Royal Chat - All Welcome! ?

Fanny He has behaved very honourably. It must have been such an utterly bizarre situation to find one's self in...

Yes, he has.

Is the statue ceremony being televised, just high-lights, or not at all?
If it is on TV my guess is Catherine isn't attending so as not to detract from the event.

Sparklefizz I definitely agree with you and the preview poster about her wanting to make Khan jealous.
I bet that he could tell a tale or two.
He has behaved very honourably.
It must have been such an utterly bizarre situation to find one's self in...

Anniebach

*Sparklefizz*. The girls Charles dated , many photographs of
them with Charles, one photograph of Charles and Camilla standing by a tree at a polo match, yet he wanted to marry
Camilla !

If Charles was with Camilla why didn’t Sarah Spencer know and tell her sister ?

I am not bitter towards Diana, I do criticise her when she is
portrayed as an angelic , ill treated woman and Charles is condemned as a waster .

She did much for charities but she was manipulative and she did lie.

She couldn’t even give up her need for the cameras when she was with Hasnat Khan , that photograph of her in a hospital theatre , diamond earrings and op theatre garb .

I wonder if her tipping off the press when she was with Dodi
was partly to get Khan back.

I certainly feel so sorry for her because she was ill, but I think
we should admit a person who is mentally ill can cause so much hurt to others.

How many men have come forward claiming they were one of the many involved with Camilla when she was allegedly ‘sleeping around ‘.

Anniebach He did want to marry Camilla. Just because there is only one known photo of Charles with her doesn't mean a thing. He wasn't allowed to marry her, and thus started seeing others, including Sarah Spencer.

You keep on about her lying as if she was the only one. Charles and Camilla also lied. I expect you might have told the odd lie yourself at some point

I think she did want to make Hasnat Khan jealous by being photographed with Dodi. I think she was very upset over breaking up with him. Actually nobody "ordinary" would be able to take that horrendous pressure from the paps and anyone that Diana was with would be under that microscope.

Why would any men come forward to say they had slept with Camilla? Who cares? There would be no reason for them to say anything now but it was a problem back then, and Charles took the Queen Mother's and Mountbatten's advice not to continue with her.

I've just learned that Diana had another brother. His name was John, and he died just ten hours after his birth.

Diana's 'blood family' the Spencers will be with William and Harry at the unveiling of the statue.

"Princess (sic) Diana reportedly threw herself down the stairs' while she was four months pregnant with Prince William.

The Princess of Wales is said to have recorded the account in 1991 as her marriage to Prince Charles began to disintegrate, before sending the tapes to journalist Andrew Morton." (Independent)
I believe it took place at Balmoral, in the presence of the Queen Mother; I read about it many years earlier but where I cannot recall.

Why do you think Edward and Sophie might be there Annie?
To represent the Queen and they would be a non-controversial choice.

Sparklefizz I think that is a fair summing up and I do think that Charles tried hard to love her but, with her background, she was very needy and perhaps he was too. Neither could give the other what they needed. I felt sorry for both of them but many arranged marriages do work out.

I don't think that Camilla had had a particularly racy past by today's standards but, not being pure and virginal, she was not considered suitable for Charles despite the fact that they were and are eminently suited..

Sparklefizz. The girls Charles dated , many photographs of
them with Charles, one photograph of Charles and Camilla standing by a tree at a polo match, yet he wanted to marry
Camilla !

If Charles was with Camilla why didn’t Sarah Spencer know and tell her sister ?

I am not bitter towards Diana, I do criticise her when she is
portrayed as an angelic , ill treated woman and Charles is condemned as a waster .

She did much for charities but she was manipulative and she did lie.

She couldn’t even give up her need for the cameras when she was with Hasnat Khan , that photograph of her in a hospital theatre , diamond earrings and op theatre garb .

I wonder if her tipping off the press when she was with Dodi
was partly to get Khan back.

I certainly feel so sorry for her because she was ill, but I think
we should admit a person who is mentally ill can cause so much hurt to others.

How many men have come forward claiming they were one of the many involved with Camilla when she was allegedly ‘sleeping around ‘.

The official line is that the event has been 'scaled back' due to Covid rules.

According to what I have read online, it says that her 'close family' will be there, as will the sculptor and the garden designer, and 'members of the statue committee'.
Why do you think Edward and Sophie might be there Annie?

Surely her blood family will attend, and possibly Sophie and Edward,

I watched the programme on Diana. She had such a natural warmth and empathy with people and she lit up a room.

She had her faults, as indeed we all do, but she shone a light in dark places such as HIV/AIDS and others.

She wanted to be loved. Don't we all? From when her mother left when she was six, she seemed not to have this. It was not unreasonable to expect that her husband would love her, but I also watched the programme on Charles and his previous girlfriends, and can see how much pressure he was under to find a wife and how his proposals were rejected by several girlfriends (just like Harry's were!) Diana said herself that they had only had 18 dates before marrying, and I read that she impressed upon William the need to really know someone before marrying. He followed that advice. Harry didn't.

Charles could not have married Camilla back then because she already had a racy past and was sleeping around, so she wasn't suitable. Obviously Charles was sleeping around too, but it was the old double standard thing ..... the future Queen was supposed to be virginal.

Charles actually said it all at their engagement interview when he said "I am amazed that she wants to take me on." Nobody else did, but Diana actually said he was "amazing". She was deeply in love.

Annie I don't understand your bitterness towards Diana. She did a great deal of good work, she had some wonderful qualities and, as I said before, most people can accept that she was very hard done by. If her marriage to Charles had been a love match, they could have gone on to do great things.

I know what you mean Galaxy, me and my dad are a bit like that.
(My mom died relatively young - exactly 3 months prior to Diana in actual fact.
All of the ensuing hoo hah about Diana's death actually did my already done in head further in!)

I imagined that the unveiling would be quite celebratory (for want of a better word, perhaps), but it seems now that it will be rather a solemn affair.

I dont think it's weird at all. Dh mum died and there were times I left he and his brother to do things or to to just be with their dad (and he and his brother dont get on that well).

I wonder if Diana's brother's and sisters' spouses will be there?

Apart from the obvious familiar reasons (mother to her grandchildren; wife of her son)
I would have thought that William would have wanted to share what should be a happy occasion (I'm not sure what the prevailing atmosphere will actually be).

There will be many people there who have much more tenuous connections to Diana (I think).
William and Harry will hardly 'be alone', will they?

I think that it's weird that Catherine won't be there. I would have expected the children to be there too.

FannyCornforth

No! She should definitely be there!

Why ? Don’t you think the brothers should have this time together alone?

I also watched the Diana programme the other night.

It was obviously skewed in her favour, as the contributors were her friends.

She had many faults, as we all do, but no one can doubt her real desire to ‘make a difference’ through her charity work. She had genuine empathy with others, and was very canny in how she changed the way the Royals approached their role.

What would she have been like at 60? Still elegant, glamorous, a doting granny, re-married?

We will never know, but her influence is very much still there.

It would have been their (Charles and Di’s) ruby wedding next month. Wonder what Charles thoughts are on that day, all those years ago?

No! She should definitely be there!

Agree calendargirl. After all Catherine didn’t know her.

I think the reason Catherine isn’t going to the statue unveiling is so that it doesn’t leave Harry looking like Billy No-Mates on his own, as Meghan isn’t coming.

It really is her two sons occasion after all.

Anniebach “ I thought the ITV programme was
full of lies. ”. Why ? I don’t understand where you get all your inside information from. I mean we’re you actually there when Diana apparently threw herself down the stairs ? I honestly don’t get the wholesale condemnation of Diana from you. I’m with Sparklefizz on this.

I must say, I am quite excited about seeing the Diana statue on Thursday.
It's been on the news this morning that Catherine () won't be going to the unveiling. Which is sad.

He never said so, neither did Camilla,