The Royals Part 28

"Yes, bliss," replied the Princess.

When their romance started in the summer of 1997, pictures of the multimillionaire son of Mohamed al-Fayed* were splashed all over the newspapers. He was described by the were splashed all over the newspapers. He was described by the News of the World, News of the World, Britain's largest-circulation weekly, as a forty-one-year-old playboy, who was "unfit" to marry into Britain's aristocracy. "He excels at giving lavish parties, smoking expensive cigars and dating beautiful women," said the paper. "He is an unsuitable choice to become the stepfather to the future king of England." Noting the dismissive tone of the British press toward Diana's new suitor, Britain's largest-circulation weekly, as a forty-one-year-old playboy, who was "unfit" to marry into Britain's aristocracy. "He excels at giving lavish parties, smoking expensive cigars and dating beautiful women," said the paper. "He is an unsuitable choice to become the stepfather to the future king of England." Noting the dismissive tone of the British press toward Diana's new suitor, The New York Times The New York Times described Dodi as "a young, wealthy outsider in Britain's cla.s.s-obsessed society." described Dodi as "a young, wealthy outsider in Britain's cla.s.s-obsessed society."

His romance with Diana had started when his father invited the Princess and her two sons to visit his family at their villa on the French Riviera. Diana accepted the invitation, despite the advice of her best friends, who felt the senior al-Fayed was socially unacceptable. The British press criticized her for lending her presence to a man who had been denied citizens.h.i.+p by the British government. Al-Fayed, who was born in Egypt, had admitted bribing Members of Parliament to ask questions during the Prime Minister's weekly sessions that contributed to the defeat of the ruling Conservative Party in 1997. But he said the real reason he was not accepted by the British was ethnic discrimination.

"I am a victim of the British establishment," he told Time Time magazine. "You can't believe what I am fighting here. They can't get over the fact that I own Harrods. It's an Egyptian, not a Briton, who built this store, this fantasy. How can a b.l.o.o.d.y Egyptian come from another planet and do this?" magazine. "You can't believe what I am fighting here. They can't get over the fact that I own Harrods. It's an Egyptian, not a Briton, who built this store, this fantasy. How can a b.l.o.o.d.y Egyptian come from another planet and do this?"

Despite his contributions to charity, the tyc.o.o.n was disparaged by British newspapers as a social-climbing braggart not worthy of royal patronage. "Mr. Fayed is not the sort of person in whose debt a public figure such as the princess should knowingly place herself and her sons," p.r.o.nounced the Daily Telegraph. Daily Telegraph. The next day, photographs of Diana with her arm around Mohamed al-Fayed aboard his yacht were plastered on the front pages of several newspapers. She was smiling happily, if not defiantly. The next day, photographs of Diana with her arm around Mohamed al-Fayed aboard his yacht were plastered on the front pages of several newspapers. She was smiling happily, if not defiantly.

During that trip, she had approached the British reporters who dogged her to St. Tropez and asked them for some privacy, then warned that they should prepare themselves for startling news. "You'll see," she said. "You are going to get a big surprise with the next thing I do....

"My boys are urging me to leave the country. They say it is the only way. Maybe that's what I should do. They want me to live abroad. I sit in London all the time and I am abused and followed wherever I go. Now I am being forced to move from here. William is stressed. William gets really freaked out. I was hoping to keep this visit all covered up and quiet."

Despite the press intrusion, Diana later told Michael Cole, the al-Fayed spokesman for Harrods, that she and her children had had an idyllic vacation. "I've never had such a wonderful time," he quoted her as saying. She told the reporter Richard Kay that she intended to bow out of public life to pursue personal interests. "She would then," he wrote later, "be able to live as she always wanted to live, not as an icon-how she hated to be called one-but as a private person."

Pictures of Dodi and Diana dominated the world's tabloids, and the grainy photograph of them kissing, captured by a telephoto lens, reportedly fetched $5 million. The Sunday Mirror Sunday Mirror told its readers that the couple had found soul mates in each other: "They are both outsiders who have clashed with the British establishment." told its readers that the couple had found soul mates in each other: "They are both outsiders who have clashed with the British establishment."

At the end of August, after a day cruising off Sardinia on his father's yacht, the couple flew to Paris on his father's plane. They visited the former villa of the Duke and d.u.c.h.ess of Windsor, which his father owned. Later, they dined at the Ritz, his father's hotel. The next day, Diana was scheduled to fly to London on the al-Fayed private plane to be with her boys before they returned to school. They had been vacationing with their father and the rest of the royal family in Scotland. But Diana did not live to see her children again.

Days later, on Sat.u.r.day, September 6, the young princes, William and Harry, walked with their father, their grandfather, and their uncle, Diana's brother, from Kensington Palace to Westminster Abbey to say good-bye to their mother. The Princess of Wales was not accorded a grand state funeral with gun carriages and m.u.f.fled drums, although the Queen had the authority to give her such homage. Instead, the Palace promised a farewell that would be "a unique ritual for a unique person." Two thousand people received invitations to attend the funeral in the abbey where English sovereigns had been crowned and buried for one thousand years. Those invited were to represent every facet of Diana's short, bright life-from royalty to reality. Later, the Princess was to be privately interred on an island at Althorp, the Spencer family's estate, in the village of Brington.

America's official representative at the funeral was First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. Other celebrities included Luciano Pavarotti, Steven Spielberg, Diana Ross, Tom Hanks, and Tom Cruise. Diana's favorite dress designers-Ralph Lauren, Zandra Rhodes, Bruce Oldfield, Catherine Walker, Valentino, and Karl Lagerfeld-sat with 470 representatives of her favorite charities.

But outside the abbey, the hundreds of thousands of commoners who lined the streets seemed to represent a greater tribute to the young woman who gave more to the idea of royalty than she ever received in return. The BBC estimated the crowds to be the largest a.s.sembled in London since World War II.

Around the world, an estimated 2.5 billion people in 187 countries gathered in front of their televisions to watch Diana's funeral. In the U.S., people arose at 4 A.M. A.M. to watch the service. to watch the service.

"We were there at the beginning of the fairy tale," said a woman in New York City who had watched the royal wedding in 1981. "The least we can do is be there for her at the end."

Shortly after the Welsh Guards carried Diana's coffin to the front altar of the abbey, Elton John sang his farewell to England's rose. His lyricist had rewritten "Candle in the Wind," originally an elegy for Marilyn Monroe, to pay homage to the Princess of Wales. That song, which the singer re-recorded and released a few days later, became the largest-selling single in history. He donated the proceeds ($65 million by 1998) to the memorial fund established in Diana's name to benefit her favorite charities. He was later knighted by the Queen, who is said to have been moved by his haunting song. Although she had prohibited television coverage of the royal family inside the abbey, some funeral guests said they had seen tears* in the Queen's eyes when Elton John sang about Diana as "our nation's golden child." in the Queen's eyes when Elton John sang about Diana as "our nation's golden child."

Moments after his song, Her Majesty was publicly chastened by the Earl Spencer, Diana's brother. His eloquent eulogy did not cloak his fury as he drew a hard line between Diana's real family and the royal family. Addressing his dead sister, he said, "... on behalf of your mother and sisters, I pledge that we, your blood family, will do all we can to continue the imaginative way in which you were steering these two exceptional young men so that their souls are not simply immersed by duty and tradition but can sing openly as you planned." It was a none too subtle slap at the royal family.

The Earl drew resounding applause from inside and outside the abbey when he inveighed against the media. He said his sister had talked endlessly of getting away from England, because of the treatment she received at the hands of newspapers and television.

"I don't think she ever understood why her genuinely good intentions were sneered at by the media, why there appeared to be a permanent quest on their behalf to bring her down," he said. "It is baffling. My own, and only, explanation is that genuine goodness is threatening to those at the opposite end of the moral spectrum. It is a point to remember that, of all the ironies about Diana, perhaps the greatest was this: a girl given the name of the ancient G.o.ddess of hunting was, in the end, the most hunted person of the modern age."

The eulogy was praised as courageous and hailed as an example of Britain's finest oratory. In the fevered atmosphere of Diana's funeral, her brother's eloquence was compared to Winston Churchill's. But within days, the Earl Spencer was denounced as a cur and a bounder.

The British press retaliated against him by reporting the lurid details of his impending divorce in South Africa. They published pictures of his various mistresses, plus extracts from letters he had sent to lovers during his marriage. He was portrayed as a "serial adulterer," who had brutally tormented his emotionally fragile wife with his philanderings, driving her to a nervous breakdown. He reportedly had barred her from attending his sister's funeral. The newspapers called him "a liar" and "a cheat," and his wife depicted him as an intolerant, terrifying bully who never allowed her "an opinion or a voice." She was quoted as saying that he "increasingly criticised, undermined, bullied and belittled me until eventually I lost all confidence and became very scared of him." The Daily Mail Daily Mail even ran a story comparing him to his father and grandfather, which was ent.i.tled "Why the Spencer Men Treat Their Wives as Mere Chattels." even ran a story comparing him to his father and grandfather, which was ent.i.tled "Why the Spencer Men Treat Their Wives as Mere Chattels."

Charles Spencer a.s.serted that his wife had become addicted to drugs while traveling the world as a top fas.h.i.+on model and would be unable to resist the lure of drugs if he gave her more money. So he rejected paying alimony. He demanded total custody of the couple's four children and threatened to go to trial. But after the barrage of negative publicity, he backed down and settled out of court. The newspapers declared victory for his wife, who shared custody and received a lump sum payment of $3 million.

The Earl Spencer was again criticized when he announced plans to build a shrine to Diana at Althorp and charge tourists $15 to view the island where she is buried. He said the site would be opened annually from her birthday, July 1, through August 30, the eve of her death. The anniversary of her death, August 31, will be preserved as a private day for the family to remember her. He posted a message on a new Althorp House Web site: "Diana is safely back at home, where her mortal remains can be cared for, and where her memory lives on forever." Eight million calls jammed telephone hotlines as people around the world tried to book tickets. The Daily Mail Daily Mail reported the story as "A Ticket to Mourn." reported the story as "A Ticket to Mourn."

The Earl said he was not exploiting his sister's death but merely responding to the public's desire to honor her memory. When he announced plans to erect a temple at the lake's edge so visitors could leave floral tributes, one British columnist sniped, "It's right near the manger where she was born." When Spencer said he planned to convert an eighteenth-century stable into a museum filled with memorabilia celebrating Diana's life, the same columnist inquired about pony rides and a petting zoo.

"NOW HE'S GONE TOO FAR" was the headline announcing his plans to stage a rock concert near his sister's grave in honor of what would have been her thirty-seventh birthday. Even Diana's favorite performers, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, and George Michael, said they could not partic.i.p.ate owing to their previous engagements.

In the sad days after Dodi's and Diana's deaths, Michael Cole, the al-Fayed spokesman, appeared on television to talk mawkishly of the couple's "enduring" love and the "probability" of their eventual marriage. He said they had exchanged gifts on their last day together: Diana gave Dodi a pair of gold cuff links that had belonged to her father and a gold cigar cutter inscribed "With love from Diana." Dodi gave her a $205,000 ring that they had selected from Repossi Jewelers on the Place Vendome in Paris. The al-Fayed spokesman also said Dodi had a sterling silver plaque inscribed with a poem* that he had placed under her pillow in his apartment, where they had planned to spend the night. that he had placed under her pillow in his apartment, where they had planned to spend the night.

As French magistrates investigated the fatal crash, bizarre conspiracy theories sprang up. Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi accused British intelligence agents of killing the Princess and her Egyptian lover to prevent a possible marriage that could have embarra.s.sed the British royal family by producing children with Muslim names.

Dodi's father, Mohamed al-Fayed, was the main source for Death of a Princess, Death of a Princess, a book that claimed Diana was pregnant and about to convert to Islam when she died. He intimated something sinister about the collision that killed her and his son. "It [their relations.h.i.+p] was a very serious matter," he told the book's authors, who worked for a book that claimed Diana was pregnant and about to convert to Islam when she died. He intimated something sinister about the collision that killed her and his son. "It [their relations.h.i.+p] was a very serious matter," he told the book's authors, who worked for Time Time magazine. "Maybe the future king is going to have a half brother who is a 'n.i.g.g.e.r,' and Mohamed al-Fayed is going to be the stepgrandfather of the future king. This is how they think, this Establishment. They are a completely different type of human being." magazine. "Maybe the future king is going to have a half brother who is a 'n.i.g.g.e.r,' and Mohamed al-Fayed is going to be the stepgrandfather of the future king. This is how they think, this Establishment. They are a completely different type of human being."

Maddened by grief, he raged against Earl Spencer, Prince Charles, and Prince Philip because they had not sent him condolences. "I feel hurt, upset, used," al-Fayed told the press. "My only crime is that I am the father of the man who Diana fell in love with and who made her happier than she had ever been."

Prime Minister Blair publicly criticized the Arab tyc.o.o.n for "sensational speculation" and labeled the Diana death industry of memorial stamps, mugs, coins, books, and films as "tasteless and inappropriate." The Queen and Prince Charles let it be known that they "enthusiastically endorsed" the Prime Minister. Diana's family and friends went even further; they said al-Fayed's claims were irresponsible and reprehensible, and they tried to refute them in published articles. But even without evidence of any plot to kill the Princess, the scary scenarios grew, especially in Egypt. "Conspiracy theories are a stock in trade here," Tim Sullivan, a political science professor at American University in Cairo, told Newsweek Newsweek. "When you think you don't have control over your life and over events, then conspiracy theories explain what is happening."

Preposterous tales were posted on the Internet about small bombs hidden on the roof of the Mercedes S-280 in which Diana and Dodi were traveling; these bombs were supposedly triggered by a remote-control device that locked the wheels and steering column at the flick of a switch from some far-off location like, say, Buckingham Palace.

The conspiracy theories were posted by people who saw a twisted connection between the royal family's disdain toward the Princess and her horrible death.

Ironically, it was Diana's death that breathed life into the moribund British monarchy. Her inexplicable magic seemed to enfold her son William like a giant halo. People gulped as the young man, who looked so much like his mother, was seen walking into church with his head bowed on the day she was buried. Touched by his sadness, people recalled her desire to see him become king. Nothing seemed more important on the day of her funeral than to make that dream come true for the beautiful princess who had bestowed so much kindness on her country's dispossessed. As Shakespeare said, "Beauty lives with kindness."

More than any other member of the royal family, Diana had understood what it meant to be a princess in the twentieth century. She had reached out to those who needed help most. What she always extended to the poor and the sick was a golden hand-without the white gloves of royalty. Despite her position of privilege, she did not condescend or patronize. She shared her vulnerabilities and in doing so, she gave people a measure of hope in coping with their own unhappiness. By allowing people to see her personal failures and successes, she gave them reason to believe that they, too, could rise above rejection, and survive, even triumph over misfortune. She did not dash dreams but rather she did what royalty was supposed to do: she made people feel better about themselves.

The Princess of Wales brought light into every room she entered, which is why people around the world suddenly felt so desolate when she was gone. They realized that they had lost someone who was truly irreplaceable.

Afterword.

The Monarchy and the Millennium Without the sparkling Princess, the royal family looked as paltry as pensioners doddering into the new century on creaky old bones. The ravages of Diana's death had left the monarchy moribund, and the Queen's subjects were reeling with conspiracy theories. Spider webs of foul plots flashed across the internet, darkly suggesting that the Windsors had finally gotten rid of their troublesome Princess so their donkey-eared Prince could marry his mistress. The sinister conjectures, fanned by Mohamed al-Fayed, persisted even after extensive inquests and multimillion-dollar investigations undertaken by France and England ruled out any such possibility.

Still some who had watched the unraveling of Diana's marriage over Charles's affair with Camilla Parker Bowles continued to harbor dark suspicions. They either couldn't accept the chaotic disaster that had taken the Princess's life or else they blamed the royal family for depriving her of Scotland Yard's protection upon her divorce. Evil imaginings were further inflamed when Diana's butler, Paul Burrell, revealed a letter she had written predicting her violent death at the hands of her husband. The Mirror Mirror published the text: published the text: This particular phase in my life is most dangerous. My husband is planning "an accident" in my car, brake failure and serious injury, to make the path clear for him to marry. This particular phase in my life is most dangerous. My husband is planning "an accident" in my car, brake failure and serious injury, to make the path clear for him to marry.

The ma.s.s hysteria that gripped the globe in the wake of Diana's death melded countries into communities of grief for days on end, uniting disparate people to something mystical and magic that suddenly had been s.n.a.t.c.hed from them. Perhaps it was the hope for a "happily ever after" ending that had been dashed, leaving them feeling bereft in a hopeless world. Years later, psychiatrists and sociologists would continue to try to explain the cataclysm of sorrow that shook the world on that hot August night in Paris, and would compare the global convulsion of mourning to that following the a.s.sa.s.sination of President Kennedy, and the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Diana's death unleashed a ravenous hunger to know every detail about her short life that was soon filled with a spate of tawdry books the palace rushed to squash. After promising "never to cash in our relations.h.i.+p," former army major James Hewitt published Love and War Love and War, which contained pa.s.sages from the sixty-four love letters he had received from Diana during his Iraq war service. British newspapers immediately branded "pea brain James" as "a sick cad" and "Major Rat." During her Panorama Panorama interview Diana had admitted her five-year affair with Hewitt. "Yes, I adored him," she said. "Yes, I was in love with him. But I was very let down." In that, she proved to be prescient. interview Diana had admitted her five-year affair with Hewitt. "Yes, I adored him," she said. "Yes, I was in love with him. But I was very let down." In that, she proved to be prescient.

After Hewitt cashed in, Trevor Rees-Jones, the only survivor of the car crash, wrote The Bodyguard's Story The Bodyguard's Story. He had been accused of "incompetence and unprofessional protection" by the Egyptian tyc.o.o.n Mohamed al-Fayed, who also tried to suppress the book, which said that Diana "could do miles better than this guy [al-Fayed's son], for Christ's sake."

Six months later, in September 2000, Diana's former private secretary Patrick Jephson published Shadows of a Princess Shadows of a Princess, which the palace had tried for two years to block. But the former royal retainer, who had signed a confidentiality agreement as a term of his employment, maintained that Diana's death released him from legal obligations of silence.

Jephson, whose ancestors had served the monarchy for four hundred years, had worked for Diana for seven during the breakdown of her marriage, and he recalled her as willful, manipulative, and mentally unstable. He wrote that she had taken a string of lovers, smuggled one into Kensington Palace in the trunk of her car, and always traveled with a vibrator for s.e.xual pleasure. He also alluded to her growing paranoia, saying, "She saw plots everywhere."

Upon publication of Jephson's book, Diana's brother appeared on CNN to denounce the former private secretary as a traitor to the Princess. "He's not thinking of anything except his bank balance," said the fuming Earl Spencer, who later enhanced his own bank balance by selling $45 million worth of his family's treasures to pay for running his estate and for alimony to his ex-wives.

By this point, Charles Spencer had fallen off his pedestal and was no longer upheld as the standard of loyalty. After his impa.s.sioned eulogy, he had moved his wife and four children from England to South Africa to follow his mistress, whom he later dumped for another woman. That woman was soon replaced several times, leading to a messy public divorce, more affairs, another marriage, two more children, further divorce and finally plans for a third marriage. With his tawdry love affairs spread over the British tabloids, the Earl Spencer was dismissed as an "Aristo-Cad."

In later years he criticized the Queen and Prince Charles for never visiting Diana's grave at Althorp, the Spencer estate in Northamptons.h.i.+re, where he had buried Diana on an island and charged tourists twenty dollars apiece to view her from afar. He complained to the press that he had been frozen out of the lives of William and Harry, who did not attend his second wedding. "I think there is a feeling among those who were never Diana's supporters [i.e. the royal family] of 'let's try to marginalize her and tell people she never mattered and tell people that in that first week in September 1997 they were all suffering from ma.s.s hysteria,' " he said.

Publicly perceived as dishonorable, the Earl Spencer was no longer able to defend his sister credibly, so eighteen-year-old Prince William stepped forward and spoke out publicly for the first time. Standing under the oak trees on his father's Highgrove estate, "Wills," as Diana had called her blue-eyed son, faced flas.h.i.+ng cameras from a hand-picked press corps to express himself about the publication of Patrick Jephson's book. Disguising his animosity toward the media, whom he blamed for his mother's death, William said, "Of course, Harry and I are both quite upset about it, that our mother's trust has been betrayed and that even now she is still being exploited. But, um, I don't really want to say any more than that."

Not even the winsome Prince could stanch the barrage of tell-alls blasting out of Britain from Diana's former lovers, confidantes, retainers, healers, and psychics. Secret video tapes of her talking about her anguished marriage to Prince Charles were made public. In one tape Diana claims she heard the Queen and Prince Philip discussing whether or not she was mentally ill. On another, she said she heard Philip ask, "How is that mad cow?" She said, "That hurt so much. They never understood or supported me."

Two years after the book by her former private secretary came another ent.i.tled Diana: Closely Guarded Secret Diana: Closely Guarded Secret by her former bodyguard Ken Wharfe, who also repeated the Princess's need to travel with "a little vibrator." The Queen, according to London newspapers, was "deeply concerned," "very perturbed," and "shocked that a royal protection officer should betray a confidence in this way." by her former bodyguard Ken Wharfe, who also repeated the Princess's need to travel with "a little vibrator." The Queen, according to London newspapers, was "deeply concerned," "very perturbed," and "shocked that a royal protection officer should betray a confidence in this way."

Her Majesty was in for a b.u.mpy ride. Every day her subjects were being hammered with regular press reports of malfeasance and mismanagement within the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund run by Diana's sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale. The fund, which collected over $150 million in Diana's memory, was dedicated to honoring her with contributions to her favorite charities, plus establis.h.i.+ng a monument in the heart of London. But racked by lawsuits, fights, firings, bureaucratic entanglements, and accusations of squandered money, the fund neglected to contribute to Diana's charities and instead became embroiled in a costly lawsuit against the Franklin Mint for reproducing Diana bride dolls and memorial plates. After six years of litigation, the Franklin Mint won and then countersued the memorial fund for "malicious mischief." The case was finally settled when the U.K. fund agreed to donate $25 million to several U.S. charities, including $1 million to research obesity in American children-a bizarre tribute to the Princess who suffered from bulimia.

Shortly before the Queen was to celebrate her golden jubilee-fifty years on the throne-in 2002, her sister, Princess Margaret, died, after suffering from the effects of lung cancer, strokes, phlebitis, and paralysis. She finally succ.u.mbed on February 9, 2002, to congestive heart failure, with her former husband and two children by her bedside. There was no state pomp to bury Margaret, whose quiet funeral was fifty years to the day after the funeral of her beloved father, King George VI, in the same St. George's Chapel in Windsor. It was a.s.sumed that she would want to be buried alongside him, but she had insisted on cremation in Slough, an industrial town a few miles from Windsor Castle. In accordance with her wishes, no friends or family were to be present, only members of her staff and palace officials. She asked that her remains be set to rest in St. George's Chapel near her father's. The Times Times of London called her decision the "final defiance of convention in a life of mold-breaking." of London called her decision the "final defiance of convention in a life of mold-breaking."

A few bouquets were laid outside her residence at Kensington Palace, but Margaret's public tributes paled next to the tsunami of grief over the death of Diana. Yet no one could doubt which Princess the Queen loved as she stood with her sister's children in St. George's Chapel, dabbing tears from her eyes.

Two years later, in 2004, the British government unsealed doc.u.ments from the National Archives revealing the "crisis" plans from 1955 in case Margaret had decided to marry Group Captain Peter Townsend, the King's equerry and a divorced war hero. The doc.u.ments contained several drafts of a letter to be sent by the Princess to the Queen, asking permission to marry the Royal Air Force hero of World War II and renouncing any claim to the throne. At the time, Margaret was third in the line of succession, after Prince Charles and Princess Anne. But Margaret never sent the letter to her sister. Instead, "conscious of my duty," she renounced Townsend, the great love of her life. He immediately resigned from the RAF, left England, eventually remarried, and lived the rest of his life in France. Shortly before he died of cancer in 1995 at the age of eighty, he flew to London to say good-bye to Margaret. By then, having been forced to forsake marrying a divorced man, she herself was divorced after a tumultuous marriage of seventeen years.

The Princess had wed Anthony Armstrong-Jones in 1960 after the Queen had bestowed upon him the t.i.tle of Lord Snowdon. It was inconceivable then that a royal would marry a commoner and-worse yet-that the daughter of a king and the sister of a queen might give birth to children without t.i.tles. Snowdon became an internationally acclaimed photographer but with an eye not always focused on his camera. After many meanderings, his marriage to Margaret ended in divorce in 1978; he remarried shortly thereafter, then divorced a few years later, and remarried again. Sadly, his wandering eye led him to many women in and out of his marriages, and the suicide of a longtime mistress plus the birth of an illegitimate child by another mistress tarred him with notoriety at the end of his life. In 2008, the Daily Mail Daily Mail headlined him as "the Unrepentant Lothario: Lord Snowdon and His Insatiable Appet.i.te for s.e.x." headlined him as "the Unrepentant Lothario: Lord Snowdon and His Insatiable Appet.i.te for s.e.x."

Going into the millennium, the Queen had told a friend her worst fear was that her mother would die and then her sister. "And I'll be alone," she said. Her 101-year-old mother outlived her seventy-one-year-old sister by six weeks, but the desolate monarch carried on with characteristic resolve. She instructed the palace to announce that plans for her golden jubilee would proceed despite the deaths of Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother.

Amidst the good wishes Britons showered on their seventy-six-year-old queen in 2002, scandal poured from the palace like a hard rain on parched tabloids. The most sordid storm erupted over the arrest and trial of Diana's beloved butler, Paul Burrell, her supposed "rock," who was accused of stealing 342 items from her residence, including some of her nightgowns and designer dresses, which he reportedly was wearing to private parties. Police raided Burrell's house and confiscated several items, including clothes, CDs and LPs signed by Diana, photo alb.u.ms, and personal letters to the Princess from Mother Teresa and the Queen Mother.

Shortly after Diana's death, the Queen had honored Paul Burrell's twenty-one years of service to the royal family by awarding him the Royal Victorian Medal-the highest accolade a monarch can bestow upon a servant. The Queen was grateful to him for flying to Paris immediately after the crash to dress the Princess's body and apply her makeup before Prince Charles met her coffin and had it flown home. Burrell kept the clothes Diana had died in and stored them in his freezer before burning them a few weeks later.

The Spencers, also grateful at the time, asked the butler to join the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund to help with fund-raising, and he worked every day with Diana's sister, cataloguing the Princess's possessions at Kensington Palace.

During that time he made several public appearances, p.r.o.nouncing "loyalty and trust" as "the most essential qualities." He gave interviews, saying, "I don't think I'll ever get over her death. Nothing can replace that void." His public stance began to jar some members of the board, who felt he was too eager to be in the spotlight. "He would dearly love to be more of a media personality," said Andrew Purkis, the fund's chief executive. The board strenuously objected when the butler posed for pictures at Kensington Palace for a profile in Majesty Majesty magazine. At that point he resigned and months later rankled board members by signing a book contract for magazine. At that point he resigned and months later rankled board members by signing a book contract for Entertaining with Style Entertaining with Style, which Diana's family saw as rank exploitation. On August 16, 2001, police raided his house, and he was arrested on three counts of theft.

Burrell pleaded not guilty, and his trial was set to begin in the Old Bailey in January 2002, but Her Majesty's court postponed the date so as not to interfere with Her Majesty's jubilee celebration. Rescheduled for October 2002, the butler's trial unearthed more dirty Diana laundry than almost all the tell-alls combined. Prince Charles was reported as telling friends he did not want Burrell to be prosecuted because he was afraid Princes William and Harry would be dragged into the trial. The government was made aware of these objections and neither Charles nor his sons were called to appear.

For nine days Britain watched the trial coverage and its rising tide of lurid allegations, including h.o.m.os.e.xual rape among Prince Charles's staff. There were also accusations of tax fraud on the part of certain royal retainers who worked for Charles and secretly accepted gifts without declaring them. As a prosecution witness, Diana's sister, Sarah, and their mother, Frances Shand Kydd, testified against Burrell, saying he had misinterpreted Diana's reliance on him as a "rock." Mrs. Shand Kydd admitted she and Diana had not spoken for many months before the Princess died but denied it was because she had criticized her daughter's affairs with Muslim men. Diana was further incensed when her mother sold an interview to h.e.l.lo! h.e.l.lo! magazine in which she said she disapproved of her daughter's divorce. Mrs. Shand Kydd said she had accepted payment for the interview only to raise money for one of her charities. magazine in which she said she disapproved of her daughter's divorce. Mrs. Shand Kydd said she had accepted payment for the interview only to raise money for one of her charities.

Under cross-examination, Burrell's lawyer got Diana's mother to admit having shredded many of the Princess's doc.u.ments at Kensington Palace, and the lawyer said Burrell had rushed in to save them. A letter from Charles Spencer rejecting Diana's request to seek refuge at Althorp after her divorce was revealed. The butler later said Diana had wept as she read her brother's letter and sobbed when he accused her of being mentally unstable. The Earl Spencer had also demanded Diana return the family's diamond tiara, which she had borrowed for her wedding. She did return it, leaving the jeweled crown in a cardboard box to be picked up at the back door of Kensington Palace.

The butler's trial illuminated the cra.s.s self-ent.i.tlement of the British cla.s.s system when he testified that someone within the Spencer family had told him, the son of a truck driver, "Just remember where you came from." By then the Spencers, once one of England's most ill.u.s.trious families, looked like spiteful, sn.o.bbish, arrogant aristocrats, who treated commoners like cattle. The Windsors did not look much better. The trial was tarnis.h.i.+ng "the good and the great," who took curtsies as their due.

Estimated to have cost $2.5 million, the proceedings suddenly collapsed on the ninth day just as the butler was to take the stand in his own defense. Chambers quickly adjourned and the jury was dismissed minutes after Prince Charles's lawyer contacted the police to say that Her Majesty had just recalled that Burrell, her former footman, had once mentioned to her that he had taken away some of Diana's possessions for safekeeping. Hearing that it was the Queen herself-who headed the government by divine right-vouching for the butler, the trial was terminated with Burrell's acquittal. The prosecution knew there was nothing further to be discussed, no more evidence to be weighed, no arguments to be heard. The Crown had spoken and the prosecution's chance to convict was gone. In this case, the Queen not only reigned, she ruled.

The butler stood next to his solicitor on the steps of the Old Bailey, nearly in tears. "The Queen came through for me," he said, visibly shaken. His father, also vastly relieved, told the BBC: "It's been a nightmare. At one point [Paul] was talking about ending it because he couldn't cope."

The forty-four-year-old former royal retainer, unemployed for the two years he fought his case, soon found his focus and shot his spleen into the establishment. "The attempt... to destroy my reputation with my trial has led me to [write A Royal Duty A Royal Duty]," Burrell said of his tell-all book about working for the Princess of Wales.

Without naming names, he recounted Diana's many lovers [nine] including an Oscar-winning Hollywood actor, a sports legend, a leading musician, a famous politician, a novelist, a lawyer, and a billionaire businessman. He said her only real love after her divorce was the das.h.i.+ng heart surgeon Hasnat Khan, whom she had wanted to marry but who had refused because he was Muslim. The butler savaged the Spencers, referring to Diana's sister as "McCrocodile," and quoting from Charles Spencer's letter blasting the Princess for "the consternation and hurt" her "fickle friends.h.i.+p" had caused so many. "[The Spencers] said I was becoming too big for my boots," Burrell told reporters. "I was a servant. I should know my place. I should never a.s.sume to be more than that. Why do you think the Princess had such an affinity with American culture? She was planning to move to California. She was buying a property on the West Coast in Malibu, the former home of Julie Andrews."

While promoting his book in the U.S., he started up the rumor that one of Charles's servants had witnessed the Prince of Wales having s.e.x with a male aide. The British press was enjoined from publis.h.i.+ng the charges but it spread like gasoline fire across the internet.

Despite his rancor, the butler remained loyal to the Queen. "Long may she reign," he said. "While she's on the throne, England is safe." But after Elizabeth II? "I think Prince William will make a wonderful King. I don't think we'll ever see a King Charles III and Queen Camilla on the throne."

Three years later he published a second book on the Princess of Wales (The Way We Were: Remembering Diana) and appeared on the British reality show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here. Then he testified as a witness at the Diana inquest, claiming he knew "secrets" about her death but he produced none. He lost all public goodwill when he was caught on a U.S. videotape saying he had lied at the inquest. He admitted his testimony had been misleading and incomplete. "I know you shouldn't play with justice and I know it's illegal and I realize how serious it is." The coroner implied that Burrell was tilling soil for a third tell-all book on the Princess. "It was blindingly obvious that the evidence that he gave in this court was not the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth." By then Burrell had flown to the U.S. to escape testifying further.

Three years after Diana's death the Queen finally accepted the relations.h.i.+p between her son and his mistress by attending a birthday lunch at which Camilla was a guest. This public gesture by Her Majesty was heralded as a royal anointment, paving the way for the couple to announce their engagement five years later. Previously, the Queen had not allowed Charles to bring Camilla to family events like the Windsors' annual Christmas at Sandringham. At the golden jubilee celebrations, Camilla was seated behind Charles, not next to him. But by 2000 the young Princes William, then eighteen, and Harry, sixteen, had come to know Camilla as their father's greatest supporter. In fact, Charles's sons probably were more accepting of their father's mistress than were his future subjects, most of whom despised the divorced woman who smoked cigarettes and chased foxes through the English countryside.

Sensing the need to repair Camilla's image, Charles hired public-relations specialists, wardrobe stylists, makeup artists, and hairdressers; then he dispatched her with his two top aides on a trip to Manhattan, where she was received by high society's doyenne, Brooke Astor, then ninety-eight years old. Charles did not realize that Mrs. Astor was in the early stages of Alzheimer's at the time. Having lost her usual diplomatic skills, she greeted Camilla by referring to the illicit love affair between Camilla's great-grandmother Alice Keppel and Charles's great-great-grandfather Edward VII. "Your great-grandmother would have been proud keeping this mistress business in the family," said Mrs. Astor. Camilla accepted the gaffe graciously and bathed in the public acceptance of New York City's reigning hostess.

Charles had not made an official trip to the U.S. since he accompanied the Princess of Wales to the Reagan White House in 1985, when she captivated America by dancing with John Travolta. The Prince wanted the same kind of acclaim for Camilla, but her trip to the U.S. in 1999 lacked the excitement and glamour Diana had stirred.

Having brought his young sons around, Charles now spent the next several years brokering his remarriage, with the Queen, the British government, and the Church of England in order to meet the arcane demands of his role as heir apparent. Finally, the wedding day was set for April 8, 2005. Charles, then fifty-six, insisted that his fifty-seven-year-old fiancee be given royal status, but rather than be called H.R.H. the Princess of Wales, as protocol demanded, Mrs. Parker Bowles chose to be known as the d.u.c.h.ess of Cornwall, after one of Charles's lesser t.i.tles, the one that Diana had rejected during her divorce negotiations.

Since Charles and Camilla were both divorced, and neither was an "innocent party" in the dissolution, they could not marry in the Church of England. So they had a civil ceremony at Windsor Castle followed by a service of prayer and dedication performed by the Archbishop of Canterbury in St. George's Chapel. Then Charles's office announced that the d.u.c.h.ess of Cornwall would be known as the Princess Consort and upon his accession to the throne she would not not be crowned Queen. This was to pacify the hard-core Diana segment within Britain, but anyone who believed that Camilla would not be called Queen when Charles became King believed that corgis flew over the White Cliffs of Dover. be crowned Queen. This was to pacify the hard-core Diana segment within Britain, but anyone who believed that Camilla would not be called Queen when Charles became King believed that corgis flew over the White Cliffs of Dover.

Conscious of the Queen's position as head of the Church of England, the palace announced that she would not attend her son's wedding, but she would attend his prayer service. On the other hand, Charles's siblings, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward, announced they would attend their brother's wedding along with his sons, Princes William and Harry.

At the last minute the wedding was postponed by a day so Charles could fly to Rome to attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II as the Queen's representative. As King, Charles will become known as "Defender of the Faith," which currently means only the Anglican faith. He has said more than once he wants to be anointed as "Defender of all Faiths," including Roman Catholicism from which Henry VIII separated England during the sixteenth century.

Having lived his life waiting for his mother to die so that he could a.s.sume the only job allowed him by the hereditary principle, Charles tried to make himself look like a man of the people in order to stop the burgeoning movement of Republic, a nonpartisan group pus.h.i.+ng for Parliament to end the monarchy upon the death of the present queen.

"Campaigning for a democratic alternative to inherited power and privilege in Britain," Republic drew attention to the vast millions of taxpayer monies spent to support the royal family. The group also published polls showing the majority of Britons felt the Windsors should pay their own way. In 2008, the total cost to taxpayers for supporting the royal family was approximately $65 million. Republic's opinion polls showed: 80.7% believed Charles should pay the same taxes as everyone else. 80.7% believed Charles should pay the same taxes as everyone else.57.4% believed taxpayers should pay less on the royals.52.3% believed taxpayers should pay nothing on the royals.

In the face of raging recession and royal fatigue the Prince of Wales struggled to make himself appear relevant as a farmer, gardener, ecologist, cookie maker, architectural critic, and philanthropist, but each public-relations ploy seemed to backfire, making him look as fusty as mothb.a.l.l.s. The writer Christopher Hitchens dismissed him in 2010 as "the Prince of Piffle."

Stepping out of his apolitical role in 2002, Charles had protested the war in Iraq and was forced to cancel a trip to the U.S. because George W. Bush felt he might give aid and comfort to U.S. anti-war groups, which would undermine British Prime Minister Tony Blair's support for the war. The Prince officially welcomed Bush to London the following year, and months later Charles became the first member of the royal family in thirty-three years to visit Iran. En route, he also visited British troops in Iraq, on a direct order from the Queen, who was said to be furious that her Prime Minister and his cabinet had ignored the country's soldiers. Later on a visit to Pakistan, the Prince of Wales called for "greater religious harmony."

Yet it was the disharmony of religion that disrupted the carefully laid plans for his wedding, with endless press speculation about the Queen's absence or, as some inferred, her refusal to attend a ceremony outside the church, even for her son and heir. The House of Windsor, historically a bulwark against divorce, looked surprisingly modern on April 9, 2005, when Charles took Camilla to be his bride. He was the first heir to divorce and marry twice. Standing by Charles's side were his three siblings, two of whom were divorced and one remarried.

Later at the wedding reception, which the Queen hosted for eight hundred guests, she raised her gla.s.s in a toast: "They have come through and I'm very proud and wish them well. My son is home and dry with the woman he loves."

Two months later, Prince William graduated from St. Andrews in Scotland and was only the third royal in history to earn a college degree. The Queen attended his graduation, although she had missed the Cambridge graduations of her sons Charles and Edward years before.

Towering over his father at 6'3", William's tall blond good looks evoked the memory of his mother and excited the media, which had made an agreement with the palace to hold off covering the Prince until he finished university. Now that he was graduating, reporters were eager to pounce, especially seeing Kate Middleton, the pretty brunette standing by his side, who also graduated from St. Andrews and was one of his housemates.

The cla.s.s-obsessed media made much of the fact that Kate's father was "in trade," although highly successful running a mail-order business specializing in costumes for children's birthdays. Kate's mother, co-founder of the business, was invariably described as "a former airline stewardess," prompting James Whitaker, commentator on the royals, to comment: "When Mrs. Middleton met the queen she said, 'Pleased to meet you.' There's nothing intrinsically wrong in that, except it categorizes you as from a certain social background." Kate herself, characterized as "middle cla.s.s Middleton," was smart and stylish, and the public followed her courts.h.i.+p by Prince William avidly, but the young man appeared in no hurry to marry. Over the next five years Kate became known as "Waity Katie" after the rush of rumors about a royal engagement.

After graduating from St. Andrews, William joined his brother Harry at Sandhurst military academy, where both received their commissions. Harry, known as Cornet Wales, sparked outrage when he went out partying, falling in the gutter after drinking too much. At Eton a teacher had accused him of cheating, but Charles's office denied the charges, saying an Eton committee had found them unfounded. Carelessly, the spare heir visited strip clubs, experimented with drugs, groped a woman in a bar, was photographed receiving a lap dance, and brawled drunkenly with photographers. Two weeks before the Queen led Holocaust memorial ceremonies, he donned a n.a.z.i uniform for a costume party. He later apologized for his lapse of judgment.

On his twenty-first birthday the red-haired Prince, known as "Dirty Harry," announced he wanted to fight with British forces in Iraq. "There is no way I am going to put myself through Sandhurst and then sit on my a.r.s.e back home while my boys are out fighting for their country," he said. He served for ten weeks in Afghanistan and was well-praised for doing so, until stories appeared of him making frequent racist remarks. Referring to a South Asian friend as "Sooty," he called one cadet "a Paki," another "a raghead," and told a black comedian, "You don't sound like a black chap."

In an effort to rehabilitate his bad-boy image, Prince Harry had flown to Africa and started Sentebale (Lesotho for "Forget Me Not") in memory of his mother's work with orphans. Sweet pictures of him playing with parentless children rea.s.sured the British that dissolute Prince Hal might yet emerge as sublime as Shakespeare's King Henry V, the s.h.i.+ning victor of Agincourt. Soon "Sooty," "Paki," and "Raghead" were forgiven, if not forgotten.

During this time his older brother, William, was searching for work experience and took up employment in a bank in London's financial district for a while and then in the newsroom of a national newspaper. Hating desk work, he joined the Royal Air Force to get his wings and caused a national uproar when he flew a $15 million Chinook helicopter into his girlfriend's back garden during an official military exercise. Eight days later he flew another Chinook to London, picked up his brother, Harry, and headed for the Isle of Wight for a stag party. The media piled on the rambunctious royals, until the palace announced that the Princes would mark the tenth anniversary of their mother's death with a pop concert in her memory.

"After ten years there's been a rumbling of people bringing up the bad and over time people seem to forget-or have forgotten-all the amazing things she did and what an amazing person she was," said William, then twenty-four years old.

"She was a happy, fun, bubbly person who cared for so many people," said twenty-two-year-old Harry.

The two brothers made their first royal engagement overseas together when they visited Botswana, Lesotho, and South Africa in 2010 to support England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup. But as so often happens with the British royals, one step forward usually meant falling two steps backward.

Just as the monarchy marched into the second decade of the new millennium, looking forward to the royal wedding of Prince William and the diamond jubilee of Queen Elizabeth, the House of Windsor shot itself in the foot-again. This time the self-inflicted wound came from the "d.u.c.h.ess of Dough," Sarah Ferguson, the former wife of Britain's trade representative, Prince Andrew. At the age of fifty, Fergie, again millions of dollars in debt, was caught in a video sting by the News of the World News of the World for selling access to Andrew for more than $750,000 and walking off with a black bag containing a down payment of $40,000 in cash. for selling access to Andrew for more than $750,000 and walking off with a black bag containing a down payment of $40,000 in cash.

This was not the first time Her Majesty's relatives had been caught with their hands out, grasping for riches. Financial desperation seemed to be the fault line for the minor royals, including the Queen's youngest son, Edward, who had resigned from the military because he said he couldn't hack it. He then limped along, trying to find suitable work, and finally became a television producer, making films on his royal relatives that did not sell. When his crew began following Prince William for an exclusive series, the British media objected, saying Edward was trading on his royal status for access that rightfully belonged to them. For once the palace sided with the press.

Rumored to be h.o.m.os.e.xual, thirty-five-year-old Prince Edward had married Sophie Rhys-Jones in 1999, and Sophie, a commoner, became the Countess of Wess.e.x. With cachet but no cash, the bland-looking blonde said she was going to become the first senior royal to be a commercially successful business woman. She started her own public-relations firm and immediately attracted high-end accounts. Eventually the firm fell into bankruptcy after the News of the World News of the World caught her on video bragging about her royal contacts, berating British politicians, and denying her husband was h.o.m.os.e.xual. She also refused to a.s.sume the humanitarian mantle of the Princess of Wales as the public expected of her. After the video was made public, The Count and Countess of Wess.e.x immediately "retired" to their forty-seven-room mansion in Surrey to raise their two children. The Queen increased their royal allowance so they could get out of business for themselves and live on the taxpayer teat, further enraging Republicans. caught her on video bragging about her royal contacts, berating British politicians, and denying her husband was h.o.m.os.e.xual. She also refused to a.s.sume the humanitarian mantle of the Princess of Wales as the public expected of her. After the video was made public, The Count and Countess of Wess.e.x immediately "retired" to their forty-seven-room mansion in Surrey to raise their two children. The Queen increased their royal allowance so they could get out of business for themselves and live on the taxpayer teat, further enraging Republicans.

More than a decade after the stench of the royal son and daughter-in-law had been evaporated, the News of the World News of the World struck again. This time the tabloid caught the d.u.c.h.ess of York selling herself for a mess of pottage. At the time, people around the world were transfixed with horror, watching the video of BP's oil spill forty miles off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico. Interrupting round-the-clock coverage of the worst environmental disaster in history, Fergie's video on May 23, 2010, was almost comic relief. struck again. This time the tabloid caught the d.u.c.h.ess of York selling herself for a mess of pottage. At the time, people around the world were transfixed with horror, watching the video of BP's oil spill forty miles off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico. Interrupting round-the-clock coverage of the worst environmental disaster in history, Fergie's video on May 23, 2010, was almost comic relief.