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40 Princess Diana of Wales Facts - Princess Diana's Life Story Search ShopBAZAAR Subscribe Clean Beauty Fashion All Fashion Shows Street Style Trends & Shopping Guides Fashion Photography Fashion Designers Fashion Models Spring Fashion Summer Fashion Fall Fashion Winter Fashion Beauty Hairstyles and Colors Makeup Skincare Nails Diet & Fitness Mind & Body Celebrity Red Carpet Dresses Parties Celebrity News Cover Stories Culture Film & TV Art, Books & Music Interiors & Entertaining Features The Edit Fashion Sales & Deals Beauty Bazaar Bride Wedding Fashion Wedding Planning Real Weddings Wedding Beauty Relationships Travel & Food Politics Newsletter Giveaways United States US UK España Nederland Italia 台灣 Japan Do Not Sell My Personal Information Privacy Notice/Notice at Collection Terms of Use Editions: US UK España Nederland Italia 台灣 Japan Fashion Beauty Celebrity Culture The Edit Subscribe Sign In My Account Sign Out Type keyword(s) to search Today's Top Stories 1 Vivienne Westwood Disturbed Everything 2 26 Plus-Size Clothing Brands to Have on Your Radar 3 Emily in Paris Season 4: Everything We Know 4 2023 TikTok Fashion Trends to Watch 5 How Love Wellness's Lo Bosworth Takes the Edge Off Every product on this page was chosen by a Harper's BAZAAR editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy. Celebrity Celebrity News 40 Things You Never Knew About the Late Princess Diana 40 Things You Never Knew About the Late Princess Diana Lady Di was full of surprises. By Sabrina Park and Isabel Greenberg Nov 11 2022, 3:22 pm EST BettmannGetty Images Princess Diana was a trailblazer, activist, style icon, and one of the most influential people of the 20th century. Although she lived much of her life in the spotlight, under oppressive scrutiny, there's much you probably don't know about the beloved late royal. From her favorite fashion designer and pre-royal working life to her taste in music and her parenting style, here are 40 things to remember about the People's Princess. View Gallery 43 Photos Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Getty Images 1 of 43 She was the fourth of five children. Princess Diana had two sisters, Sarah (now Lady Sarah McCorquodale) and Jane (now Lady Jane Fellowes), and a younger brother, Charles Spencer (now the Earl Spencer). Her other brother, John Spencer, died hours after his birth in January 1960, a year and a half before Diana was born. Getty Images 2 of 43 Her parents divorced when she was 7. Diana's parents, Frances Shand Kydd and Edward John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer, divorced when she was just seven years old. Diana's parents had a tumultuous relationship, and she cited cheating and physical abuse as some of the reasons for their separation. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Getty Images 3 of 43 Her grandmother was a lady-in-waiting to the Queen Mother. Diana's maternal grandmother, Ruth Roche, Baroness Fermoy, was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. This meant she acted as a personal assistant and a companion. She was a close friend to the Queen and organized many of her parties. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Getty Images 4 of 43 She grew up on the Sandringham estate leased from Queen Elizabeth. Sandringham House is located in Norfolk and is owned by the royal family. On the grounds is Park House, where Princess Diana's mother Frances was born in in 1936 and Diana was born in 1961. The estate is a royal family staple and Sandringham House hosts many of the family holidays. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Getty Images 5 of 43 She wanted to be a ballerina, but was too tall. Diana studied ballet and wanted to become a professional dancer, but grew too tall to continue. Diana's ballet teacher Anne Allan opened up about her time with the princess in 2017, saying “she had dance in her soul. I realized the pure enjoyment that it gave her. She loved the freeness of being able to move and dance... I could see it helped to alleviate her emotional life." Getty Images 6 of 43 She became Lady Diana after her father inherited a title. Diana became Lady Diana Spencer in 1975, after her father inherited the title of Earl Spencer. "Lady Di" became her nickname, even after she got the title of Princess of Wales when she married Prince Charles. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Getty Images 7 of 43 School was not her strong suit. Up until she was 9 years old, Diana was homeschooled before attending boarding school for the rest of her education. She failed her O-Level exams twice and dropped out of school when she was 16. She attended school in Switzerland for one semester before she met Prince Charles. Getty Images 8 of 43 She worked as a nanny and a teacher. Before she met Prince Charles and became a princess, Diana worked many odd jobs, including as a nanny and a school teacher. She was paid only $5 an hour to play with children, do laundry, and clean. She also worked as a kindergarten teacher part-time in London's Pimlico area. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Getty Images 9 of 43 She was the first royal bride to have a paying job. When she married Prince Charles in 1981, Diana became the first-ever royal bride to have had a paying job ahead of her engagement to an heir. (The Duchess of Cambridge was the first royal bride to have earned a university degree.) Getty Images 10 of 43 Prince Charles dated her older sister first. Diana met her future husband through her older sister, Sarah. Prince Charles and Sarah had a fling in in the late '70s, which is how Diana first met the prince. "I introduced them. I'm Cupid," Sarah said. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Getty Images 11 of 43 Prince Charles dated her older sister first. Sarah and Diana were very close and often traveled together until the end of Diana's life. Diana said that Sarah was “the only person I know I can trust." Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Getty Images 12 of 43 She was a distant cousin of Prince Charles. Diana and Charles were actually distantly related. They were 16th cousins once removed, both descendants of Tudor King Henry VII.Prince William is also related to his wife Kate Middleton. They are 12th cousins once removed, related through Sir Thomas Leighton. Leighton is Prince William's 12th generation great-grandfather, and Kate's 11th. Getty Images 13 of 43 She only met Prince Charles 13 times before they got married. Before they were engaged in 1981, Charles and Diana had only met about a dozen times. At the time, Diana was just 19, and Charles was 32. "They had only been together 12 times and at one point Prince Phillip pressured his son and said, 'You have to do the right thing.'" said Susan Zirinsky, senior executive producer of Princess Diana: Her Life, Her Death, The Truth. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Getty Images 14 of 43 Her wedding dress was record-breaking. Diana's ivory taffeta wedding dress was made by husband-and-wife design team David and Elizabeth Emanuel. The gown boasted over 10,000 pearls and a 25-foot-long train, one of the longest royal trains the world had ever seen. Getty Images 15 of 43 She was the first to give birth in a hospital. It was royal tradition for heirs of the throne to be born at home. However, Prince William was the first future monarch born in a hospital, as Diana gave birth to both William and Harry at the Lido Wing at St. Mary's Hospital. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Getty Images 16 of 43 Her parenting style was very unconventional for a royal. Diana was no ordinary royal mom. She was determined to raise Prince William and Prince Harry as "normally" as possible, including sending them to public school, taking them on public transportation, and bringing them fast food restaurants, on public transportation. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Getty Images 17 of 43 Her parenting style was very unconventional for a royal. "She made sure that they experienced things like going to the cinema, queuing up to buy a McDonald's, going to amusement parks, those sorts of things that were experiences that they could share with their friends," said Patrick Jephson, Princess Diana's chief of staff for six years. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Getty Images 18 of 43 Catherine Walker was her favorite designer. Diana's private couturier Catherine Walker had a "quasi-sisterly bond" with the princess. Walker designed many of Diana's most iconic looks and is given credit for her signature style. Mark ReinsteinGetty Images 19 of 43 Catherine Walker was her favorite designer. On wearing a white halter dress designed by Walker in 1996, Diana wrote to the designer, "I was so proud and felt very confident to stride out there and deliver my first speech since the divorce. The compliments about your design and expertise would have made your ears burn." Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Getty Images 20 of 43 She always wrote a "thank you" card. Diana was famous for writing thank you cards to anyone that gave her a gift. She reportedly wrote thank you notes to the thousands of people who brought gifts to Prince William after he was born. Today, some of her handwritten letters have been auctioned off for anywhere from $2,000 to $2o,000, depending on the content and uniqueness of the note. Getty Images 21 of 43 She was a breakthrough activist for HIV awareness. Diana made history in April 1987 when she was photographed shaking an HIV patient's hand without wearing gloves. The photo helped spread the message of HIV awareness and educate the public's perception of the illness. That day, the Princess opened the UK's first HIV/Aids unit at London Middlesex Hospital that specifically treated patients infected with the virus. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Getty Images 22 of 43 She had a lot of famous friends. Diana had many A-list friends, including Elton John, George Michael, Tilda Swinton, and Liza Minelli. Diana was also friends with Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, and stayed at their ranch in Colorado with William and Harry for ten days to escape the paparazzi. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Getty Images 23 of 43 ABBA was her favorite band. Diana was known to be a huge fan of Swedish pop group ABBA. The Duchess of Cambridge and and Prince William honored Diana in a subtle way by playing some of ABBA's music at their wedding party in 2011. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Getty Images 24 of 43 She coined the term "cleavage bags." With cameras following her everywhere, Diana had to be careful of what was photographed. She used her small clutch bags as a guard for her cleavage, to make sure cameras didn't catch a glimpse down her top. Most photos of Diana getting out of a car to enter an event show her using her clutch as a shield. Designer Anya Hindmarch, who worked with Diana often, said, "We used to laugh when we designed what she called her 'cleavage bags,' little satin clutches which she would cover her cleavage with when she stepped out of cars." Tim GrahamGetty Images 25 of 43 She recorded her honest thoughts on tape. After Diana's messy public divorce caused a tabloid craze, she decided to record her thoughts on tape to tell her side of the story. She starting documenting them in May 1991, and had a friend deliver them to British royal journalist Andrew Morton."The Princess was talking about her unhappiness, her sense of betrayal, her suicide attempts—and two things I’d never previously heard of: an eating disorder called bulimia nervosa and a woman called Camilla," Morton said about the tapes. In 1992, Andrew Morton wrote Diana: Her True Story—In Her Own Words based on the tapes he had received from Diana. The book was a bestseller, and forever changed the narrative about the princess. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Getty Images 26 of 43 She had an affair with her bodyguard. Barry Mannakee was with the police in the Royal Protection Squad before becoming Diana's bodyguard in 1985. After a year on her service, Mannakee was transferred off of royal duties because of an "unusually close relationship between the pair." In a tape from a therapy session, Diana said that she was "deeply in love" and was "quite happy to give all this up and to just go off and live with him." While she does not directly name Mannakee, it is widely believed she was talking about him. Mannakee died in a motorcycle crash in 1987, and there are many theories that his death was not an accident. Getty Images 27 of 43 Her engagement ring was chosen from a catalogue. The ring is a 12-carat oval sapphire surrounded by 14 solitaire diamonds. Diana chose the ring out of a Garrard's catalogue, which was unusual as most royals had their jewels custom designed specifically for them.The wedding ring now belongs to Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge. Prince William proposed to Kate with the ring in 2010 and viewed it as a perpetual symbol of his mother's presence. "Obviously she's not going to be around to share all the fun and excitement, so this is my way of sort of keeping her close to it all," Prince William said. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Getty Images 28 of 43 Her title was revoked after her divorce. Diana's title of "her royal highness" was officially removed from her name after she divorced Prince Charles in 1996. But Queen Elizabeth II was not the one insisting—Charles was. Per the terms of their divorce, "She is to give up her right to be Queen of England and to be called 'Her Royal Highness,'" The New York Timesreported. "Queen Elizabeth II was reported to have been ready to allow Diana to retain the honorific, but Prince Charles was said to be adamant that she give it up." Getty Images 29 of 43 Her dresses raised millions for charity. In addition to being an official royal patron to many charity organizations dedicated to medical funding, she used her royal fashion icon status to leverage donations. Just a few months before she passed away, Diana held a Christie's auction of 79 of her most iconic dresses to raise money for AIDS and cancer charities. One of the most well-known dresses sold was the "Travolta dress," a velvet blue gown that Princess Diana wore at a gala at the White House, where she danced with John Travolta. Getty Images 30 of 43 She called Prince William "Wombat." Diana called her eldest son William "wombat" starting from the time he was just two years old. After a trip to Australia where they saw the cute native creature, Diana began lovingly referring to the young prince as "wombat." In a 2007 interview, Prince William said "When we went to Australia with our parents, and the wombat, you know, that's the local animal. So I just basically got called that. Not because I look like a wombat. Or maybe I do." Next King Charles' Life in Photos Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Sabrina Park Sabrina Park is a Digital Fellow at HarpersBAZAAR.com where she covers news, fashion, and culture stories. 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