Top 5 Hidden Secrets about Princess Diana

 
Much of the information we’ll be sharing today was uncovered because Princess Diana actually recorded her personal thoughts on audiotape during her time in the spotlight. As things began to turn sour between her and Charles, she wanted to make sure that her side of the story could someday be heard. The tapes were eventually given to a journalist, Andrew Morton, who published a biography of Diana which included content from the tapes several years before her death. In 2017, National Geographic produced “Diana: In Her Own Words,” which takes an even deeper dive into the content of the tapes and reveals never before heard content. 
 



 
One of the biggest misconceptions about Diana, Princess of Wales, was that she was a “girl next door” type, a “commoner” - for lack of a better word - marrying into the royal family. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Diana already held the title of “Lady” before her marriage to Charles, and the Spencer family from which she came has a long history of being part of the English aristocracy. And perhaps most interesting, Diana and Charles were actually distantly related! They were 16th cousins once removed, which to be fair isn’t really saying much. 
 



 
Diana and Charles’s royal wedding was called the wedding of the century and garnered substantial media attention around the world. While many were likely jealous of this newly minted princess, for Diana, the entire affair was a nightmare. In the documentary “Diana: In Her Own Words,” it is revealed that Diana called her wedding day, “the worst day of my life,” and until the final moments was having huge regrets about her marriage. But as her sisters said, her face was already on the tea towel, so it was too late to back out. It just goes to show that all that glitters is not gold. 
 



 
In the same audiotapes, Diana opened up about her sex life with Charles. She called it “odd” and said that sex between the two of them was quite rare. She makes it clear that even relatively early on in their relationship, their levels of intimacy were not what she considered to be normal. She said that in the final years of their marriage, Charles would consistently want to have sex once every three weeks, which she noted was also the frequency at which he used to see his mistress, Camilla. 
 



 
Many people know that Princess Diana dealt with eating disorders, specifically bulimia, throughout her life. But she also suffered from depression, and actually tried to take her own life. In reference to her bulimia, Diana attributed the beginnings of her disorder to a comment Charles made where he referred to her as “a bit chubby.” All of this was revealed in the audiotapes, but Diana had also addressed her experience with mental illness in a BBC Panorama interview in 1995. Though she may have always kept a put together appearance, clearly underneath the surface she was facing struggles no one could have imagined.