. Diana’s father was an equerry, or personal attendant, to the Queen’s father, King George VI, and then to the Queen herself; her grandmother was a lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth’s mother. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip attended Diana’s parents’ wedding, and the Queen is the godmother of Diana’s younger brother, Charles.</p> <p>Princess Diana was born and spent her childhood at Park House, on the grounds of the royal estate in Sandringham, Norfolk. The royal family’s official website notes that, as neighbours, the families had known each other for many years. “In fact, Diana’s older sister [Lady Sarah] briefly dated Prince Charles before he met Diana,” Chernock says.</p> <p>As her royal biography notes, Diana first encountered Prince Charles in 1977. He’d been invited to the Spencer estate at Althorp, where the family had moved after Diana’s father became Earl Spencer in 1975.</p> <p>When they began dating, a marriage between Charles and Diana was hardly a given. So when was Diana introduced to the Queen as a potential partner for Charles? “The most sustained early interaction with the royal family came when she was invited to [royal Scottish country estate] Balmoral,” Chernock says. Viewers of Netflix’s The Crown will remember the 1980 meeting as the infamous “Balmoral test.”</p> <p>The Queen thought Diana quite suitable for Charles. “She was very much a hit with the royal family – they really warmed to her,” Chernock says. “Diana worked very, very hard to ingratiate herself and to model what she thought being a princess would entail, and she did it very successfully.”</p> <p>But this success would later come to backfire on Diana. “In retrospect, many would argue that she was not her authentic self during that visit, so she was more performing a role that she aspired to as opposed to being herself,” Chernock says. “She was working very hard to fit in. She was a city girl, and she pretended to love the country. She went out shooting. She did all of the things that she was supposed to do but that she actually did not enjoy.”</p> <p><strong>What was the relationship between Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana like?</strong></p> <p>At first, everything went smoothly between the Queen and Diana. “We do know that both she and Philip thought that Diana, based on that experience in Scotland, was very acceptable,” Chernock says. “They encouraged this union.”</p> <p>Although they were not exactly close, the Queen approved of Charles’s choice – or rather, she approved of the woman she believed Diana to be. If she hadn’t given her stamp of approval, the relationship wouldn’t have moved forward. “The Queen has never left a recorded impression,” Chernock says. “She’s very tight-lipped. So we don’t know. We can’t access her diaries or her private thoughts. We can look at her actions and her behaviours; those are the clues we have.”</p> <p>As for Diana, she may have started to get the sense that she bit off more than she could chew. “I think after her initial romance in Scotland, she began to realise just how tricky the royal family would be and how ill-prepared she was to really be a full-fledged member of the family,” Chernock says.</p> <p><strong>How did Queen Elizabeth feel about Diana's engagement to Prince Charles?</strong></p> <p>The Queen had a sense that Diana could handle royal life, and not just because of her success at Balmoral. Additional proof came, ironically, in the way Diana was able to weather the storm of press and photographers who soon descended upon her, according to a 1981 Time magazine article announcing her engagement. The Queen had begun pressing Charles to propose, due in part to all the media attention, giving him an ultimatum to marry Diana by the summer of 1981 or not at all. “The idea of this romance going on for another year is intolerable to everyone concerned,” the Queen said, according to Time. And when the public announcement happened, Elizabeth was “beaming.”</p> <p>But things would take a darker turn for Diana as she moved into the royal apartments at Buckingham Palace in preparation for the wedding. “Diana was wanting more guidance and felt that the Queen could have offered that to her,” Chernock says. “So it’s a fishbowl kind of experience, very few people on the inside, and I think Diana did describe her experience as a profoundly lonely one and wished that especially women in the royal family had been more accessible, more available to her.”</p> <p>The Queen, though, might have seen things differently. “She may think she was very accessible – she may think she did what she could, given her role and given her commitments and constraints,” Chernock says. “Again, Diana gets to tell the story about the Queen.”</p> <p>We do have a glimpse of the Queen’s feelings on the matter. According to royal expert Ingrid Seward’s 2002 book The Queen &amp; Di, in March 1981, Elizabeth wrote a letter to a friend in which she said, “I trust that Diana will find living here less of a burden than is expected.”</p> <p>Of course, that’s not what happened – at least from Diana’s point of view. “She described the royal family as cold, heartless and unfeeling; unsympathetic,” Chernock says. “I don’t think she was ever singling out the Queen specifically, but certainly that was how she framed her encounters with the family, the firm.” (The firm is an informal title for the institution of the monarchy, of which the Queen is the head.)</p> <p><strong>What happened between Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana after the wedding?</strong></p> <p>After Charles and Diana’s wedding on July 29, 1981, the Queen began to entrust Diana with royal responsibilities, showing that she had confidence in the new Princess’s ability to carry out her official duties. Diana’s first solo task was to represent the royal family at the funeral of Princess Grace of Monaco, which the Queen allowed her to take on even though Charles didn’t think it was a good idea. According to Andrew Morton’s 1992 book, Diana: Her True Story – In Her Own Words, the Princess recalled, “I went to the Queen, and I said, ‘You know, I’d like to do this,’ and she said, ‘I don’t see why not. If you want to do this, you can.’”</p> <p>The success at that event led to many more, and even the Queen could see that the Princess had a way with people that could buoy the monarchy’s popularity. “She was an asset, to a point, until she stole the show,” Chernock says. “Part of the challenge, though, for the Queen and especially for Charles, was that Diana, she shined so brightly that she really – not necessary intentionally – eclipsed those around her.”</p> <p>Diana’s star power affected Charles the most when they toured, but it impacted Elizabeth as well. “There was a bit of, I suspect, tension there because she’s the Queen,” Chernock says. “There was a complicated little dance they probably had to play with each other.”</p> <p><strong>How did the women's relationship change as the royal marriage declined?</strong></p> <p>Prince Charles and Princess Diana were mismatched from the start, and with their marriage crumbling, the relationship between Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana was also headed for the rocks.</p> <p>In tapes from 1993, which were made public in 2004 and rereleased with the 2017 documentary, Diana: In Her Own Words that aired in the United Kingdom, the Princess said she was not given the support she needed when she went “sobbing” to ask the Queen for help with the marriage. “So I went to the top lady and said, ‘I don’t know what I should do,’” Diana said. “She said, ‘I don’t know what you should do.’ And that was it. That was ‘help.’”</p> <p>According to Seward in The Queen &amp; Di, although Elizabeth was initially sympathetic to Diana, eventually the stoic monarch felt that the emotional Princess was simply too much to handle. “A footman said, ‘The Princess cried three times in a half an hour while she was waiting to see you.’ The Queen replied, ‘I had her for an hour – and she cried nonstop.’”</p> <p>Unsatisfied, that’s when Diana turned to the press; specifically, the Morton book in 1992 (although Diana’s participation was kept a secret until after her death) and Diana’s 1995 BBC Panorama interview with Martin Bashir (who recently apologised for using deceitful tactics to get the interview). The royals, including the Queen, “thought she talked too much – they did not see that as in keeping with royal protocol; how much she disclosed,” Chernock says.</p> <p>Although Elizabeth was “stunned” that Diana revealed so much publicly, according to Seward, she had to keep quiet and couldn’t respond in turn with her own feelings. Elizabeth’s silence on the matter didn’t help her cause, however. “The Queen’s interior or inner life is often a mystery, which works well for her on some occasions and less so on others because it can lead to this more unsympathetic portrayal of her becoming the dominant one; when we really don’t know what was going on,” Chernock says.</p> <p><strong>How did Queen Elizabeth feel about Charles and Diana's separation and divorce?</strong></p> <p>As you’ve no doubt guessed, Queen Elizabeth wasn’t thrilled that the royal marriage was dissolving. “I think we can assume, based on many related conversations others had, that [the Queen] did not want a separation; that this was seen as dangerous to the throne, not in keeping with this moral platform the family tries to uphold or project,” says Chernock. “So I think they certainly felt this was unfortunate.”</p> <p>Princess Diana and Prince Charles separated in 1992, but as their separation dragged on for several years, Elizabeth thought it was time to put a formal end to things. In 1995, Buckingham Palace released a statement to the press: “After considering the present situation, the Queen wrote to both the Prince and Princess earlier this week and gave them her view, supported by the Duke of Edinburgh, that an early divorce is desirable. The Prince of Wales also takes this view and has made this known to the Princess of Wales. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will continue to do all they can to help and support the Prince and Princess of Wales, and most particularly their children, in this difficult period.”</p> <p>The Queen’s thinking on the topic of divorce had evolved over time – after all, it was her uncle’s inability to marry divorcée Wallis Simpson that caused him to abdicate the throne to his brother. And then there was her lack of support for her sister, Margaret, who had wished to marry divorcé Peter Townsend in the 1950s.</p> <p>“When you look back at Queen Elizabeth’s strong reaction to her sister Margaret’s desire to marry a divorcé and her opposition to Margaret’s marriage to Townsend, we can see the Queen has certainly evolved in her thinking, and I suspect she has come to prioritise the happiness of her family members over time,” Chernock says, pointing to the fact that other royals have divorced and Prince Harry has married divorcée Meghan Markle. “I think she has become much less rigid in her approach to thinking about marriage and the royal family, and [in] recognising that the royal family serves its constituents most effectively when its members are fulfilled emotionally as well as in other capacities.”</p> <p>Charles and Diana divorced in 1996.</p> <p><strong>How did Queen Elizabeth react to Princess Diana's death?</strong></p> <p>Perhaps the lowest point for the Queen throughout her 70-year-reign was after Diana was killed in the car crash, just one year after her divorce from Prince Charles. Instead of immediately rushing back to London from Balmoral to comfort her people, Elizabeth chose to stay in Scotland to attend to her grieving grandchildren, William and Harry, who had just lost their mother. The fact that Elizabeth remained in seclusion angered her subjects and fuelled conspiracy theories about Diana’s death.</p> <p>“I think in private she probably was a much more supportive anchor for that family in their period of turmoil than she’s given credit for,” Chernock says. “This is just what I surmise, but how telling is it that Meghan and Harry named their daughter [Lilibet] after the Queen? Clearly, there’s a really strong bond and love there, and she must have been a support to Harry during that really difficult period around his mother’s death.”</p> <p>Prince William echoed this in the BBC documentary, Diana, 7 Days. “At the time, you know, my grandmother wanted to protect her two grandsons, and my father as well,” he said, recalling being grateful to have had “the privacy to mourn, to collect our thoughts, and to just have that space away from everybody.” William also said that Elizabeth “felt very torn between being a grandmother to William and Harry and her Queen role.”</p> <p>A letter from Elizabeth to one of her aides recently resurfaced, revealing the Queen’s personal feelings about Diana’s passing. “It was indeed dreadfully sad, and she is a huge loss to the country. But the public reaction to her death and the service in the Abbey seem to have united people around the world in a rather inspiring way. William and Harry have been so brave, and I am very proud of them,” the Queen wrote. “I think your letter was one of the first I opened – emotions are still so mixed up, but we have all been through a very bad experience!”</p> <p>A week after her death and the night before Diana’s funeral, the Queen came back to Buckingham Palace and made a rare live television speech about the Princess; a landmark moment for her reign. Her broadcast, though, was “much at the urging of Tony Blair, prime minister at the time,” Chernock says. “I think she was counselled, but she was receptive to it, and saw that that was the wise move, and she relented.”</p> <p><strong>How did Princess Diana impact Queen Elizabeth and the monarchy?</strong></p> <p>Diana’s death was a turning point for the monarchy – and for Queen Elizabeth herself, who subsequently developed a renewed connection with her people. “These are all lessons learned from the challenges of managing ‘the Diana affair’ and the fallout from that,” Chernock says. “I think it was a very challenging moment for the crown but also indicative of the crown’s resilience that they, and the Queen specifically, were able to weather that and gain new levels of popularity in the years after, when many were predicting the end of monarchy in the late 1990s.”</p> <p>The Queen herself has changed as well, at least a bit. She’s “trying to inject a little bit more spontaneity, a little bit more emotion, a little bit more connection into her delivery,” Chernock says. “She has a very different style from Diana – and I don’t think anyone would want her to be Diana – but she’s become more willing to bring some of her own personality into public.”</p> <p>In addition, “I think she has developed a much finer appreciation for messaging, for showing that she’s emotionally connected to her people and in touch, and trying to incorporate some informality, even though scripted, into her role,” Chernock says.</p> <p>Case in point: the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, in which the Queen performed in a James Bond skit. “That has Diana written all over it,” Chernock says.</p> <p>While her famous British “keep calm and carry on” attitude has helped the country withstand recent challenges – namely, a global pandemic – the Queen has also learned to adapt, even growing the royal family’s presence on social media. “I think the whole royal family, including Queen Elizabeth, took a lesson from Diana’s formula that works,” Chernock says. “The royal family is always trying to balance tradition and innovation in a way that makes sense. In large part, I think this has to do with Diana and the fact that she was able to show that informality works.”</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://www.readersdigest.com.au/culture/the-truth-about-queen-elizabeth-ii-and-princess-dianas-relationship" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reader's Digest</a>. </em></p>

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Princess Diana's never-before-seen backup wedding gown

<p>The designer of Princess Diana's iconic wedding gown has revealed the details of a secret second dress that has never seen the light of day. </p> <p>In an exclusive interview with <em>Hello!</em> magazine, British designer Elizabeth Emmanuel revealed that she had planned for the worst in the lead up to the royal nuptials in 1981 by creating a backup dress. </p> <p>When Princess Diana married King Charles at St Paul’s Cathedral, she wore the now iconic voluptuous custom gown with a 25-foot train and 10,000 mother-of-pearl sequin and pearl embellishments. </p> <p>However, this gown may not have been the one debuted on the red-carpet aisle if news of it leaked before the big day. </p> <p>“The spare wedding gown was made just in case the secret of the real dress ever got out,” Emmanuel proclaimed. “Fortunately, it was never used.”</p> <p>Emmanuel drew inspiration from the 20-year-old’s initial design for the “spare,” pointing to a similar V-cut neckline adorned with a ruffle trim, puffy sleeves, and massive skirt in the never-before-seen sketch.</p> <p>The substitute was “pale ivory silk taffeta with embroidered scalloped details on the hem and sleeves” and detailed with delicate pearls along a tight-fitting bodice.</p> <p>To see the stunning draft design of the spare gown, click <a href="https://www.hellomagazine.com/brides/499047/princess-diana-spare-wedding-dress-unveiled-for-first-time-by-designer-exclusive/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.</p> <p>In the lead up to the wedding, strict security measures were put in place to prevent anyone from seeing the dresses before Diana walked down the aisle. </p> <p>“We had the dress stored every night in a metal cabinet guarded by two guards, Jim and Bert,” Elizabeth noted. “So there was somebody there 24 hours a day and we put shutters on all our windows, and we put false color threads in the rubbish bins because people were going through our bins.”</p> <p>Elizabeth, now 70-years-old, lost track of the alternate gown, which the Princess of Wales never actually tried on.</p> <p>Just before what would have been the royal pair’s 42nd wedding anniversary, Elizabeth told Hello!, “I don’t know where it went. It just disappeared.”</p> <p>However, when Princess Diana tragically died, her original gown was left to both Prince William and Prince Harry, as the historic garment now rests in Kensington Palace.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images </em></p>

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Meghan and Lilibet spotted in rare outing

<p dir="ltr">There has been a rare sighting of Meghan Markle and her daughter, Princess Lilibet, in California.</p> <p dir="ltr">The royal mother-daughter duo were spotted close to their home in Montecito, California, as they joined revellers to celebrate the Fourth of July in a parade.</p> <p dir="ltr">Prince Harry and Prince Archie, four, were also in attendance but in the short clip shared on social media, they are obscured by other members of the crowd watching the event.</p> <p dir="ltr">The video of the royal sighting was posted by a local hotel, which shows an Independence Day parade featuring a display of vintage and modern cars, along with local ambulances and fire trucks, making its way from the San Ysidro Road towards East Valley.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CuSz3y2g1Ok/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CuSz3y2g1Ok/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Rosewood Miramar Beach (@rosewoodmiramarbeach)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Meghan can be seen crouching on the ground with her arms around Lilibet, who is waving an American flag pinwheel, as they both wave to the people in the parade.</p> <p dir="ltr">Prince Harry was also spotted, dressed in casual wear, carrying Lilibet through the crowd.</p> <p dir="ltr">The rare sighting comes just days after the Sussexes continue to sit out official royal events, as King Charles celebrated his <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/travel/travel-trouble/not-my-king-second-coronation-marred-by-protestors" target="_blank" rel="noopener">second coronation</a>.</p> <p dir="ltr">King Charles celebrated his coronation a second time during a ceremony in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh, just two months after being crowned King in London.</p> <p dir="ltr">The monarch was joined by Queen Camilla, and Prince and Princess of Wales, who are known as the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay in Scotland, for a Service of Thanksgiving and Dedication held in his honour.</p> <p dir="ltr">Despite the grand and emotional service, the ceremony was slightly marred by anti-monarch protestors outside.</p> <p dir="ltr">The protestors stood chanting "not my King" for hours on end so loudly, that the voices could be heard from inside the church during the quieter moments of the ceremony.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Instagram</em></p>

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