She's still the mother of a future King, still the foreseeable meal ticket of the British paparazzi. But beyond that, Diana's future is as hard to discern as Queen Boadicea's statue in a foggy dawn on the Thames. After all, there is no established protocol for accommodating adulterous, formerly bulimic, mediagenic ex-wives of heirs to the throne. For the first time in her adult life, Diana has a chance to be mistress of her own fate. She'll have plenty of money (she's wealthy in her own right, even without a settlement from Charles), and, at 34, she's in her prime. How will she use her freedom?

Cautiously, especially in matters of the heart. Over the next few years, Diana will undoubtedly be linked—accurately or inaccurately—with many men. Her most recently reported beau was Dr. Hasnat Khan, a dashing 35-year-old London cardiologist who allegedly wooed her by letting her watch open-heart surgery. At the same time, she was said to have been enamored of London property developer Christopher Whalley, 40, whom she reportedly spirited into her Kensington Palace apartments in the middle of the night.

Diana is a world-class flirt, but so far she has admitted to only one affair, in the late '80s with Capt. James Hewitt, an ex-Guardsman. The romance had already cooled when his 1994 kiss-and-tell-all book, Princess in Love, shattered what remained of their relationship. In her own tell-all BBC interview last November, Diana said she was "devastated" by Hewitt's betrayal. Presumably, Diana is not only older but somewhat wiser and will choose her men as much for their discretion as for their charm. No mediaphobes need apply. "Any gentleman that's been past my door, we've instantly been put together in the media, and all hell's broken loose," Diana told the BBC's Martin Bashir.

Most royal watchers think Diana will be wary. She doesn't need the lifestyle lift a rich husband can provide, and she won't want to risk losing public sympathy by hooking up with the wrong guy. Remarriage, says Brian Hoey, author of a dozen books on the royal family, "would certainly diminish her role, just as with Jackie Kennedy when she married Onassis." Diana is unlikely to marry anyone living abroad because she won't want to be too far from her children, and any British husband, Hoey points out, "would inevitably have a lower social status than Charles." Diana herself has said that work, not a husband, is her best chance for emotional fulfillment at the moment.

But don't look for her in the secretarial pool. Diana has repeatedly said she's eager to continue her charitable duties, especially with the homeless and AIDS sufferers. After a divorce, her status as a former member of the Firm (as the royal family calls itself) means she won't have to waste time at ceremonial appearances and can use her fame to publicize only those causes that matter most to her.

In the future, Diana's effectiveness will depend to a great extent on how well she tends her image. She "wants to be seen as a cross between Mother Teresa and Margaret Thatcher, a great stateswoman with a heart," says Hoey. "But she has no chance of being appointed an official ambassador."

Diana has, in fact, made some serious missteps when she has ventured solo into international territory. She is seen as something of a loose cannon, arranging trips abroad without always coordinating with the Foreign Office. The week before her Feb. 28 divorce statement, she spent two days in Pakistan at the invitation of cricket star Imran Khan and his wife, British heiress Jemima Goldsmith. The trip was far from a complete success because it angered Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who doesn't approve of the politically ambitious Khan.

Diana will do better sticking to non-controversial causes at home, like her efforts for the British Red Cross, children's hospitals and AIDS charities. Working with sick and needy people in Britain will also help overcome the growing impression in her own country that she—and Charles—are turning into self-indulgent whiners. If she continues sniping at her in-laws—and labeling her husband's allies "the enemy"—Diana is "only going to destroy herself," says Lady Colin Campbell, author of the 1992 biography Diana in Private, the Princess Nobody Knows. "More and more people feel that she is now anything but the injured party; that, indeed, she is the injuring party."

Her trickiest role could be as mother to the heir and the spare. Even if she and Charles were happily married, she would have to face the inevitable watershed that arrives for every parent. The boys are growing up and, necessarily, becoming more independent. "They are going to become more distanced from their mother," says Hoey. "Children do anyway when they are 13 or 14 years old.... William will gradually be drawn further and further under the aegis of the royal family—the Queen in particular, his father in general—and away from his mother."

In Diana's case, the empty nest will be a luxurious nine-room suite in Kensington Palace. But those quarters have become increasingly lonely. Over the last few years, Diana has grown estranged from her own family—her sisters Jane and Sarah and her brother Charles—largely because of her active antagonism to the royals. "They are not now considered to be part of her decision-making inner circle," says Hoey. "None of her family is regarded as important in her life." In January, Patrick Jephson, her longtime private secretary, quit, and her chauffeur left too. At the time of Di's divorce statement, she was represented by a PR firm.

This winter her closest confidante has been therapist Susie Orbach, 49, author of Fat Is a Feminist Issue and a specialist in eating disorders. As negotiations over the divorce intensified during January and February, Diana spent more and more time at Orbach's North London home, bursting into tears after emerging from one session.

Diana is also still close to Fergie, although that relationship is complex. "They like to use each other as sounding boards to chat over their respective woes," says Lady Colin. "They are privileged beyond compare, yet both like to bemoan their lot—quite missing the point that they've completely screwed up their lives." Hoey even believes that Diana's trust in Fergie may be misplaced. The Duchess of York, he says, "is now seeking to come back into the royal family and indeed is egging Diana on to more and more indiscretions so that she [Fergie] can appear good by comparison." (Other observers say the reverse is true.)

Despite her unique celebrity, her wealth and her privilege, Diana's biggest struggle in the next few years will be the same as that of other newly single women. She needs to get over the past. In her BBC interview, Diana indicated she was ready to move forward. "I sit here with hope," she said, "because there's a future ahead."