AUGUST 2017AWW.COM.AU 33
[ Personal memoir]
without forewarning his children. When
he broke the news of his marriage,
Diana slapped her father hard across
the face, shouting, “That’s from all
of us, for hurting us”.
It’s impossible to know what
happiness Diana would have known- or who she would have become –
if she had married someone other
than the Prince of Wales. But it’s
also true that in 1977, when the
naive 16-year-old first caught sight
of the 29-year-old number one royal
bachelor striding through a ploughed
field at an Althorp shooting party,
there was no other rival for her heart.
To Charles, however, Diana was
the “jolly”, “bouncy” younger sister
of Sarah, whom he briefly dated.
His future bride wasn’t always a
radiant beauty; she became one
under the spotlight.
It was remarkable to watch
this change. At the time of her
engagement, when she was 19,
I was introduced to Diana at the
American Embassy in London. She
was wearing a pale blue gossamer-
light organza dress and was
agonizingly shy. No photograph,
however, fully captured her exquisite
peach complexion; her huge, limpid
blue eyes; her imposing, slender
height. Her small talk was gauche
but enchanting. As she and Charles
moved between the guests, she gazed
up at the urbane, practiced Prince of
Wales with starstruck adoration.
Seventeen years later, in July 1997,
when I lunched with her at the
Four Seasons in New York shortly
before her death, global celebrity had
electrified her charisma. It was as if
she had been elongated and grown
taller still. Impeccably groomed, she
strode across the dining room on
three-inch heels, garbed in a dazzling
emerald green Chanel suit, with all
the confidence of a supermodel blonde
who knew every eye was upon her.
But love, or the lack of it, would
always be Diana’s primal wound.
In June, she came to New York
for the Christie’s auction of all her
glittering gowns. It was the ultimate
statement of her desire to leave her
“fairy tale” past behind. But over»
CLOCKWISE,
FROM TOP:
Fourteen-year-
old Diana with
her Shetland
pony, Soufflé;
cuddling her
guinea pig during
a 1972 pet show;
leaving for
boarding school
in 1970; all poise,
Diana jumping off
a slide into the
family pool.