Chapter 33 1. The media nightmare

As a member of the British royal family, Diana, with her eye-catching beauty and high-society communication skills, is almost destined to always be the focus of the media.She has been frantically followed by the media since her relationship with Prince Charles.Her younger brother Earl Spencer pointed out in his funeral speech: "A girl whose parents named her the ancient goddess of the hunt turned out to be the most besieged person in modern society." Diana's brilliance and pain since marrying into the royal family are inseparable from the spotlight of the media and newspapers and magazines.The publicity of the media made Princess Diana famous all over the world, and Diana in turn used the media to announce the painful side of her court life.Because of the crazy media reports, Diana and Charles' marriage could not withstand the impact of the scandal.But with the media's enthusiastic reports, Diana's charity work will get twice the result with half the effort.In the end, she also died after crashing into a pillar of the Parisian driveway during the "Paparazzi" chase.

Fanghun has passed away, leaving behind endless thoughts. For Diana, the media is a stage, an altar, and an omnipresent distorting mirror.All good things and things that can be called good are infinitely enlarged and beautiful; all ugly or not-so-clean things are also infinitely enlarged and ugly by the media. In the vortex of the media, Diana faltered and stumbled.Although she tried to use the media to help her out, she was eventually chased by the media until the accident happened. In 1980, since Diana was discovered by reporters with Charles, her free personal life came to an end.A group of reporters waited outside her apartment day and night; another group of reporters entangled in the kindergarten where Diana worked.Once, she reluctantly agreed to take pictures, on the condition that the photographer would not harass her again in the future. (Of course, this is impossible to achieve.)

Unfortunately, Diana's long, slender legs were clearly visible through the thin cotton dress on the afternoon of the photoshoot, when the sun shone behind her.Charles wasn't too happy about it, saying: "I know you have a beautiful calf, but do you have to let everyone see it?" Diana discovered the great price of being in love with the crown prince --- she had been exposed to the media's stalking. Someone called her before dawn and asked her to talk about the newspaper reports.But she didn't dare to unplug the public phone, for fear that her friends wouldn't be able to call in at night.

Whenever she went out in her distinctive red car, journalists flocked to follow her.Diana never lost her composure and was well-mannered, but she was noncommittal when they endlessly pressed her about her feelings for the crown prince.Her beauty, purity, and dignified manner soon won the hearts of the public.Everyone regards her as the ideal candidate for the crown princess. But under all kinds of pressure from the media, Diana couldn't accept her love, so she hid in her room and wept.Buckingham Palace can't help her, Prince Charles seems more concerned about Camilla Parker Bowles.

On November 16, 1980, the news on the front page of the "Sunday Mirror" revealed that 10 days ago, Charles and Diana secretly boarded the royal train. Been in the car for hours. The hint couldn't be more obvious.It is unacceptable that the pure and flawless Diana, who was expected by everyone, actually went secretly with the prince under the cover of twilight. Diana was deeply embarrassed, and really didn't know how to face this inexplicable scandal.The Windsor royal family responded very quickly. The Queen's press secretary wrote to the editor-in-chief of the "Sunday Mirror", Bob Edward, sternly protesting that the report was "a complete lie" and demanding that a written apology be published in a prominent position in the newspaper as soon as possible.Bob Edward has repeatedly reviewed the news and declared that it is by no means a fiction.

Diana herself insisted that she spent the whole night with her three roommates, Anne, Caroline and Virginia. She had dinner, watched TV, and went to bed early; the night before she attended Princess Margaret's At the party, she was still tired, she didn't want to go anywhere, and she didn't really leave the apartment. Diana's roommates swore every word was true. In the end, this scandal or farce was reduced to a minor one.The truth at that time was not clear, and it was later discovered that it was not Diana who boarded the prince's train in the dark, but Camilla.Diana didn't know it, she was just tired and miserable of the media making out of nothing.She also didn't realize that the media has been paying close attention to her every move, and any clues will be doubled and magnified by the spotlight in front of the public.

It all started from the moment she became Charles' fiancée. Her mother, Frances Shand Kidd, stepped in to help her young daughter. In early December 1980 she wrote to The Times, accusing them of lying about Diana and her distress. Her letter prompted 60 MPs to draft a bill "regretting the way the news media has treated Lady Diana Spencer" and led to a meeting of editors and the Press Council.Nevertheless, the siege of Colherne Street continued. Surrounded by the press, Diana and her roommates played a game of hunt. Once, when Diana was meeting Charles in the Broadlands, she tore sheets into strips, tied them into ropes, and lowered her suitcase through the kitchen window to escape the attention of the reporters waiting outside.On another occasion, she had to climb onto a dumpster and escape through a store exit.Another time she and Caroline ditched her car and hopped on a red double-decker bus to avoid a few photojournalists.When the bus was held up in heavy traffic, they hopped off and walked past the nearby shoe store Russell and Bramley. "It was funny," Caroline said. "It was like a police dog chase in central London."

In order to date Charles, Diana and Caroline also played a little trick with reporters: First, Caroline drove Diana's car away from the journalists, and then Diana came out of the apartment and slipped away from the other direction. Even Diana's grandmother joined in helping Diana evade stalking. After Christmas in 1980, Diana went to Sandringham for New Years, where she parked her striking Metro outside Kensington Palace, while her grandmother's silver Volkswagen Golf A brand car is waiting there too.She left quietly in her grandmother's car, which really fooled the reporter once.

Escaping is not a long-term solution. After a long time, no one will find this kind of game fun.On most occasions, Charles and Diana are still smiling and facing the camera in public, answering questions from reporters in a friendly manner. The wedding of the century on July 29, 1981 can be said to be the perfect cooperation between the media and the newlyweds.The kiss on the terrace, which everyone can recall endlessly, is exactly the "fairy tale" they want to show to the world.Who doesn't like to look at beautiful things, people are not satisfied with these things, and when their selfish desires are not satisfied.

Returning from her honeymoon, Diana finds herself still surrounded by the media.The press had her eyes on her, and public appearances were a serious test for her.She found that in the eyes of the media and the public, she had become another infinitely enlarged Princess of Wales.The former high school dropout went through a process of being sanctified by the press and the public.Her ordinaryness is celebrated, and mundane things like opening the door herself or buying a bag of sweets are taken as proof that she is a deeply humane dauphine.Everyone was infected, even the royal guests at Balmoral that autumn.Diana was deeply confused.

On the other hand, everyone, including newspaper editors, was caught off guard by the "Princess Diana phenomenon".Their readers were never satisfied with the news coverage of Diana, her picture was on the cover of every magazine; every aspect of her life was discussed; everyone who ever knew her was sought out, Be interviewed by a news media that never stops digging up secrets. Diana's shy nature was not overcome, she was used to wearing wide-brimmed dresses, and often stared at her feet.If she had to go to a crowd, she would go to the children in the crowd.She is slowly getting used to being a public figure.Charles found to his chagrin that people were apparently more interested in his wife. He wasn't being vain, but he found that if he spoke when they were both at the same rally, his speech would be completely ignored by Diana-obsessed newspapers and TV stations. Diana fumbled for her new role in a panic.When she was in school, she would not take the initiative to answer the teacher's questions, would not take the initiative to read the text, and would only play small roles without lines.She tries to avoid the attention of others.But today, all the cameras are on her, and the fast-talking and responsive reporters are capturing her every word and deed, digging out news materials.She was trembling, like walking on thin ice, carefully trying how to speak, how to handle things, how to remember other people's names.She herself said that it took her 6 years to get used to it. Fortunately, the camera seems to be destined for the royal cover girl --- no matter how nervous she is, her kind smile, generous, simple and natural expression always satisfy the photographers. In February 1982, the Welsh couple vacationed in the Bahamas.Unfortunately, two newspapers learned of the destination of their travels and followed them all the way to Windermere.Reporters captured photos of Diana, who was five months pregnant, lying on the beach in a bikini.Charles was furious, and the Queen was also very angry, calling it "the darkest day in the history of British journalism".Perhaps the occurrence of this incident marks the extent to which the media digs into the privacy of the royal family. Diana had just been hailed by the media as a fairy tale princess, a holy angel, and immediately discovered that the media has the ability to turn clouds and rain.Following the pregnancy photo incident, in November 1982 she found the media taunting her mercilessly. In the 18 months since she married Charles, some of his staff have resigned.Some of them felt that the Crown Prince was married and had fulfilled his duties, while others hoped to find a better paying job.However, the strength of the news media does not seem to lie in finding out the truth, but in presenting anecdotes and forming selling points.The propaganda of the news media has gone to the other extreme.In those people's writings, she is no longer a pure and lovely princess in fairy tales, but a royal shopaholic who squanders money recklessly.All of a sudden, the accusations were endless: in the past year and a half, some of the Prince's staff were fired one after another because of her; Charles alienated some of his friends because of her pressure; she also wanted to change his eating habits, Meddling with his attire and so on.Even the Queen's press secretary is talking about the couple's "quarrelsome" relationship. At that time, Diana was suffering from severe postpartum depression, and she was deeply dissatisfied with the "vicious royal woman" and "roaring mice" that the media added to her.But there was nothing she could do, and her vigorous defense did not stop people from throwing dirty water on her head. Of course, most of the time, the media is still frantically chasing her. Diana's intelligence and beauty coupled with the fuel of the media made her more dazzling like a star.More and more people admired her and followed her, which made Prince Charles even more jealous.Charles had always been the center of attention, but now it was Diana who was pulling the spotlight, and he began to feel insignificant, even hurt.He starts avoiding Diana.As their marriage deteriorated, their marital crisis became not only the subject of tabloid hype, but also a hot topic in magazines, radio stations, television stations and foreign media. The sensitive media paid attention to the princess, and some even monitored her every move 24 hours a day.The photojournalists were fully armed, with radios and mobile phones to inform each other.But the princess did not act cautiously because of this. An incident in November 1987 fully illustrated Diana's troubles between her private life and media tracking.At that time, she often attended dinners with David Waterhouse.After a banquet, the two were fighting, and David pretended to hit the princess with a car, and the princess laughed at him as crazy. This scene was seen by a reporter and was filmed. When Diana and the bodyguard found out, they immediately stepped forward and asked him to hand over the negatives.When the reporter refused, Diana pleaded: "Please give me the negative, you don't know how much it will hurt me." Diana immediately cried: "Please give me the negatives. I work so hard every week. I rarely have a chance to relax. My friends are running out. You will only make things worse!" These shocking confessions were clearly Diana speaking from the bottom of her heart.She went on: "Almost all my friends left me, you don't understand the feeling, you don't know how I got through it, I have to get these negatives back." Wang Hao's confession moved the reporter and handed over the negatives to the bodyguard. It's just a fluke from being exposed, and most of the time it's still a media hype.Whenever she was with a single man, she was noticed and featured in newspaper headlines. Philip Dean, David Waterhouse, and later Colonels James Gilbey and James Hewitt, later realized that meeting the Princess had cost them dearly. 1992 was an eventful year for the royal family. The Duke and Duchess of York separated and Princess Anne divorced.On 7 June of that year, the first summary of Andrew Morton's "Diana - Her True Story" appeared in the Sunday Times. Morton says in the book's first chapter: "While our interviews progressed, behind the highly whitewashed image, another unique new image of Diana emerged before us. In fact, the smile in public In the background, Diana has always been a lonely and unhappy young woman who endured a loveless marriage, was regarded as an outsider by the Queen and the entire royal family, and was often at odds with the rules and regulations of the ubiquitous royal system. Onnaph Tho Flo, who nursed the Duke of Windsor and regularly visited Diana for acupuncture and meditation treatments, said: 'She was a prisoner of the royal system, exactly like any woman imprisoned in Holloway Prison. '" Regarding his interview, Andrew Morton quoted a friend of Diana to explain why they cooperated with the interview: "For 10 years, we have been sitting on the sidelines and watching Diana be destroyed. Seeing her, even though nothing happened, we felt certain something was going to happen. Watching a beautiful candle slowly go out in a royal system and a marriage without substance." People were very surprised by the content of this book. What they believed in the Cinderella fairy tale turned out to be a marriage tragedy soaked in tears. What's worse, they couldn't refute the book as a general hearsay about the royal family. The fact is that this book was written by Princess Diana's friend who inspired and encouraged her, and she herself provided the author with a lot of information, as well as some photos. In addition, friends of the princess also provided many materials to Morton.Charles was an unfaithful husband whose viciousness and indifference drove his wife to a suicidal depression.The princess deliberately asked her friends to reveal the secret. Diana took advantage of the power of the media to put the fact of the long-standing feud between the couple on the best-seller shelves of bookstores and under the eyes of the public.This is revenge, a catharsis of her 10 years of lonely and depressing life, and it is also a means for her to break away from the royal family and get rid of her unhappy marriage. Before Morton's book was published, the prince was adamant the marriage could go on. In 1992 he talked about his hope that the princess might gradually become his friend.In any case, for the sake of their children and the British royal family, they can live apart under the same roof, and then perform public duties together.He didn't admit the truth until the Queen's private secretary (the princess' brother-in-law) confirmed that he was wrong. Then in August, Diana and Gilbey's phone recordings surfaced. Diana complained about the distress of court life on the phone, talking and laughing with Gilbey, and they were very affectionate.Their marriage was once again in the media's headlines. In December 1992, the crown prince and his wife officially took office.The conclusion of this separation agreement is not unrelated to the media's flag-waving, creating a storm that is about to come.