In the collective memory of the people, Diana, Princess of Wales was everything a royal should be. She was beautiful, composed, and full of compassion for those in need.
And when she died in 1997, it was a horrific tragedy that shook the world. She had been robbed of a future that was looking incredibly bright, and her sons would forever be without a mother.
But the dark secrets of Diana's life prove "all that glitters is not gold." Some people believe that her death was no accident, and that it was actually an elaborate conspiracy designed by the royal family to silence her.
Early Life Diana was born on July 1, 1961, to John and Frances Spencer.
It had been tradition for members of the nobility to marry one another for centuries, and her parents were no exception. Together with her two older sisters and two brothers, they lived in a mansion called Park House in Norfolk, England.
As you can imagine, Diana grew up with the best things that money could buy, and she went on playdates with children in the royal family. But all of the money in the world can't buy happiness.
John and Frances had a toxic marriage . . . All her life, Diana's parents never said "I love you" to one another, or their children.
They pushed off most of the parental duties on nannies and governesses. At age 9, her father sent her to boarding school.
Her mother remarried a man named Peter Shand Kydd, who was the heir to a successful wallpaper company. Her father married a woman named Raine McCorquodale, who was the daughter of a famous romance novelist.
The children were not present at their father's second marriage, and they had to find out about it through in the newspaper. Diana and her siblings deeply resented Raine as an "evil stepmother", and blamed her for tearing their happy family apart.
