Chapter 35 Three, the princess in the mirror

Diana had her own group of close friends and her own network of relationships.They have been strong supporters in her standoffs with Charles and the royal family.Powerless they may be, but they use the ever-sensitive news media to woo popular opinion.They would call newspaper reporters, or reveal Diana's pain, or Charles' tryst with Camilla. In June 1991, Prince William was hit on the head with a tennis racket, causing a skull compression fracture and being forced to undergo surgery.After Charles came to visit in a hurry, he confirmed that he was fine and participated in the benefit performance of the opera as planned.

During an interview with reporters, Diana told reporters how she guarded William in a chair in the hospital, while the "hard-hearted" father --- Charles was having fun in the downtown area.The next day's newspaper published the entire content of the interview with Diana under the headline "What kind of father are you?" If you think about the choices Charles made between his royal duties and his father, Charles really can't be blamed too much.William is not on the verge of life and death, and Charles is not "having fun", he loves his children in his own way.Diana's guidance of media public opinion is undoubtedly unfair to Charles.

A member of the royal family said: "The continuous appearance of articles maliciously attacking Prince Charles in newspapers has seriously damaged his body and mind. Charles is a person who values ​​his family and his own life very much, and cares about his own life very much. The image of the family in the public mind. Compared with Diana, it is not necessarily how indulgent his behavior is. But Diana is good at using the media to improve her personal public image, which is probably beyond Charles’s reach, even if Even if it takes several years to study, it is definitely not Diana's opponent. The problem is that he believes that 'family ugliness should not be exposed', and he has always thought so since he was a child. The abducted Diana, wishing to reveal all the affairs of the family, wishing that the whole world would pay attention to her beauty and her misfortune. It drove Charles mad with rage."

This is naturally defending Charles from the standpoint of the royal family, but it cannot be denied that Charles and Diana have very different attitudes towards the media. A journalist who specializes in interviewing the royal family also admitted: "Princess Diana's appearance on the scene provided us with a valuable opportunity to obtain first-hand information about the royal family. Confiding the truth to the media, she is the first member of the royal family. " "During the interview, none of Charles' friends had any dissatisfaction with Charles. They all believed that Charles' behavior was justifiable. In this way, we felt more sympathetic to what happened to Diana. Her friends and supporters told us a lot. About Diana's painful experience, I wish I could say everything in my stomach. One side was noisy, noisy, and extremely active, as if there were endless words to say. While the other side was cold and silent, You can’t get any comments about Charles and the marriage from Charles’s friends. His friends have sworn to each other and are so tight-lipped about the prince’s personal life, so no one is willing to come out and express their opinions.”

Diana knew too well the role of the media. She herself was portrayed as a fairy tale princess through the power of the media. In order to maintain the image of fairy tale Cinderella, she once made great efforts.When the fairy tale was no longer and her marriage was in trouble, she began to use the media to reverse the case for herself.Her good friend Caroline thinks it's hard not to defend herself when the world is watching her marriage.Diana, who was in a weak position in her marriage, did make good use of the media's interest in her and the royal family. Diana's opponents attacked her and said: "In addition to knowing the value of the news media, Diana also knows how to seize every possible opportunity to appear in the newspapers. If there is a chance to be on the front page of the newspaper, even if only 1 She will also give 100% effort. In this regard, she not only knows what must be grasped, but also knows how to grasp it to achieve the expected goal. If she learns that a children's hospital is about to be published in a newspaper She will not hesitate to cancel the pre-arranged appointment, and then quickly rush to the interview scene, enter the cameras of the reporters, and deliver a speech in a grand manner in order to monopolize the core position of the news report. She has long She has learned this trick, but she is more proficient in on-site operations than before. When her marriage was in crisis, she intensified her pursuit of front-page news to ensure her status in the public's mind. Consolidation. She has a clear purpose: Once her marriage falls apart, the public will see her as the real victim of this tragedy."

Photos of Princess Diana with her children, with her son at Alton Towers and Soyin Park, are some of the best examples of her collaboration with the media.She's good at stealing the spotlight.When the camera's lens is facing her, she knows where to stand without the photographer pointing her out. Her eyes have always known how to flicker with the photographer's lens and how to compete for the best shot.As for Charles, you hardly see pictures of him with his sons because he takes them out on field trips.He spends a lot of time fishing, biking or out walking with his son, so there is no chance for photographers to capture them together.He inherently dislikes pushing his own children into photographers' shots because he wants to shelter his two sons from frequent public exposure.Not only that, but he also hates the child's mother taking his son to be photographed at every turn.Because doing so would make him worry about his son.

The successive exposure of Diana and Charles' respective phone scandals can also be said to be the result of the two using the media to fight. On December 7, 1989, the infamous "Camilla's Gate" phone call was recorded on tape. Diana once wanted to use this as an excuse to coerce her husband to sever relations with Camilla.But Charles ignored it, and laughed at her for not dreaming.In retaliation, Charles, along with his advisers, orchestrated and recorded Diana's phone call with Gilbert.Two years later, their erotic phone calls were made public successively, which directly caused the decline of the royal family's reputation, and the fairy tale marriage could no longer be maintained.In this fight, it can be said that both losers.No one will benefit more.

With the publication of Andrew Morton's Diana—Her True Story, Diana once again used the media to gain widespread sympathy. On June 29, 1994, Charles admitted to his adultery with Camilla in a televised film that he had indeed been "unfaithful" to Diana when his marriage "irretrievably broke down".Charles was unusually determined to tell his subjects that although Camilla was the culprit in the public eye for breaking up their marriage, she was his "source of life", that Camilla was his "best friend", that "she had been a longtime Friends for many years, and will continue to be friends for many years."Charles's confession won him the understanding of quite a few people.

This was also a fatal blow for Diana.In front of the media, all face is torn, what else can be redeemed? The media won't stop there.Under the temptation of money, on October 3, 1994, James Hewitt betrayed his story with Diana. The book "The Concubine in Love" was released, revealing the five-year relationship between Diana and Hewitt. On November 20, 1995, Diana was interviewed by Martin Bashir, a reporter from the BBC's current affairs program "Wide Angle Mirror", explaining the grievances and grievances of the royal marriage for more than ten years, admitting that she had suffered from hunger and tried to hurt herself. He had committed adultery with Hewitt and had been unfaithful to her husband.In front of 20 million viewers around the world, she expressed her desire not to get divorced and to control her own destiny.Her frankness and betrayal of the royal family have won the sympathy and understanding of the British people.However, the media derogated her more than praised her, thinking it was unwise and selfish.But the responsibility really cannot be borne by Diana alone.It was Charles who had an extramarital affair first, and it was Charles who first went on TV to analyze his feelings to the public.Diana learned all this from her husband, and performed it even better.

In the media battle, the marriage of the two has come to an end. The role of the media goes far beyond that.Clever Diana used the media to do something more important to her --- to pave the way for her philanthropy and find a true self.Wherever she went, media reporters would follow her, and she deftly turned the spotlight on those helpless children and desperate landmine victims.People who loved Diana and were interested in Diana naturally saw the tragic scenes, saw their beloved princess working in charity, and saw the princess giving a speech on TV to promote how to care for and treat AIDS correctly patient.The result is that charity work has received more attention. With Diana as the patron of a charity organization, the donations received by the organization will skyrocket, and the charity gala attended by Diana will also be full of seats, and the amount of donations is also considerable. .The Diana effect not only brought a huge buyer's market for magazines, but also found enthusiastic people for charity.

Diana's relationship with the media is hard to describe.The media is not only her stage, but also her altar.