Diana Spencer was born on July 1, 1961, to Frances and Edward John. Diana was not born a princess. She didn't even become "Lady Diana" until she was 13 years old, when her grandfather died and her father became Earl Spencer (Graham p.3). The Spencers are one of the oldest and richest families in Great Britain, and their family had lived on the same estates at Althorp in Northamptonshire for 500 years (Graham p.3). Diana had two older sisters, Sarah and Jane, and a younger brother, Charles. They all grew spent most of their childhood at Park House in Norfolk (Marcello p.2). The Spencers divorced when Diana was only seven years old; a terrible shadow was cast over her life (Morton p.11). Her

Separated from Prince Charles, Diana perhaps hoped for a more normal life. The public's interest in her was great as ever, and journalists still would not leave her alone. Some of Prince Charles's friends blamed Diana for the separation and hinted publicly that she was mentally ill (Graham p.31). To fight back, Diana helped journalist Andrew Morton write a book, Diana, Her True Story, to tell her side of the events. Overnight the book became a best seller.

After Diana separated from Prince Charles, there were fewer royal duties for her to perform. This gave Diana the chance, which she had long wanted, to do more charity work. Through hard debate Diana narrowed her attention to six charities in which she was the patron (Wood p.32). Diana's presence always had a wonderful effect on children. One mother recalled, "During the time she spent with us, it was clear that to her nothing else in the world mattered. Her warmth helped us to smile again" (Giff p.33).

Charles and Diana were married on July 29, 1981. Huge crowds gathered in London along the procession route between Buckingham Palace and St. Paul's Cathedral, hoping for a glimpse of the royal couple (Morton p.20). 50 million people all over the world gathered in front of their television sets to watch the live broadcast (Graham p.12). The Archbishop of Canterbury, in his sermon, described the wedding as "the stuff of which fairy tales are made" (Wood p.12). In private, though, Diana was in distress. After the engagement, she had moved into Buckingham Palace to learn "how" to become a princess (Robertson p.10). Life seemed strange, no more going out with friends and having fun. She was regularly sick with an illness called bulimia nervosa and a lot of weight (Morton p.23).

Diana was so popular with the public that more and more organizations asked her for help. Over the years, she agreed to be patron or president of nearly a hundred charities (Giff p.30). Children's charities were especially close to Diana's heart. By 1996, she had attended 110 events as well as making many private visits to see the charity's work for herself.

The rumors of the breakdown of the marriage to Prince Charles began in the early 1990s. The couple seemed to spend less and less time together. Prince Charles was said to have renewed his friendship with a former girlfriend, Camilla Parker-Bowles, while Diana's name was linked with various men (Wood p.24). Most of the newspaper reports were based on guesswork and were often untrue. Even though it was obvious that relations between the prince and princess were bad, and this was harming the popularity of the rest of the royal family. For Diana, who remembered the pain of her own parents' divorce, it was a personal disaster (Morton p.37). She agreed to accept a formal separation from the Prince in December 1992.

All of this attention became too much for Diana; she did everything in her power to ward them off from her already publicized life. When that did not work, she tried to shake them off, slipping out of back doors, hiding her faces behind bags, and driving off at high speed (Morton p.35). The only time Diana did not fight the press was when they would help publicize her charities.

On Sunday, August 31, people awoke to incredible news. Diana, Dodi, and their driver had been killed in a terrible car crash in Paris. She had spent a last evening with Dodi before preparing to fly back to be with her sons. After leaving a restaurant, they were pursued at high speed by a group of photographer on motorcycles (Sancton p.6). As they approached a tunnel the driver lost control and the car hit a

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Approximate Word count = 2450
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)