Grace Kelly Warned Princess Diana About the Horrors of Royal Life
When Princess Diana married Prince Charles in 1981, she was a naive 19-year-old who had no idea what life in the royal fold would mean. Though she did not know Prince Charles well, she hoped that their relationship would blossom into a loving partnership full of admiration and respect. Unfortunately, that would not be the case.
Instead, the princess would find herself in a “loveless marriage” with a man in love with someone else. Isolated from her own family, she would be labeled as “a problem” by the British royal family. Instead, she focused her attention on her young sons, Prince Harry and Prince William, and her charity work.
Eventually, Princess Diana was able to escape. She and Prince Charles separated in 1992 before eventually divorcing in 1996. However, before all of this happened there was one royal who warned Princess Diana about what was coming.
Princess Diana and Grace Kelly had very similar lives
Like Princess Diana, late actress Grace Kelly married into a royal family, leaving behind everything she ever knew. In 1956, the Hollywood actress left her career and married Prince Rainier III of Monaco.
The pair were happily married and had three children, Princess Caroline, Princess Stephanie, and Prince Albert before the princess’ untimely death in a 1982 car crash, just a year after Princess Diana married into the Brtish royal family
The younger princess attended the funeral. Shockingly she would meet the same fate 15 years later.
Princess Diana hated royal life
Though Princess Diana was eager to fit in with the British royals, she quickly began to hate her new life. Due to her deep unhappiness in the early years of marriage, the princess suffered from bulimia nervosa, a binge and purge disorder. She also self-harmed on several occasions, including throwing herself down a flight of stairs when she was pregnant with Prince William.
“She acknowledged that she was now seen by the rest of the royal family as ‘a problem,’” royal biographer Andrew Morton wrote in Diana: Her True Story – In Her Own Words.
In fact, Princess Diana became so suspicious of the royal family that she was convinced there were spies in Kensington Palace. She explained the moment she realized her marriage to Prince Charles was over, noting how confined she felt.
“She remembers the occasion well, driving out of the claustrophobia of Kensington Palace with its spy cameras, watchful courtiers and prison walls to her favourite stretch of beach on the Dorset coast,” Morton explained.
Grace Kelly warned Princess Diana about the horrors of being a royal
Grace Kelly wanted Princess Diana about what was to come in 1981, during her very first royal engagement as Prince Charles’ fiance. The ladies attended a musical recital at Goldsmiths’ Hall on March 3, 1981, Princess Diana had on a tight dress that she felt was far too small.
“I remember meeting Princess Grace and how wonderful and serene she was -‒ but there was troubled water under her, I saw that, ” the late princess recalled in Diana: Her True Story ‒ In Her Own Words. Later, the Princess of Monaco pulled the 19-year-old into the bathroom for a quick chat. Princess Diana opened p about feeling isolated and her fears for the future.
“Don’t worry dear, it’ll only get worse,” the Princess of Monaco explained to Princess Diana while patting her cheek.
