The following episode contains descriptions of an eating disorder which might upset some listeners, please see the episode notes for more information about support services on.

All right, Brooke, where are we starting this time, the summer of love, 1967, no, the other summer of love, 1980.

Well, that's the summer of love for Diana and Charles. Anyway, it's when they really start hanging out, they go to the orchestra to hear Verdi's Requiem and they snog.

That's such a gross way to describe making out. I know. And after two months of snogging, Charles still isn't totally smitten, but he is intrigued on paper.

Dianetics, all of the royal wife material boxes.

She's 19. She comes from a fancy family. She's a virgin. Yeah, that too.

And she takes all the boxes for Charles to she's feisty. She gives them shit and he likes it. Like the time he invited her back to the palace after their first kiss.

He says, You must come to London with me tomorrow. I've got work at Buckingham Palace. You must come to work with me.

And she says, Well, bugger it.

I do mind sitting there while you do your work. And he's like, how dare you talk to me like that? Don't you know who I am? No, he was into it.

This is a guy who's always gotten 100 percent of everything he's ever wanted. So imagine what a turn on it must be to have Diana give him such a hard time. In early September, the Queen hosts a weekend party at Balmoral.

That's her castle in Scotland. There are picnics and deer hunts and black tie dinners, all to the constant soundtrack of bagpipes. Pretty much everyone the queen cares about is invited. And this year, Charles asks his mummy if there's room for one more. OK, so Diana must be really excited. Not exactly. In her words, she's shitting bricks. She knows that she's going to have a shot with Charles. Then she has to win over his whole family.

For the queen and her couple dozen best friends, this weekend is a chance to relax, kill some birds and drink zazz.

But for Diana, it's a test, literally.

It's called the Balmoral Test. And any woman who dates Charles must pass it. The rules are simple. Know the etiquette, slather on the charm and make yourself useful. If you mess up in any way, then you fail. And Diana is determined not to fail.

When she goes hiking with Charles friends and accidentally falls in the mud, she laughs at herself. Who cares if my dress is all dirty? Nothing bothers me.

The friends love this routine and they love Diana. At dinner, she sits by Charles father, Prince Philip, and laughs at all his jokes, which makes her a hit with him too.

But the Queen, it's going to take more to impress her. So she invites Diana to go horseback riding.

Sounds like there might be a twist.

There is. Diana is scared to death of horses, but no way can she admit that. Not if she wants to win the Queen's approval. So she lies and says, that's totally my fave.

Count me in. And guess what?

She pulls it off. She doesn't fall off the horse or shit bricks or anything. And the queen is impressed. She probably knew Diana wasn't some expert horsewoman. What? She doesn't care with Diana. She sees an unfussy down to earth girl, which is how the queen thinks of herself.

I love that someone with over 300 pieces of jewelry considers herself to be down to earth right before the weekend is over.

Charles has one more test. A fishing trip on the river D, which is super fun.

Diana sits there on the banks and listens to Charles. Explain the difference between identical looking fishing flies. I mean, the best states have mansplaining about fishing, right? Then something catches Diana's eye across the pond.

There's someone peeking through the bushes, three someones to be exact. They're paparazzi and they're all trying to snap a pic of the prince fishing with his mysterious new girlfriend. Oh, right. They don't know about her yet. Right. And she doesn't want them to. So she runs up the riverbank to hide behind a tree. And then she whips out her compact and uses the mirror to spy on the paps. Next, she ties a scarf around her head and makes a beeline for Charles car.

By the time the photographers grab their camera, all they can see is the back of her houndstooth skirt. And where is Charles and all of this?

He's still fishing. Doesn't even notice. While fishing is fascinating, I mean, you stand there and pretty much just stand there. That's it.

When the weekend's over, Diana flies back home to London. When she touches down at the airport, there's a man waiting for her, a man she's never seen before. He walks over to her and says, I bet you thought that trick with the mirror was pretty clever. I mean, it was clever. Turns out the guy is a reporter for The Sun and he writes a front page story with this headline, He's in love again. Lady Di is the new girlfriend for Charles.

Diana may have passed the Balmoral test, but her life, as she knows it, is never going to be the same again.

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Social media apps or as addictive as they are lucrative. I'm David Brown, the host of Wonderings Show Business Wars. And in our latest series, we track the battle for our attention between ticktock and Instagram. Listen on Apple podcasts, Spotify or listen ad free by joining Wanderer Plus in the wandering app. From London. I'm Brooke Saffron. And I'm Erica Skidmore Williams, and this is Even The Rich.

In our last episode, Sparks flew as Diana and Charles shared their first kiss.

But the trip from snogging to marriage is anything but smooth. In fact, when you're marrying Prince Charles in front of a billion people, it's pretty much one endless patch of turbulence. This is episode three. Whatever in love means.

It's the morning of September 17th, 1980, and Diana's working at the Young England kindergarten as one of the school's helpers. She's playing with the kids when a photographer shows up and begs to see her. He says he only wants one picture and then he'll go away. So Diana says all shyly and sweet sort of you let me know.

She agrees. What harm can one little picture do? So she gathers up two of the children and steps outside. She's so shy she won't even look at the photographer, but he shoots a shot anyway. A few hours later, the pictures already in the paper. It's Diana standing outside of the school, just as the sun comes out from behind the clouds, the way the light shines through her skirt, it kind of looks like she's not wearing a skirt at all.

And when Diana sees the photo, she's horrified. When Charles sees the photo, he's actually kind of sweet.

At first he compliments her and says, I knew your legs were good, but I didn't realize they were that spectacular. But then he adds, Did you have to show them to everyone? Oh, boy. Diana shrugs it off.

The royals are modest, after all, and Charles likes her for her. In fact, Charles has been asking friends and family if they think he should pop the question. He figures they'll be thrilled.

He's thirty two way past the sell by date for Prince marrying age, but they're not. His sister Anne is going around telling people that Diana is a silly girl.

His best friend asks Charles why he would want to be with someone he has nothing in common with, and because Charles relies on other people's opinions for what he should and shouldn't do up until now anyway, he gets cold feet.

So he writes a letter to a friend and confesses, I do very much want to do the right thing for this country and for my family. But I'm terrified sometimes of making a promise and then perhaps living to regret it.

During one of his nightly dinners with the queen, who, by the way, he still calls Mummy. He works Diana into the conversation, hoping to get a read on whether she thinks it's a good match. But the queen plays it cool. She's not going to tell Charles what he should or shouldn't do.

That's not her style. But she does drop hints. You know, she says that Diana Spencer is one nice lady. I had such a good time with her at Balmoral.

And Charles gets the message in early February, Diana's hanging out of her apartment. At least that's how I'm picturing it. When the phone rings, it's Prince Charles calling from Switzerland where he's been skiing.

He says, I've got something very important to ask you when I return.

I hear wedding bells. She must know what's coming. She does. She stays up all night with her roommates practising her response.

Orisha, let me ask you, how do you think the Prince of Wales would propose, obviously, with the crown jewels, you're going to have the whole band of the Beatles, all four of them performing bagpipes in the background, even the dead ones. Yeah, if anybody can bring him back, it's a prince. I mean. Exactly. That's what I'm saying. And you're going to have you're going to the Royal Guard marching around, keeping all the people that are looking because it's going to be a huge fanfare thing.

Get on one knee.

But it's on one of those pillows that's like purple with lace, you know, normal prince stuff.

Yeah, well, it was very, very close to that. Oh, cool.

He says if I were to ask, what do you think you might say?

My whole life I have dreamt of a guy proposing to me with a riddle.

If you want to marry me, answer these riddles. Three, it's a dream. I love it.

I think Diane is just excited that he's hinting at happily ever after with her.

So she laughs. And as he looks at her expectantly, she realizes it wasn't a hit. That was his proposal. So she says, where the hell are the Beatles?

Where are the crown jewels? Where is all the fanfare? She actually says, yeah, OK.

And then Charles gets serious and he says, You do realize that one day you will be queen. And she's like I said, yeah, OK. Well, Diana actually looks back at him with those big blue eyes and says, yes, I love you so much.

Charles gives her this tender look and says, whatever love means, what the hell? The Sky Sox.

Years later, she'll realize she misunderstood Charles look of tenderness. It wasn't love. It was resignation. But like I said, that's later. Even though it didn't pan out exactly how she imagined, for now, she's overjoyed.

Two days after accepting Charles proposal, Diana flies to Australia. That's where her mom lives. Now, Diana wants her help planning the wedding the whole time she pines for Charles. But when she calls him, he never answers. When she leaves a message, he never calls back. Well, he's a busy guy. She tells herself he's a prince with lots of princely duties. When we're back together, it'll be better, except it's not. She returns to London after three weeks in Australia, goes to her flat and waits for Charles to show up and tell her how much he missed her instead.

Charles sends an aide who hands Diana some flowers and tells them they're from the prince. There's no card, no note, no nothing. She won't actually see Charles until he summons her to Windsor Castle a few days later to pick out her engagement ring. The queen's there, too, since she's the one who's paying. Diana has shown a tray of magnificent rings ranging in size from small to small child's head. The queen expects Diana to pick something simple but tasteful.

But Diana seizes the biggest, flashiest ring of the bunch. Oh yeah. It has a giant sapphire and 14 solitaire diamonds set in a white gold band. Wow. And the queen is super disappointed.

And I'm guessing you do not want to disappoint the queen. Right.

But how is Diana supposed to know any better? Sure. Her dad's an Earl and her family lives in a one hundred thousand square foot mansion, but she doesn't see herself as a member of the stuffy aristocracy like she knows her family has money and all that. But she does normal people, things like driving herself around, cooking, cleaning, and she has a normal job. So she has no idea. She just broke some unspoken code. She's just going along happy as a clam, excited to let the world know she's marrying a prince.

The night before the official announcement, Charles decides to have a little get together at his apartment to celebrate.

He invites Diana, her dad, and her stepmother, Raine. That's her name, Reign. Diana never liked her. When she was a teenager. Diana used to taunt her by singing Rain, Rain, Go Away. Diana resented her for swooping in and marrying her dad, a marriage no one bothered to tell Diana about. She learned about it in the newspaper, and she'll hold a grudge for quite a while. A few years from now, she'll actually push rain down a staircase that is so extreme.

Reshow, you sound like someone who's never pushed someone down the stairs. Is that a bad thing? Anyway, for now, Diana figures she can tolerate her for one night, but rain makes it difficult.

She's obnoxious and embarrassing and Charles totally eats it up. And Diana's pissed. This is supposed to be her night, a chance to celebrate their engagement. And here is her fiancee laughing with the woman she hates most in the world. But before she can confront him, he runs off to have dinner with his mom.

Wait, so Diana is just standing there with the evil stepmother and her dad seething? Yeah. But eventually her parents go home and Diana's there alone, which is when a member of the royal staff comes to whisk her off to Clarence House.

It's right near the Buckingham Palace compound that night after the disastrous cocktail hour.

Her bodyguard and yes, she has a bodyguard now shows her to her bedroom and tells her, I just want you to know that this is the last night of freedom ever in your life.

So make it count.

When she closes the door and surveys her new room and her new life, she sees that someone left a letter for her on the bed. She has no idea who it's from.

Nobody outside the family is supposed to know Diana staying here. Her engagement is a secret. She tears open the envelope and reads such exciting news about the engagement. Do let's have lunch soon. When the Prince of Wales goes to Australia, New Zealand, he's going to be away for three weeks. I'd love to see the ring. Lots of love. Camilla wait. Camilla rocking horse.

Parker Bowles. Yep. Camilla, she and Charles have been having a not so secret romance for years. By some accounts, Camilla was Charles first choice of who he wanted to marry, but Mummy said she wasn't suitable.

Did Camilla feel the Balmoral test? She never got to take it because Camilla is already married.

Yeah, but back to Diana. She's confused. Why did Charles tell Camilla where Diana was staying? Why did he tell her about Diana at all? If I were Diana, I would be suspicious.

Yeah, definitely. But as Diana says later, she's too immature to be suspicious. She figures Camilla is just trying to be nice. Besides, Diana's got bigger things to worry about. She's going on TV tomorrow with Charles to tell the world that she's going to marry a future king.

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Go to Etsy, dotcom gifts to shop, meaningful gifts for the people you love this holiday season. That's Etsy, dotcom gifts. La, la, la, la, la. Charles and Diana are officially engaged on February 24th, 1981, and then they grant their first official interview to the press. Diana wears cobalt blue and looks shy and slightly uncomfortable.

Yesterday, a nanny looking after children. Now you're about to know the prince of Wales. And and one day you would in all likelihood, be queen. It's a tremendous change for someone.

I say 19, which is why I've had a small run up to the last six months. And it shows that I can't control his me because I knew the pressure was on both of us. And it was a difficult decision. And I wanted to show the world and I'm amazed that she's been brave enough to take me on.

And I suppose in love grows in love.

Me, he said it again. Whatever in love means he's doubling down on the least romantic line in history.

But Diana doesn't seem to mind now that she and Charles are out in the open. She gets to go with him to royal events.

The first is only a few days away. So like any newly minted VIP, Diana goes dress shopping. She grabs this sleek, black, low cut gown off the rack. This will be perfect. She thinks the night of the event rolls around and she goes into Charles study and shows him her new outfit. He looks her up and down and says, You're not going in that dress, are you? And she says, Yes, I am. Charles isn't happy about that.

He shoots back. It's black in my family. Only people in morning wear black. But Diana has the last word. Yes, she says, but I'm not in your family yet.

She wears the dress and she definitely doesn't look like she's in mourning. This is how Tina Brown describes Diana's arrival at the event in her book, The Diana Chronicles, when she stepped out of the limousine and that nipple busting black taffeta eye popper. It was the greatest moment of sexual theater since Cinderella traded her scuffed scullery clogs for Prince Charmings glass slippers.

I had no idea Cinderella was considered sexual theater.

Oh, yeah, Diana feels good until they get inside. Yes, she looks gorgeous, but she's seriously unprepared. Charles brought her into this world that has a million subtle rules and he hasn't bothered to teach her any of them.

That sounds like a job for Edmund Fry, School of Royal English, Downton Abbey spoken here. You nailed it. Thank you. At the event that night, Diana meets Grace Kelly or should I say Princess Grace of Monaco. And it's so obvious to grace that Diana is out of her comfort zone that she tugs her into the ladies room for a heart to heart. Diana lets it all out.

She tells Grace how isolated she feels, how scared she is about everything to come. Grace listens patiently. And then she says, Don't worry, it'll only get worse. And does it get worse? Well, understandably, Diana super embarrassed when she goes home that night and she's not alone. The Queen must be embarrassed for her because she instructs her favorite lady in waiting to teach Diana the basics of being a princess. Wait a second. This is the plot of The Princess Diaries.

Oh, my gosh, it is.

She teaches her how to wave, how to carry a handbag, why you shouldn't ever wear black stuff like that. But Diana's heart isn't in it. She doesn't want to take lessons from a stranger. She wants to learn the stuff from someone she actually cares about, like, oh, I don't know her husband. So does he step in? No, he sends his assistant to do it. This guy gives Diana a stack of books about royal history.

She throws them on the floor, turns to a nearby servant and yells, if he thinks I'm going to read those silly, boring books, he's got another thing coming. OK, but is she mad at the personal assistant or is she mad at Charles? Maybe she's mad at the personal assistant because she's mad at Charles. He's never around. He's always off shooting or playing polo or doing who knows what. So he's basically avoiding his fiancee or maybe he's busy with someone else.

Yeah, OK. Whatever his excuses, Diana's left on her own to wander through the palaces, 600 stifling rooms. When she gets desperate for company, she goes down to the palace kitchens, fixes herself a huge bowl of Frosted Flakes and chats up the staff. Charles, who has basically been ignoring Diana, finally pays enough attention to one day pinch her hip and say getting a little bit chubby here, aren't we?

Wow, what a prince I know, right? Diana keeps going down to the kitchen, but now she goes upstairs afterwards and makes herself throw up. This is the start of what would become a years long battle with bulimia in the. Five months between her engagement and the wedding, she loses 14 pounds, her waist goes from twenty nine inches to 23. Her dressmaker is basically afraid to cut the silk for her wedding gown because Diana's measurements keep changing.

That is so sad. It is. Diana is just kind of lost in this new world. Charles is MIA. Even the kitchen staff at the palace tells her to stop coming down there. She's so lonely, she decides it's finally time to take Camilla Parker Bowles up on that lunch offer. OK, I can't I can't listen to this anymore.

It actually starts out OK. Diana's open and friendly classic Diana. Yeah, I think she's basically hoping to make a new friend in the in crowd. And then Camilla asks Diana if she plans to join Charles when he goes hunting. That's kind of odd, Diana thinks. But answers from the heart. No, I despise hunting. Diana's like a friend to all animals, but Camilla asks her again. So you're sure you're not going hunting with Charles?

It's a trick question.

In the moment, Diana is confused and assures Camilla that, no, she will not be hunting. But this is Charles ex girlfriend. Right. And after lunch, she wonders if there's something still there. Maybe Camilla wants to find a alone time with Charles. After all, Camilla loves riding and hunting, just like Charles riding and hunting. Is that a euphemism? I don't know. Is it?

It sounded like it was.

But the reason why Camilla is so persistent is she's trying to carve out time where she can have Charles to herself without Diana hanging around. But she didn't need to worry about that. Charles only sees Diana 13 times before their wedding day.

OK, I've seen the post a delivery guy more than that. And we're not even dating yet.

Well, you know who is invested in this engagement? Working out the queen. So she sends word she'd like to have dinner in private with Diana.

And Diana says, no, wow, what a queen isn't about to take no for an answer to make sure of it. She calls Diana herself and the queen never calls anyone herself. But Diana doesn't budge. She tells the queen to her face she can't make dinner because she has plans to go shopping with friends, which is a lie. Diana never sees any of her friends anymore. The truth is, dinners with the queen are stuffy and awkward, and she can't bear the thought of going through another uncomfortable evening.

But the Queen still doesn't give up. She throws a great big party and invites both Charles and Diana. This time that'll lift everyone's spirits, right? She invites a thousand people to Windsor Castle.

There is a laser light show, fog machines on the dance floor. Elton John performs and Diana lets loose. She dances the night away with any man who's willing. And the queen is glad to see her finally looking happy.

But I'm not so sure she was. I think she was trying to get Charles attention, get a rise from him, anything, but it doesn't work. Just a few hours into the evening, he says goodnight to his mummy and goes to bed. So Diana keeps dancing. She dances until the guests are gone and the music stops by. Then it's five thirty in the morning and she's standing in an empty ballroom. Then she gets in her car and drives one hundred miles to Althorp, her family's house.

When she gets there, she wakes up her dad and tells him, I'm not doing it. I'm calling off the engagement. Her dad tries to calm her down. He tells her to be patient. Just wait. He says things will be better once you're married. So what can she do, leave him? Well, then our story would be over, wouldn't it?

No. She goes back to Buckingham Palace only now she has a job to occupy her time.

With a wedding less than a month away, gifts are pouring in and it's Diana's task to sort them, which is insane because it seems like they have a staff member with some fancy title to do literally everything but that.

One day, as she sifts through the piles of fancy packages, she notices an especially a pretty box. She peeks inside. There's a gold chain with a blue enamel disc on it, stamped with two letters, G and F. It stands for Gladys and Fred.

Those are the nicknames Charles and Camilla use for each other. The wedding is only two weeks away, and Charles is giving jewelry to another woman and also sending it to his own house.

Yeah, she actually confronts him about it.

Charles tells her not to worry. They're just old pals, friends. He's marrying Diana after all right. Does he buy that? She wants to. But the suspicions don't go away. And guess what? Two days before their wedding, Charles has lunch with Camilla to give her the bracelet. The same day Diana has lunch with her sisters. She tells them, I can't marry him, I can't do this.

This is absolutely unbelievable. And the. They say, well, bad luck, Dutch, your face is on the tea towels, so it's too late to chicken out.

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That's hello. Fresh dotcom. Even the rich A-T code. Even the rich A-T. La, la, la, la, la. It's July 29th, 1981, the morning of the wedding, Diana wakes up at 5:00 a.m. to get ready for the big day. She's actually surprisingly relaxed, given she's about to get married in front of 3500 guests and millions of people watching on TV.

We couldn't even find 10 people to come to our departed. There's like 50 people at my wedding.

But that's the thing about royal weddings. You can't just invite your closest friends and family. You've also got to invite all the important people in the land. It takes her hours to get ready. And after she's dressed, she and her father make their way to a horse drawn carriage with golden lanterns hanging off the side. There's a whole procession of carriages that makes their way through London, past crowds of screaming fans. And finally, they pull up in front of the church.

Royal attendants solemnly open the carriage and the future princess steps out. It's a truly thrilling moment for anyone watching, including my parents watching at home and this newscaster who was not watching at my parents home. The world gets its first glimpse of the fairytale Princess Demure behind her there in the wedding dress that has been a carefully guarded secret as bewitching and romantic a bride as ever touch the heart of the world. Inside the church, Diana slowly makes her way down the aisle.

People filling the pews turn to watch.

Diana smiles demurely, which is kind of her trademark look. And then she looks around.

That's when she sees her. I'm nervous. Yep. It's Camilla. She's wearing a gray pillbox hat. The nerve of her showing up. Diana is not completely surprised.

But still, I mean, after finding that bracelet, I imagine she hoped Camilla wouldn't show up when she sees her there. She has one thought. Let's hope that's all over with. Then she tries to put it out of her mind as she approaches the altar.

After all, she's about to get married, love and to cherish and cherish till death us do part of that bastard. But according to God's Herrlein, all according to God's law, I'm there to give the micro to the macro.

And boom, she's a princess, she's a princess. You've probably seen the photos from this wedding day, Charles is wearing a naval commander's uniform, which comes with a sword. Diana looks stunning. After the ceremony, she and Charles go back to Buckingham Palace. They pose for photos and then they step out onto the palace balcony and wave to all their future subjects.

A kiss which receives a roar of approval. The crowd who called a couple back and back again onto the balcony, it's hard to argue with half a million people who know. They want everyone's cheering and waving the Union Jack flags and shooting champagne into the air, Diana's waving to, you know, that funny little way that royal people do. Diana will later say that standing there listening to all those people harangue her was wonderful, except for the question mark lurking in her mind.

As she told her biographer, I realized I had taken on an enormous role, but I had no idea what I was going into, no idea. And she has no idea what to expect that night either. They share the same small bed where Charles parents first did it three decades earlier.

OK, the royals have some weird family traditions. Reminder, Charles and Diana haven't had sex yet, and after such a long wait, Diana is expecting to be swept away.

She later told someone she thought it would be earth moving. Instead, Charles is, in her words, a roll on, roll off, go to sleep sort of lover. Afterward, she lays there thinking, is this it? Is this really the big deal everyone makes it out to be? Well, I guess they can try again on their honeymoon.

Except Charles isn't all that interested then either. Mm. They spend two weeks sailing on the royal family's 400 foot yacht and Charles just paints the whole time, like for hours on end. He barely pays attention to Diana. She gets so frustrated that one day when Charles isn't looking, she snaps his paint brushes in half and destroys the painting he's working on. Diana's relieved when they finally get off that boat.

But now Charles wants to spend six weeks at Balmoral with his entire family.

And surprise, surprise, Charles does what he always does ignores Diana. He goes hunting almost every day and leaves her alone in the Cold Castle with absolutely nothing to do. Every night there's some stuffy dinner and Diana's always stuck next to some older man going on about politics or architecture or horse breeding topics Diana knows nothing about. So she just sits there all shy with her mouth shut and a board look on her face. The queen notices and she's fed up.

She even complains about it to a guest one night.

Look at her sitting at the table, glowering at us. She says the guest gently reminds the queen that Diane is young. She's still learning, but the Queen's not having it. She says, I don't care. She'll just have to buck up. She's a royal and it's time she starts acting like it. But it's tough. Diana is really unhappy. She writes to a friend, I feel totally out of place here. I sometimes wonder what on earth I've gotten myself into.

I feel so small, so lonely, so out of my depth.

But she holds out hope things will improve once she and Charles find their groove. And it gets marginally better when they move to a country estate together and Diana gets pregnant, a royal heir to the throne.

Everyone must be over the moon. They are especially the queen. She starts acting like a protective granny right away. The first thing she does is call the editors of every major newspaper and she orders them to leave Diana alone. And no one can refuse the queen.

Finally, someone in the royal family is standing up for Diana, and Charles is there for her to on June 21st, 1982. He's by Diana's side. The whole time she's in labor, he holds her hand and tells her, pick up your surfboard and ride it like a whale.

What the hell does that mean? Your guess is as good as mine. He read it in a book called The Expectant Father. Anyway, after riding the surfboard for sixteen hours, she gives birth to a baby boy, Prince William and Charles is proud. He goes out on the hospital steps to share the news with a crowd of happy onlookers.

How do you feel so difficult to tell the man? How do you feel? Obviously relieved and delighted. It's rather grown up.

Seeing as Charles loves being a dad, he's always hanging out in the nursery, lending a hand with little William. He even changes diapers. Two months go by like this. Diana figures she finally has her happily ever after with her prince.

Then one night, while Charles is taking a bath, she hears him on the phone. Who in the world could he be talking to in the bath? She wonders. So she puts her ear to the door and she hears him say, Whatever happens, I will always love you. Diana's heart drops. The first thing that runs through her mind is that he's talking to Camilla.

No. Yes. And the sad thing is there's nothing she can do about it. Remember when she confronted him about the bracelet, he pretty much gas let her. So that won't work. And she can't get divorced because the queen will never allow it. At this point, only one member of the royal family has gotten divorced in the last eighty years. Wow, Diana is big time stuck, so she does what any lonely woman would do to cheer herself up, downs a few shots and sings karaoke to Robin songs in a hairbrush.

No, that's what you do. It works. I swear that will cheer up anyone. OK, well, Diana goes shopping and of course, as soon as Diana leaves her royal house, the press starts to follow.

It's like they completely forget the Queen's orders to leave Diana alone. They're hungry for headlines. Diana going shopping is suddenly. Diana is a shopaholic who is wasting the royal fortune.

And Diana learns what Meghan Markle would learn a few decades later. That mean tabloid headlines about Diana are a hit with the British public over the next seven months.

They blame her for everything bad that happens in the royal family. Charles decides he wants to stop hunting. So much must be Diana's fault. A few staffers quit. They must hate Diana. One tabloid columnist refers to Diana as a fiend and a monster.

OK, this is not fair at all. I know. And Diana takes this stuff personally. Well, how could it you. It is personal.

I think she'd be happy if she never saw her picture in another newspaper ever again. And let me tell you, the queen isn't happy either. I mean, she never wanted the press to attack Diana like this. It's not good for anyone. So she sends Charles and Diana on a six week royal tour across Australia.

They have to visit dozens of towns and cities with a press snapping photos as they meet local dignitaries, walk local villages and of course, wave.

Sounds like a nice way to see the country. Not so much. Everything is staged.

Both of them must put on their happy faces every second and it's hot.

They spent hours literally frying in 100 degree weather, and Diana is overwhelmed.

At the end of each 12 hour day, she goes back to her room and sobs. But then something interesting happens as they continue the tour. Diana notices the massive crowds aren't screaming for Charles. They're calling for Princess Diana. They want to see her. There's actually a study that's been done out of every 100 photos taken on that tour 90 tour of Diana for the first time, Diana realizes that people like her and that changes everything. By the time she gets back to England, she's a different person.

Those are actually her words.

She used to be afraid of the press. Now she begins to read every tabloid trying to learn their tricks. When do they say nice things about her? When do they go on the attack? It's like she realizes that she can actually control how she's portrayed. And how is Charles taking this turn of events, the subjects loving the princess more than him. He's jealous and he's been more distant as William gets older. But Diana still hopes he'll come around, especially when she tells him she has surprising news.

Do not say that's for the next episode. That's for the next and final episode of Diana to Meghan, where we're going to see how Diana's exit from the royal family set the stage for Mxit. This is episode three of our four part series, Diana Ptarmigan, if you like our show, please give us a five star rating and a review and be sure to tell your friends subscribe on Apple podcast Spotify, the wonder F or wherever you're listening right now.

Join Wonderly Plus in the Wonder app to listen ad free. In the episode notes, you'll find some links and offers from our sponsors. Please support them. Another way to support us is to answer a short survey at thundery dot com slash survey.

We use many sources when researching our stories like Vanity Fair, Tattler and Town and Country and yes, a few tabloids.

But we especially recommend a few books The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown The Queen and Die by Ingrid Seward and Diana, Her True Story by Andrew Morton. I'm Brooks Ephron. And I'm Erica Skidmore Williams. This episode was written and produced by Caleb Bissinger. Our associate producer is Kate Young. Our audio engineers are Charisma and Sergio Enriquez, sound design by Marcelina Villalpando and James Morgan are executive producers are Stephanie Jones, Marcia Louis and Hernan Lopez. We're wondering. On the Internet, you can be anyone, some people use that power to become who they wish they were.

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