Bedell Smith lays the blame for both parties’ emotional inadequacies on their upbringings. “Diana was tormented by feelings of emptiness and detachment; she feared abandonment; she had difficulty sustaining relationships; and she kept those closest to her on tenterhooks,” writes Bedell Smith. “Ultimately, out of frustration, they abandoned her.”
Further revelations about Diana’s rages—which resulted in her throwing herself downstairs whilst pregnant, and slashing herself with razors, shards of glass and knives in front of her husband—paint a picture of a deeply disturbed woman, a long way from the ‘Queen of Hearts’ and ‘People’s Princess’ that was to become her legacy in the immediate aftermath of her death.
One of the prince’s former advisers tells Bedell Smith that after meeting Diana, he remembered thinking: ‘There is a rod of steel up this woman’s back.’ Diana’s father, Earl Spencer, later confirmed as much when he said: ‘Diana is very determined indeed and always gets her own way. I think Prince Charles is learning that by now.’