Diana: what might have been
Her death changed the royal family forever, but what if she had lived? Celine Naughton allows herself to daydream
I t’s one of the great Sliding
Doors moments of history… imagine Princess Diana didn’t get into the car that night. What if, instead of following Dodi Fayed through the rotating door of the Ritz Hotel in Paris and slipping into the Mercedes next to him, she’d decided to head home early from her French holiday and join her boys at Balmoral for a final hurrah before they headed back to school after the holidays?
Where would she be living now? What would her place be in the royal family? Who would she be friends with? Would she and Charles be on speaking terms? Might she even have ultimately remarried?
Would she be holed up somewhere in a faraway villa, away from prying eyes, a modern-day Wallis Simpson banished from the kingdom, or would she be a social media queen, instagramming her every move and tweeting her every thought?
Ever the social butterfly, Diana would no doubt have a wide circle of friends today, just as she did in her lifetime. She’d be on first-name terms with clever, pioneering women like JK Rowling and Nigella Lawson, and would have much in common with stars like Angelina Jolie and Madonna who use their celebrity power to highlight the causes they believe in.
She always loved the company of fashion designers and would today be rubbing shoulders on the front row with the likes of Victoria Beckham and Stella McCartney. She’d no doubt adore the former Spice Girl’s classic dresses, with their clean elegant lines. Victoria’s old Spice Girl pal Geri Halliwell once boasted she’d pinched Prince Charles’s bum. “Should’ve pinched harder,” Diana retorted.
She’d still be firm friends with Elton John and would have had pride of place at his marriage to David Furnish in December 2014, probably wearing something dazzling by McQueen.
But would Diana herself have married again? Well, that’s the million dollar question.
If reports that Dodi planned to ask her to marry him in Paris on that fateful trip are correct, the princess could well have been twenty years into a very happy second marriage by now.
But it seems equally likely that after the devastating failure of her marriage to Charles, she would have continued to enjoy her freedom — relishing not being tied down or having to conform to the conventions of marriage. She would have remained on good terms with many of her former beaux, and it’s even conceivable that herself and Charles would, for the sake of their sons, have put the past behind them and be on cordial terms at least. But would she have attended his marriage to Camilla? Unlikely. It’s interesting to speculate on where her own career might have led her. A woman as iconic — and occasionally indiscreet — as the princess would have been hotly in demand in the age of reality TV, and no doubt Diana would have turned down multiple offers of appearing on shows like Celebrity Big Brother and Strictly Come Dancing, though she might have been tempted by the latter, with its elegant gowns and good-humoured charm. After all, she once famously danced with John Travolta.
If she had distanced herself even further from the Palace she might have even found herself a brand ambassador for a high-end fashion house or writing a Gwyneth-style lifestyle blog. She could have used her impeccable taste to design a homewares range, or lent her name to a celebrity cookbook or diet plan.
Diana always knew how to manipulate the conversation — remember the famous Martin Bashir interview — and even when
censored in what she could say in the early years of her transformation from Shy Di to the most photographed woman in the world, she learned to communicate like no other, through clothes, colour, body language… a hint of a smile here, sad face there.
She would have have loved Twitter, with its constant stream of chatter and provocation. She’d be a master of Instagram, no doubt posting photos of her sunkissed toes on an exotic beach or choosing a wide blue sky as an alluring backdrop to a family snap. But she would never have strayed far from the work that she loved — working as a goodwill ambassador and doing everything within her considerable power to raise awareness of the causes close to her heart.
She would have found plenty of time to continue to work to help victims of HIV/ AIDS and after garnering much publicity for her landmine campaign, she might have found herself speaking out against the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.
She would have been worried sick when Prince Harry did his tour of duty as a helicopter pilot, because as it did in her lifetime, family would have remained front and centre for Diana.
She adored her two sons, and the former nursery teacher always had a soft spot for children. She would have loved watching her boys grow up, go through their awkward teenage phase and come out the other side as fine young men.
She would have had plenty of advice to offer in affairs of the heart, and would no doubt have been delighted when Kate and William decided to the knot. The pomp and and ceremony of their Westminster Abbey wedding in April 2011 would have been just her thing, and she’d have stolen the show as the elegant mother of the groom.
Today Diana would be a doting grandmother to young Prince George and Princess Charlotte. Perhaps she’d be looking forward to taking George and Charlotte on the rides at Alton Towers, where she once had such fun with William and Harry.
She would approve of the refreshingly unstuffy approach to family life her son has taken and she’d be very proud, but would she worry about the public adoration of Kate? She might find it unsettling.
Remembering her own mother, Frances Shand Kydd, bursting out just days before her wedding to Charles, “I have good long legs, like my daughter,” Diana is determined not to be that mortifying mother-in-law, but would be conscious of sharing the limelight with a younger woman who appears to be settling comfortably into the role Diana always wanted as her own, ‘queen of people’s hearts’. It might hurt a little.
Diana would look amazing. She was always in great shape and she would have kept abreast of the latest fitness trends from pilates to spinning. She might have been tempted by Botox but having attended the best Harley Street doctors, would look better than ever. Some things never change.