After a long tailspin of scandal (hello, Squidgy; hello, Camilla), public confessions of adultery and, sometimes, more information than was strictly necessary (Di's faith in colonic irrigation comes to mind), royal watchers both amateur and professional breathed a collective sigh of relief. "Thank heavens the poisonous, protracted and very public breakup is at an end," pronounced the Sunday Express in an editorial. Not to be outdone, deadline poets at the tabloid The Sun struggled to give readers their words' worth. "At last," the paper proclaimed, "the exotic bird has flown free from her gilded Palace cage."
Staying true to the vow she made in her BBC interview last November to "fight to the end," the Princess, represented by lawyer Anthony Julius (who boasted he'd win "the divorce deal of the century," according to the Daily Express), had battles to wage on several fronts: her title, her ongoing role in the royal family and, of course, money. "They've always been [stingy] as hell, the royals," says a source close to the Palace. Diana therefore made sure Charles came up with a large lump-sum payment rather than alimony, which would have left him with ongoing leverage. Indeed, while her sister-in-law the Duchess of York had quickly accepted a $3 million settlement earlier this year from Prince Andrew, Diana scored, by comparison, a handsome windfall: $23 million up front and a $600,000 yearly allowance to pay expenses related to her office. She also got to keep her nine-room apartment in Kensington Palace. "On the surface she won a lot," says Sarah Bradford, the Queen's biographer. "She has toughed it out and put the Palace in the position of more or less having to give her what she asked."
Still, some think Di could have done better. New York City divorce lawyer Raoul Felder, who helped Robin Givens and Lisa Gastineau (the ex of former New York Jets star Mark Gastineau) collect huge settlements, thinks Di could have come away with a bigger share of Charles's estimated $75 million in assets. "She should have held out for a lot more money," he says. "She got a little too anxious." (Compared with other high-stakes divorces—Adnan and Soraya Khashoggi's, say, or even Neil and Marcia Diamond's—Diana's settlement was small change. See box, page 43.)
Perhaps more important than riches, however, is Diana's status as a royal. While the Princess is hanging on to many royal trappings—a jewelry collection estimated at at least $30 million; the ability to travel, by approval, as a representative of the royal family—she was stripped of one important perk: the right to call herself Her Royal Highness. The change—she is now to be known as Diana, Princess of Wales—is less a reflection of her split from Charles than it is a final slight at the hands of the Windsors. "It was done to punish her," says Lady Colin Campbell, author of the 1992 biography Diana in Private: The Princess Nobody Knows. "Since she has shown that she does not respect the royal family or the institution of the monarchy, they decided to demote her to nonroyal, aristocratic status."
Although such a reduction in rank, under the strict rules of royal etiquette, now requires Diana to curtsy to lesser royals like Fergie's daughters Princesses Bea and Eugenie—and even Princess Michael of Kent—such a scenario, in real life, is unlikely. "Diana wouldn't nor would she be expected to curtsy," says one Palace insider. "And anyone who tried to pull rank on her in that respect would only look silly." The Palace—aware that Diana is, after all, the mother of Prince William, the presumptive future King of the United Kingdom—did strive to avoid such embarrassments. The official divorce announcement stated that the Queen and Prince Charles would continue to "regard [Diana] as part of the Royal Family."
Diana may have brought the demotion on herself. Last February, mistakenly concluding that her in-laws would require her to divest herself of her HRH, she announced via her media adviser Jane Atkinson, that she had agreed to do so. In the weeks that followed, as negotiations with Charles stalled, Diana realized her blunder and, in an attempt to force the royal hand, leaked a story to the Daily Mail in June, claiming that the Queen believed she should be allowed to keep the title. Infuriated, Elizabeth dug in her heels. "When Diana tried to railroad it past the Queen," says a Palace observer, "she cut her own throat. Let's face it: It's the Queen who ran this divorce, not Charles."
While Charles reportedly celebrated the finalization of the split with an ebullient phone call to Parker Bowles, his longtime mistress, Diana was spotted during the weekend sobbing in her car, apparently overwhelmed by the stress of events and the hovering paparazzi. "It is the saddest of sad endings to a fairy tale," moaned the tabloid News of the World. Within days, however, Diana went from defeated to defiant. On July 15, she abruptly resigned from her positions as patron or president of all but six of the nearly 100 charities with which she had been associated. (Among the few she retained: those connected with the National AIDS Trust and the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children.) In a letter to each of the jettisoned organizations, she explained, "I feel that someone else in the royal family may now be better suited to support your tremendous endeavors." The move—which, given Diana's proclaimed desire to be "queen of people's hearts," shocked many of her supporters—was widely perceived as an act of vengeance. Says one royal watcher: "She's deeply pissed off and is basically telling the royal family to get stuffed." In fact, the step had been planned for some time, says another Palace insider: "Diana wanted to concentrate on the issues she really cared about."
With the Princess still enjoying considerable public sympathy and affection, it is crucial that the Windsors continue to make her seem part of the fold. "The biggest problem [they] could face is if Diana came to be seen as an alternative to the royal family," says Nigel Evans, editor of Majesty. "What they need is some sort of reconciliation so that she does turn up from time to time at Buckingham Palace."
In its own, often inscrutable way, the family is trying. The day before the settlement was announced, the Queen Mother, upon hearing that Diana, whom she blames for the family's tarnished image, couldn't get seats with her boys for the Royal Tournament, an annual military show, invited them to share her private box. But, her goodwill seemingly exhausted, the 95-year-old Queen Mum then snubbed Diana by leaving an empty seat between them. "They say they're going to accord her the right to be a member of the royal family, but they're not," says an observer of the Windsors. "The only reason she'll continue being with the royals is because of her sons."
Ultimately, though, the biggest beneficiary of the split—aside from William and Harry, who will finally be spared their parents' public bickering—may be Charles. "It was very clever that it was the Queen who seemed to run the divorce," says a Palace insider. "Charles is being portrayed as a Mr. Nice Guy." Already, he and Parker Bowles—a welcome friend of the Windsors—have settled into domestic tranquillity, jaunting back and forth between their country houses in Gloucestershire. "Maybe by Christmas we'll see her going to opening night and parties with him," says Brian Hoey, author of numerous books on the royals. "She'll become his constant companion." Even the Church of England, of which Charles will become head upon his ascent to the throne, is considering relaxing its rules on remarriage, raising the possibility of a second Princess of Wales. Still, don't expect to hear wedding bells for Charles again soon. "It comes down to what is acceptable to the British public," says one Palace watcher. "Queen Camilla is believed not to be."
As for Diana, her path is less certain. Time will tell if she chooses to take advantage of what she has won—a modified but still potentially potent role in the royal family—or dwell on what she has lost. Her scaling back of charitable works is most likely temporary. "Basically her thing is to go around being a star, comforting the sick and drawing the crowds," says Bradford. There's even a possibility that, years from now, Diana might retrieve the styling of HRH too. "The second that William becomes King," says a source close to the family, "he could reinstate her." A few days after the announcement, she and her boys, together with Fergie and her girls, left for a vacation in the south of France. "We'll see her do an awful lot more traveling, and she'll spend more time in the United States," says Hoey. "The Americans perhaps see her as a successor to Jacqueline Onassis." Perhaps the Princess—whose previous affairs have all ended abysmally—may one day find her own Ari. "I hope she ends up getting a fabulous American billionaire who will love her madly," says Lady Colin Campbell.
As for the royal family, the task now at hand is to rehabilitate its soiled image (first step: the settlement forbids Di from penning a tell-all book). Not that anyone should expect big changes soon. "They've gone from being this revered institution to a royal version of [Dynasty's] the Colbys," says Campbell. "You don't lose the regard of not only a nation but of an international community and regain it overnight."
JANICE MIN
LYDIA DENWORTH, MARGARET WRIGHT and JOANNA BLONSKA in London and SABRINA McFARLAND in New York City
- Contributors:
- Lydia Denworth,
- Margaret Wright,
- Joanna Blonska,
- Sabrina McFarland.
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