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Diana Frances Spencer was born the youngest daughter of Edward Spencer, Viscount Althorp, and his first wife, Frances Spencer, Viscountess Althorp (formerly the Honourable Frances Burke Roche) at Park House on the Sandringham estate. She was baptised at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham, by Rt. Rev. Percy Herbert (rector of the church and former Bishop of Norwich and Blackburn); her godparents included John Floyd (the chairman of Christie's) and Mary Colman (a niece of the Queen Mother).
Diana came from a royal and aristocratic background. On her mother's side, Diana was partially American in ancestry. Her great-grandmother was the American heiress Frances Work. On her father's side, Diana was also a direct descendant of King Charles II through two illegitimate sons and King James II through an illegitimate daughter. And, according to her biographer Lady Colin Campbell, Diana's great-great-great-grandmother Eliza Kewark (some sources spell the surname Kevork or Kevorkian) was a native of Bombay, India and likely of Indian descent, though family lore identifies Kevork/Kewark as of Armenian ancestry.
During her parents' acrimonious divorce over Lady Althorp's adultery with wallpaper heir Peter Shand Kydd, Diana's mother sued for custody of her children, but Lord Althorp's rank, aided by Lady Althorp's mother's testimony against her daughter during the trial, meant that custody of Diana and her brother was awarded to their father. On the death of her paternal grandfather, Albert Spencer, 7th Earl Spencer, in 1975, Diana's father became the 8th Earl Spencer, and she acquired the title of Lady Diana Spencer and moved from her childhood home at Park House to her family's sixteenth-century ancestral home of Althorp. A year later, Lord Spencer married Raine, Countess of Dartmouth, the only daughter of the romance novelist Barbara Cartland, after being named as the "other party" in the Earl and Countess of Dartmouth's divorce.
Diana's interest in supporting and helping young people led to the establishment of the Diana Memorial Award, awarded to youths who have demonstrated the unselfish devotion and commitment to causes advocated by the Princess.
In the mid-1980s, the marriage of Diana and Charles fell apart, an event at first suppressed, but then sensationalised, by the world media. Both the Prince and Princess of Wales allegedly spoke to the press through friends, each blaming the other for the marriage's demise.
The Prince and Princess of Wales were separated on 9 December 1992; their divorce was finalised on 28 August 1996. The Princess lost the style Her Royal Highness and instead was styled as Diana, Princess of Wales. However, since the divorce, Buckingham Palace has maintained that Diana was officially a member of the Royal Family, since she was the mother of the second- and third-in-line to the throne.
On 31 August 1997 Diana was involved in a car accident in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris, along with Dodi Al-Fayed, and their driver Henri Paul. Their Mercedes-Benz S280 sedan crashed on the thirteenth pillar of the tunnel. The two lane tunnel roadway was engineered without metal barriers between the pillars, so a slight change in vehicle direction could easily result in a head-on collision with the tunnel pillar.
Fayed's bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was closest to the point of impact and yet the only survivor of the crash. He was the only occupant of the car who was wearing a seatbelt. Henri Paul and Dodi Fayed were killed instantly. Diana, unbelted in the back seat, slid forward during the impact and "submarined" under the seat in front of her, causing massive internal bleeding. She was transported to the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital where, despite lengthy resuscitation attempts, she died. Her funeral on 6 September 1997 was broadcast and watched by over 1 billion people worldwide.
Diana came from a royal and aristocratic background. On her mother's side, Diana was partially American in ancestry. Her great-grandmother was the American heiress Frances Work. On her father's side, Diana was also a direct descendant of King Charles II through two illegitimate sons and King James II through an illegitimate daughter. And, according to her biographer Lady Colin Campbell, Diana's great-great-great-grandmother Eliza Kewark (some sources spell the surname Kevork or Kevorkian) was a native of Bombay, India and likely of Indian descent, though family lore identifies Kevork/Kewark as of Armenian ancestry.
During her parents' acrimonious divorce over Lady Althorp's adultery with wallpaper heir Peter Shand Kydd, Diana's mother sued for custody of her children, but Lord Althorp's rank, aided by Lady Althorp's mother's testimony against her daughter during the trial, meant that custody of Diana and her brother was awarded to their father. On the death of her paternal grandfather, Albert Spencer, 7th Earl Spencer, in 1975, Diana's father became the 8th Earl Spencer, and she acquired the title of Lady Diana Spencer and moved from her childhood home at Park House to her family's sixteenth-century ancestral home of Althorp. A year later, Lord Spencer married Raine, Countess of Dartmouth, the only daughter of the romance novelist Barbara Cartland, after being named as the "other party" in the Earl and Countess of Dartmouth's divorce.
Diana's interest in supporting and helping young people led to the establishment of the Diana Memorial Award, awarded to youths who have demonstrated the unselfish devotion and commitment to causes advocated by the Princess.
In the mid-1980s, the marriage of Diana and Charles fell apart, an event at first suppressed, but then sensationalised, by the world media. Both the Prince and Princess of Wales allegedly spoke to the press through friends, each blaming the other for the marriage's demise.
The Prince and Princess of Wales were separated on 9 December 1992; their divorce was finalised on 28 August 1996. The Princess lost the style Her Royal Highness and instead was styled as Diana, Princess of Wales. However, since the divorce, Buckingham Palace has maintained that Diana was officially a member of the Royal Family, since she was the mother of the second- and third-in-line to the throne.
On 31 August 1997 Diana was involved in a car accident in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris, along with Dodi Al-Fayed, and their driver Henri Paul. Their Mercedes-Benz S280 sedan crashed on the thirteenth pillar of the tunnel. The two lane tunnel roadway was engineered without metal barriers between the pillars, so a slight change in vehicle direction could easily result in a head-on collision with the tunnel pillar.
Fayed's bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was closest to the point of impact and yet the only survivor of the crash. He was the only occupant of the car who was wearing a seatbelt. Henri Paul and Dodi Fayed were killed instantly. Diana, unbelted in the back seat, slid forward during the impact and "submarined" under the seat in front of her, causing massive internal bleeding. She was transported to the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital where, despite lengthy resuscitation attempts, she died. Her funeral on 6 September 1997 was broadcast and watched by over 1 billion people worldwide.
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