Princess Diana was loved by millions around the world, and it was a tragic day in 1997 when she passed. Known as “The Princess of the People”, Diana created a legacy for herself by being the most humane, compassionate, and loving royal the public had ever seen.
Aside from being known for her humanitarian work and her dedication to charities worldwide, Princess Diana was also known for her independence and free spirit. Not one for being told what to do or how to behave, Princess Di changed the face of British royalty forever. Diana refused to be subservient to stuffy royal traditions, protocols, and customs, and she never let her royal status get in the way of her being there for her people and a loving, caring mother to her children.
If ever there was a game changer, it certainly was Princess Diana. And, although you might be aware of certain aspects of her legacy, you’ll be floored by some of the outrageous ways she went against the royal family and did things in her own way. Truly an icon to be praised and looked up to, Princess Diana is the perfect example of a woman who wouldn’t let anyone keep her down and who made her way in the world on her own terms. Here are 18 ways Diana disobeyed the royal family and thus became a legend.
18 She Chose Her Own Engagement Ring - And It Was From A Catalog
Princess Diana was well and truly her own woman. She did things her own way, on her own terms and she had a mind that was very much her own. Whereas many women who were entering the royal family would make sure to obey all the royal customs to a tee, Diana didn’t see the necessity to follow the rules. This single-mindedness of hers even stretched as far as her engagement ring.
Normally, royal engagement rings are custom made, but Diana being the often very practical and singular lady that she was, decided to choose her own ring that she found in a Garrard jewelry catalog.
Royals ordering from a catalog? That was basically unheard of! Diana’s beautiful ring now belongs to Duchess Kate Middleton, and she now proudly wears the stunning sapphire and diamond ring that once belonged to her iconic late mother-in-law.
17 She Changed The Traditional Royal Wedding Vows
If there was ever someone who definitely didn’t obey the rules, it was Princess Diana. It’s fitting therefore that she changed her wedding vows to suit her own beliefs and sense of liberty. In traditional weddings, and certainly within royal weddings, it was customary for the woman to say that she would “honor and obey” the groom and therefore her husband-to-be. Well, being the type of lady that wasn’t in the business of obeying anybody,
Princess Diana was the first royal bride to omit the part of the vows where she’s meant to promise to “obey” Prince Charles.
Although it’s just leaving out one word, this was a huge moment in royal family history, as it signaled that she wouldn’t be subservient and submissive to her husband. Thirty years later when Will and Kate got married, Kate Middleton too decided to leave out the word “obey” from her vows.
16 She Was An Actively Involved Royal Mother
If you think about it, Princess Diana was quite a young mother. She was 20 years old when she gave birth to Prince William, and as a young mother who didn’t want to follow centuries-old traditions, she had her own ideas about how to raise her children. It was customary in the royal family to have quite a lot of separation from your small children, but Diana wasn’t about to leave her babies behind like other royal mothers had. Not only did Diana name her sons herself without listening to the advice of the other royals, she also breastfed her babies too. She also decided to bring Prince William along with her and Prince Charles on a six-week tour of Australia and New Zealand when William was only nine months old. Normally, Royals would leave their babies behind while they went on these royal tours, but Diana wanted a hands-on approach to bringing up her children.
15 She Put Her Children Before Her Work
Princess Diana quit her job as a teacher when she married Prince Charles, but her love of children and taking care of them didn’t stop when her job did. Diana was known for prioritizing her children over her official royal obligations, and she would often choose to spend time with her kids instead of tending to royal business. Of course, like most royal households and in families where parents work, Diana had nannies for the boys, but she did try to manage her busy schedule to fit her sons’ needs as much as possible. An article in Newsweek from 1997 said:
“In her official calendar, the princess had all the everyday details of her son's utterly everyday lives marked in green ink."
Clearly to Diana, her sons’ ordinary activities were of the utmost importance to her, and she did her best to be a present and caring mother for her children despite being a Princess.
14 She Fought To Have Her Children Attend A Regular School
Diana was very determined to raise her two boys as normally as possible despite their royal birth, and it was important for her that they are integrated into normal society as much as possible. This included their education, and she insisted that they attend a normal school. When Prince William was three years old, Diana sent him to Mrs. Jane Mynor’s nursery school, thus becoming the first British heir to the throne to begin his education outside of the palace walls. It was customary to have homeschooling at this young age, but Diana felt like it would benefit her son to experience normal childhood behavior along with kids his own age. When Harry was born a few years later, he too was sent to the same school.
13 She Showed Her Kids What The Real World Looks Like
It wasn’t just Diana’s decision to send her boys to a normal school with “commoners” that rocked the royal boat. Princess Diana was determined to have her children experience life outside of the constraints normally imposed on royal children. She wanted her boys to take part in all that life had to offer, even if that meant breaking royal protocol.
Diana took William and Harry to McDonald’s, she brought them on public transport, she allowed them to wear casual clothes, and she even took them to Disneyland
While at Disney, she even made them stand in line for the rides just like everyday people do. She also brought them to homeless shelters and hospitals in order to see what real life looked like, in order for them not to be blinded by their own privilege. Williams told ABC News in 2012: “She very much wanted to get us to see the rawness of real life.”
12 She Pushed The Boundaries With Her Sense Of Fashion
Anyone who has seen pictures of Princess Diana knows that she was an iconic fashion queen. She has gone down in history as one of the best-dressed royals there ever was, and even today we see Duchess Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle taking inspiration from her former outfits. While Diana may have first been called “Shy Di” in the tabloids in the early 1990s, she retaliated by being papped in some killer clothes, most notably her "revenge dress" she wore the Serpentine Gallery benefit in London, a sleeveless black frock with a high hemline. Diana pushed the boundaries in everything she did, including the way she dressed, and many of her outfits were much more risqué than had ever been seen worn by a royal.
11 She Refused To Wear Gloves When Meeting People
If you see pictures of the Queen when she's out and about meeting people, you're likely to notice that the head royal is wearing gloves.
Well, it was standard protocol for royal women to wear gloves when out with the public, but Diana decided to go against this custom in order to be more at one with the people she was meeting.
She wanted to convey a closeness and a more personal touch when she was greeting people, so she opted to disobey the royal rules yet again. Princess Diana has been well documented shaking hands and holding hands with people from all walks of life, and she wanted to make sure that they knew she was genuine in her care and love for them.
10 She Went Against Conventions
We’ve seen how Princess Diana was unlike any other royal in many ways so far, from the way she raised her children to how she dressed. But Princess Diana also had a bit of a kooky side and she loved expressing herself in ways that royals wouldn’t normally dare to.
Another example of her unwavering commitment to being herself is when she wore a choker that the Queen had given her as a tiara.
The Queen had given Diana this gorgeous necklace as a wedding gift, but being the innovative lady that she was, Diana decided to sport the choker on top of her head. She wore it this way in Melbourne, Australia in 1985, and we’re sure the Queen was quite taken aback by this unconventional accessorizing choice.
9 She Spoke To The Press In A Frank And Honest Way
The Royals are meant to be prim, proper, and keep their affairs to themselves. Well, Diana, as we’ve seen, was no ordinary royal, and she decided that she wouldn’t be kept quiet by her royal peers. In 1995, Diana famously spoke very candidly to BBC reporter Martin Bashir about her relationship with Prince Charles. During the interview, Princess Diana discussed Prince Charles’ extra-marital affair with Camilla and her subsequent separation from her husband. This truly revealed Diana to be the rebellious princess everyone was beginning to see her as, and it marked the first real occasion that a royal had aired their dirty laundry in such a public way. It was Diana’s way of trying to take back some control after the media had gone crazy over rumors involving her problems with Charles, and although she was later reported saying she regretted doing the interview, it clearly was her way of trying to assert herself and gain control in a devastating, spiraling situation.
8 She Spoke Out About Mental Health
During this same interview with Martin Bashir for the BBC, Princess Diana spoke candidly about her struggles with bulimia and mental health she faced due to the stresses that came with being a part of the royal family and trying to keep her marriage from falling apart.
This kind of frankness had never been seen coming from a royal, and it added to the very human, very relatable portrait the world had already come to associate with Princess Diana.
Thanks to her openness and honesty about her own struggles with eating disorders and mental health, it helped shine a pioneering light on these issues that millions of people go through across the world. Princess Diana’s personal battle with these issues also led to her sons and daughter-in-law doing passionate work to help mental health become more recognized.
7 She Got A Divorce
Princess Diana’s divorce from Prince Charles in 1995 has gone down as one of the most famous breakups in royal history, but it wasn’t certain at the start if a divorce would actually happen. In 1992, the royal couple decided to get a separation after they had both been unfaithful to each other over the years. They had stayed together for a long time in order not to disappoint the public, but after Diana’s very open interview with Martin Bashir, the Queen urged Diana and Charles to finally get a divorce. Obviously, getting divorced isn’t something that is usually encouraged, especially in the royal family as there is a certain image that has to be kept up. Diana’s very public exposure of her husband’s infidelity though triggered this separation, and the subsequent embarrassment the royal family faced was hugely detrimental.
6 She Didn’t Disappear After Her Divorce
Whereas a lot of people, and certainly the royals, might have expected Diana to disappear quietly in shame and embarrassment following her very public divorce from her husband Prince Charles, Princess Diana instead kept herself very much in the public eye and didn’t shy away from being seen by the media.
She lived her life as a newly single mother to its full enjoyment, going out to parties and being seen with other men.
Dodi Al Fayed was one of the wealthy men Diana had quite a long relationship with post-Charles, and he was also the man who was in the car with Princess Di on that tragic day when she was in her fatal car accident in Paris. Before she passed away, however, Princess Diana made sure that she was still helping people and living life to the full, and she wasn’t about to let the royals stand in her way of being her best self.
5 She Refused To Be Formal With People
Diana’s love of children is well documented in countless photos, not just with her own kids but with children all over the world. One of the most beautiful things about Princess Diana was that she would never stand on ceremony when she was out meeting children. Whereas many royals might continue to be a bit stuffy and standoffish with children, Diana would crouch down to their level, so she could look them in the eye and be more approachable to them. This signature move is now used by Duchess Kate Middleton, who also crouches down when speaking with children, and engages with them on a loving, interactive level. Ingrid Seward, the editor of Majesty magazine said: “Diana was the first member of the royal family to do this.” To which Princess Di added: “If someone might be nervous of you or you're speaking to a very young child or a sick person, get yourself on their level.'
4 She Showed Compassion When Others Wouldn’t
One of the things Princess Diana will always be remembered for was her immense compassion for the oppressed, the marginalized, and the disadvantaged. She truly was the “Princess of the People”, and her love and compassion seemed to have no bounds.
This level of active involvement with those less fortunate had never been seen before to be demonstrated by a royal, but Diana never let her royal status get in the way of helping people.
Princess Diana was a staunch supporter of numerous charities and she visited people that had never gotten a royal visit before. She shook hands with AIDS victims and people suffering from leprosy, and she walked through a semi-cleared minefield in order to raise awareness about active landmines. She truly wasn’t afraid to meet with anyone and everyone and to show each and every single one of them love.
3 She Gave Birth In A Hospital
Princess Diana broke royal traditions and disobeyed the royal family in many ways, and her rebellious attitude also extended to how she felt about giving birth. Princess Di was the first royal to give birth in a hospital. Before Diana came along and changed everything, it was customary for all royal mothers to have their babies delivered at home. Prince William was, therefore, the first royal child to ever be born in a hospital. After Diana set the pace for this new way of giving birth, we have seen Kate Middleton follow suit as she has given birth to all three of her children at the hospital. Diana gave birth to both Prince William and Prince Harry in the private Lindo wing of St. Mary’s Hospital in Paddington.
2 She Had Photographs Taken Of Her That Weren’t Allowed
There’s a little-known rule that royals aren’t allowed to be photographed while drinking alcohol, but this tradition didn’t seem to bother Diana one bit it seems. At a Prince’s Trust event in 1987, Princess Diana and Prince Charles went to go see singer Lionel Richie perform and Diana really wanted to have her photograph taken with the singer she so admired. That in itself wasn’t too much of a problem, but the fact that she was holding a champagne glass in the photo was.
Diana apparently insisted that the photo be taken, despite the fact that people around her were urging her to put the glass down.
It seems that even in those early days of being a royal, Diana didn’t have much trouble in disobeying the royal rules, and today we have photographic evidence of this very incident.
1 She Enjoyed Partying
Although Princess Diana was known for her charitable work and her deep compassion towards underprivileged people, the often controversial royal also enjoyed having a good time. She has been pictured dancing with John Travolta, having a good time with men after her divorce from Charles, and she even sneaked out to go partying. One time, in particular, Princess Diana disguised herself as a young male model in order to get into a South London gay bar with Freddie Mercury. Apparently, Mercury and TV star Kenny Everett dressed Diana up in a black cap, an army jacket, and sunglasses, and they sneaked into the Royal Vauxhall Tavern together. Clearly, Princess Diana wasn’t afraid to go out partying, and it shouldn’t be a surprise that she wanted to hang out with everyday people at a public bar as she so emphasized the importance of regular living when it came to raising her boys.
References: TheTelegraph.co.uk, GoodHousekeeping.com, PrincessDianaForever.com, DailyMail.co.uk, HuffingtonPost.co.uk, People.com, ABCNews.go.com, GlobalNews.ca, ThePerspective.com, TheSun.co.uk, Time.com, TheGuardian.com, Diply.com, Newsweek.com, CountryLiving.com
