All the Brilliant Ways Princess Diana Broke Royal Protocol
All the Brilliant Ways Princess Diana Broke Royal Protocol
A dedicated humanitarian, a fashion icon and loving mother — Princess Diana has left a long-lasting impact on the world. While the public fell in love with the vulnerable young woman they met when she became Prince Charles' fiancé — as she came into her own, we learned that Princess Di wasn't afraid to ruffle a few feathers. While royal protocol may seem silly and outdated to us commoners (why can't they eat shrimp, again?), the royal family takes even the most antiquated aspects of their social code very seriously — except for, on occasion, Princess Diana.
By standing up for herself and living her life her way, Diana become a royal rebel in the best way possible. Some of the most important aspects of Diana's legacy were in her acts of defiance against tradition (and, as you'll read, her daughters-in-law are certainly taking her lead). Here, we celebrate the princess for all the ways she flouted tradition and set a new precedent for Prince William, Prince Harry, Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle, as well as the the next generation of royals.
She had a job before she got married.
Diana worked as a part-time kindergarten teacher in London. At the time, she was the first royal to have a paying job before getting engaged.
She picked her own engagement ring — from a catalog.
Although royal engagement rings are usually custom made, the 19-year-old bride selected hers from the Garrard jewelry collection catalog. Because Diana's ring was "accessible" to the public at the time, this caused a stir.
Then Prince William followed her lead.
As a way to honor his mother, Prince William asked Kate Middleton to marry him with his mother's ring. The ring was too big, so platinum beads were placed inside to make it smaller. Now, the ring is worth nearly $500,000.
She wrote her own vows.
In 1981, Princess Diana made history when she famously refused to say that she would "obey" Prince Charles during their wedding vows. She also called Charles the wrong name!
Then Kate Middleton followed Diana's lead.
Kate removed the line in her vows that said she would "obey" Prince William.
And Meghan Markle did too.
Meghan also chose to omit "obey" from her vows. She and Prince Harry took it a step further by using casual monikers during their service, which was a change in royal tradition.
She was the first royal to give birth to a future monarch outside of the home.
It was tradition for royals to have home births, but Diana gave birth to Prince William in the Lindo Wing of St. Mary's Hospital in 1982 —and Prince Harry in the same hospital in 1984.
And Kate did the same.
So far, Kate has had all three of her children in the Lindo Wing of St. Mary's Hospital.
But Meghan paved her own way.
Archie wasn't born at St. Mary's, but Meghan also decided against a home birth, opting for Portland Hospital in London instead.
She was a hands-on mum.
The 20-year-old took a completely modern view of child-rearing from the very beginning. She chose her sons' first names herself (Charles wanted Arthur for their firstborn and Albert for the second) and breastfed them as infants.
She put her family before royal duties.
When she married Prince Charles, Diana gave up working as a nursery school teacher in favor of her royal obligations. But while she maintained her official duties, Diana put parenting before her other commitments.
"Inevitably, she left her children with nannies — just as she herself and so many other well-to-do British children have been left — but she tried to arrange her schedule to match the boys'," Katrine Ames wrote in Newsweek in 1997. "In her official calendar, the princess had all the everyday details of her son's utterly uneveryday lives marked in green ink."
She sent her boys to school.
Usually, royals are taught at home and by a governess inside the palace. But at his mother's insistence, William became the first heir to the throne to attend public school — at Jane Mynor's nursery school near Kensington Palace.
"The decision to have William, 3, develop his finger-painting skills among commoners showed the influence of Diana, Princess of Wales, who had worked in a nursery school herself when she was just a Lady," George Hackett wrote in Newsweek in 1985.
Prince William and Kate have done the same.
When Prince George was just 2 and a half years old, he started attending a private school close to Kensington Palace. Princess Charlotte is now enrolled in nursery school as well.
She exposed her kids to a non-royal way of life.
It wasn't just school where she rebelled against the constraints of royal childhood. Diana took the boys to get hamburgers at McDonald's, rode the tube and the bus, and let them wear jeans and baseball caps; they white-water rafted and rode bicycles. At Disney, they stood in line like everyone else.
She made her own fashion choices.
Sometimes that meant going for something bold, like showing off her shoulders (a major no-no) or wearing form-fitting dresses to events.
Kate doesn't always follow the fashion rules either.
Kate repeatedly wears gowns and dresses that show off her shoulders. She's clearly is a fan of her mother-in-law's style.
And the same goes for Meghan.
People were reportedly angry with Meghan's outfit for Trooping of the Colour in 2018, due to her bare shoulders. However, if you ask us, this rule seems outdated.
She understood the POWER of fashion.
No longer "Shy Di"! In 1994, while a documentary about Prince Charles' infidelity was airing, Princess Diana donned a clingy, ruched mini dress for a Serpentine Gallery benefit. The next day, she stole the newspaper headlines with her confident look.
And once she even wore a necklace as a tiara.
The emerald and diamond piece in question belonged to Queen Elizabeth, but Princess Diana wore it frequently. During one event in Australia, she fashioned the accessory as a tiara because she loved it so much.
She wasn't afraid to wear black outside of funerals.
Typically, royals don't wear black in public, unless they are attending a funeral or are in mourning. However, Diana wore black repeatedly to events.
Meghan is fond of black too.
Meghan's revealed that she has no time for this old rule either and clearly takes after her mother-in-law when it comes to her chic LBDs.
She wore "low cut" dresses.
But don't worry, she wasn't reckless. Princess Diana's handbag designer Anya Hindmarch called her purses "cleavage bags," because the Princess used them to cover up her chest while getting out of the car.
And carried her "cleavage bags" to events.
We're waiting for the day that Kate or Meghan climbs out of a car with a little satin bag like Diana used to. Until then, we'll just reminisce about the good 'ole days with this fashion icon.
She didn't always wear gloves at formal events.
It's tradition for royals to wear gloves to the opera and formal events, such as banquets. Queen Elizabeth almost always wears them, both for fashion reasons and as a way to avoid germs. Not-so-surprisingly, Princess Diana didn't follow this rule.
She didn't stick to nude nail polish.
It's common for the women in the royal family to wear neutral nail polish or no polish at all, per Queen Elizabeth's preference. But Princess Diana wasn't afraid to go bold with her polish choices.
Meghan doesn't follow the polish guidelines, either.
Meghan likes to wear dark nail polish and is often seen sporting dark reds, blacks, or purples at events.
She experimented with her makeup.
Princess Diana wore blue eyeliner for years, and it perfectly matched her eyes. However, her makeup artist Mary Greenwell later revealed that for official appearances Diana opted for more neutral colors that were "appropriate for the occasion," since royals are supposed to keep their appearances subtle.
She wore suits to formal events.
Unless you're a man, royal family members aren't supposed to wear pants to formal occasions. Clearly Princess Diana didn't get the memo here (but we love that she rocked trousers!).
She was frank with the press.
Diana appeared on the cover of Vogue three times before her death, and she didn't shy away from tough questions. In 1995, Diana secretly gave a very revealing interview to the BBC's Martin Bashir. Though her aides claimed she later regretted it, the princess tried to take control of the media and paparazzi frenzy around her life. It was her first solo interview and was watched by more than 21.5 million people in the United Kingdom.
She even spoke candidly about her marriage.
In the BBC interview, she addressed Prince Charles's longtime relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles: "A woman's instinct is a very good one; obviously I had knowledge of it from people who minded and cared about our marriage ... There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded."
The princess also didn't deny her own affair when Bashir asked her if she was unfaithful with James Hewitt: "Yes, I adored him. Yes, I was in love with him. But I was very let down." Within a month of the interview, Diana's press secretary had resigned and the Queen sent the couple a letter urging them to divorce.
She spoke about mental illness and eating disorders.
Princess Diana also told Bashir about her struggles with bulimia, which she said resulted from the stress she felt keeping her marriage publicly intact. "That's like a secret disease," she said. "You inflict it upon yourself because your self-esteem is at a low ebb, and you don't think you're worthy or valuable ... It's a repetitive pattern which is very destructive to yourself."
Her heart-wrenching honesty is one of the reasons why her sons and daughters-in-law are so passionate about their own work in mental health.
Kate has tried to follow her lead.
In 2016, Kate appeared on her first magazine cover for British Vogue. Five years after she married Prince William, the Duchess of Cambridge revealed a vulnerable side to the public in the fashion magazine.
And Meghan is full steam ahead.
Before she was even engaged to Prince Harry, Meghan appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair and discussed her future with him. A few years later, the Duchess of Sussex guest-edited the September issue of British Vogue in 2019. Her goal? To bring about change and diversity.
Her sons have both spoken out about mental health issues, too.
Harry is very vocal about his mental health struggles — particularly what he went through after his mother died. He, William, and Kate created Heads Together with Diana in mind, which is an organization that tries to destigmatize the conversation around mental health struggles.
She enjoyed the single life.
Even though Diana lost her royal title after her divorce from Prince Charles, she still had many royal privileges and seemed to enjoy joining the dating world again. She was seeing Dodi Fayed at the time of their tragic deaths in 1997.
She snuck out in disguise.
"Diana sometimes used to get in and out using a wig or hiding down in a car," a source told E! News. It was also rumored that she was good friends with Freddie Mercury and that the two of them would go out for a drink at the bar every now and then.
Meghan enjoys going incognito, too.
Apparently Meghan uses one of the six entrances and exits in Kensington Palace to hop around London. Luckily, she hasn't had to use wigs to disguise her appearance yet (that we know of!).
She spoke to children at eye level.
When Diana spoke with children, she always crouched to see them at eye-level. "Diana was the first member of the royal family to do this," said Ingrid Seward, editor of Majesty magazine. "The royal family used to say that everyone had to be deferential to them. But Diana said, 'If someone might be nervous of you or you're speaking to a very young child or a sick person, get yourself on their level.'"
Her sons and daughters-in-laws do the same.
William, Kate, Harry, and Meghan often have the cutest moments in public when they're seen crouched down and interacting with children. They don't shy again from a big hug, either!
She was dedicated to her organizations.
Diana is known for her commitment to service, but many say she pushed it to the limits to raise awareness. Once, the royal walked across a partially cleared minefield to spread awareness of land mines. She also shook hands with an HIV positive patient back when little was known about the disease. She, of course, was compassionate and a risk-taker.
Harry has taken over many of her favorite charities.
Harry makes many visits to Africa and around the world to make sure his mother's charities stay up and running. The causes most special to her still hold a secure place in his heart.
And so has William.
Although he is preparing to take over the throne one day, William worked with many of his mother's favorite organizations when he was younger and still does so today.
The rebellious people's princess did things her way.