Security alert at palace for Diana exhibit
New book reveals her wit
SECURITY at Kensington Palace has been stepped up amid fears of attacks.
Visitors to the West London palace, home to William and Kate, must now have their bags checked as they enter the cafe and gift shop.
The palace is currently home to the exhibition Diana: Her Fashion Story, which is proving very popular as people remember the princess on the 20th anniversary of her death. The changes concern the public areas of the building, to which an estimated 400,000 visitors flock every year.
The palace is also home to the royal couple’s children George and Charlotte, as well as Prince Harry. The measures were introduced after the terror threat level was raised to critical following the Manchester Arena bombing in May.
A Royal Palaces spokesman said: “We continue to review security and, where appropriate, put in additional measures.”
She was known as the People’s Princess for good reason. Diana won over the public as a fashion icon, a trailblazing campaigner fighting Aids and landmines, and, perhaps most importantly, a loving mother to sons William and Harry.
But behind the scenes, Diana also had a sharp sense of humour and, when crossed, some cutting put-downs in her repertoire.
Now, 20 years after her death at just 36 years old in a Paris car crash, a new book by veteran royal commentator Phil Dampier reveals the heart and soul of the woman still missed by millions.
Diana: I’m Going to Be Me tells the Princess’s remarkable life story in a collection of her most memorable and iconic quotes.
From the Queen’s love of corgis and life as a royal, to love, heartbreak, fashion, mental health and her campaigning work, Diana’s words reveal her true inner self... About supermodel Naomi Campbell: That girl is truly beautiful. She is so exotic and glamorous that an old black binliner would look good on her.
After taking Prince William on his first walkabout in Cardiff, when he was eight, she told an aide: You know, it’s strange. Every mother in the country is warning her children not to talk to strangers and here’s me telling mine that’s exactly what they have to do!
Commenting on public engagements: “Imagine having to go to a wedding every day of your life – as the bride. That’s a bit what it’s like.
Writing to a fan about her sapphire and diamond engagement ring, she joked: I can’t get used to wearing it. The other day I scratched my nose with it because it’s so big – the ring I mean. On a walkabout in Australia, she said to a one-armed man: I bet you have fun chasing the soap around the bath! When one of the Queen’s corgis licked her legs, she barked: Get it out of here, it’s licking all my tan off !
On the famous photo taken at the nursery where she worked, in which her legs showed through her skirt because of the light: I ended up in the papers looking like I had Steinway piano legs. On her first visit to Balmoral to meet the Queen: I was s***ting bricks. I was terrified. I had never stayed at Balmoral before and I wanted to get it right. On walking up the aisle on her wedding day and spotting Camilla
Parker Bowles, whom she had already realised was a love threat, in the congregation: I was furious. I wanted to turn and run. If I’d had the courage I would have hitched up my dress and bolted out.
Just six months after her wedding, Diana told former nanny
Mary Clarke: I might even have to learn to ride a horse, Mary, as it is the only time I will see my husband on his own. Laughing about not being able to behave the way she once did: I think that’s probably just as well if you knew how I used to behave! Before her marriage she told her former nanny Mary: The love of my life is to dance and sing but I have an awful voice and I’m like an elephant when I dance, so no one watches me.
On being asked by David Bowie to join stars on stage for the finale at the 1985 Live Aid concert: I might be able to sing a bit of God Save the Queen but that’s as far as my vocal talents go.
I’d love to be able to run along a beach without a policeman following me.
The trouble with being a Princess is that it is so hard to have a pee.
My husband knows so much about rearing children that I’ve suggested he has the next one and I’ll sit back and give advice.
If men had babies, they would only have one each. On calling love rival Camilla Parker Bowles “The Rottweiler”: Because she looks like a dog and once she has got her teeth into someone she won’t let go.
She told hairdresser Richard
Dalton: Charles must be wearing beer goggles to have an affair with Camilla. On high-heeled shoes by Jimmy Choo and Manolo Blahnik: I call them my tart’s trotters.
On a walkabout when wearing a fake-fur wrap over her hands to keep warm, she told a woman in the crowd: I’ve got a mouse in my muff !
In a letter to lover Captain James Hewitt when he was in the desert during the Gulf War in 1991: Bet you’ll never go on a beach holiday again!
The worst illness of our time is that so many people have to suffer from never being loved.
They say it is better to be poor and happy than rich and miserable but how about a compromise, like moderately rich and just moody?
When she looked out of her window at Kensington Palace and saw her neighbour, Austrian-born Princess Michael of Kent, she said: The Waffen SS are on the march!
To friends in 1994: I live for my sons. I would be lost without them.
On the Queen: I admire her. I long to get inside her mind and talk to her.
On the Royal Family: They don’t have friendships – they have allies. They are a tribe and their instinct is tribal.
Just being kind is all the sad world needs. A few weeks before her death she told author Ingrid Seward: He (Charles) loved me when we got married and I loved him. We still love each other now, in a different way. At least I love him. It is very sad about our marriage. Diana: I’m Going To Be Me, The People’s Princess Revealed In Her Own Words, is published by Barzipan at £8.95.