Skip to main content

From the outside looking in, life in the British royal family appears to be full of glitz and glamour. From the fabulous royal weddings to the breathtaking jewels and stunning wardrobe choices, it appears to be a job filled with perks. However, royal life is not as easy as it might appear to be.

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex spoke candidly about the hardships that she faced as an outsider coming into the royal family. Things got so bad for the American actor that she and Prince Harry eventually made the choice to leave the royal family. The prince’s late mother, Princess Diana also had similar struggles.

At just 19 when she and Prince Charles wed, the princess struggled a great deal in the royal fold. It also took quite a toll on her self-esteem. However, she is now considered the most beautiful royal of all time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjmOSSssqIc

Princess Diana struggled with her self-esteem early on in her marriage

When Princess Diana married Prince Charles in 1981, she had no idea what she was getting herself into. The pair had only met in person 13 times, and the prince was still very obviously still in love with his ex-girlfriend, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.

Her bad marriage, feeling ostracized from the royals, and isolated from her own family led the princess down a path of self-harm. “One minute I was a nobody, the next minute I was Princess of Wales, mother, media toy, member of the family, and it was just too much for one person to handle,” the princess revealed in Andrew Morton’s Diana: Her True Story – In Her Own Words.

The princess would self-harm multiple times, once throwing herself down a flight of stairs while pregnant and even slashing her wrist with a knife. The princess was also bulimic and struggled with her appearance.

“It was a symptom of what was going on in my marriage,” Diana revealed to BBC. “I was crying out for help, but giving the wrong signals, and people were using my bulimia as a coat on a hanger: they decided that was the problem – Diana was unstable.”

Princess Diana had new-found confidence after her divorce from Prince Charles

By 1992, Prince Charles’s affair with Camilla was exposed to the public. For her part, the revelation was liberating for the princess. Though their divorce would not be finalized until 1996, Princess Diana found her voice and began living her life the way she wanted to.

“I do things differently because I don’t go by a rulebook; because I lead from the heart, not the head,” she told BBC’s, Martin Bashir. “And albeit, that’s got me into trouble in my work, I understand that. But someone’s got to out there and love people — and show it.”

Following her separation from Prince Charles, she was looking forward to a quieter more carefree life. “Over the next few months, I will be seeking a more suitable way of combining a meaningful public role with, hopefully, a more private life,” she said in 1993 at a benefit lunch for the Headway National Injuries Association.

Related

How Princess Diana Tried to Deal With Her Own Suffering

Princess Diana is being called the most beautiful royal of all time

Despite her struggles, Princess Diana is now being touted as the most beautiful royal of all time. Photos of Princess Diana were used in the Golden Ratio of Beauty Phi. The princess garnered a score of 89% out of 100%.

Queen Rania of Jordan is the most beautiful living royal with a rating of 88.9%. Meanwhile, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge has scores of 87.4% and 86.8% respectively. “Diana scored highly for her face shape, the width of her nose, her brow area and her eyebrows. Her lowest scores were for her chin and lips,” facial cosmetic surgeon Dr. Julian De Silva explained.

It’s interesting that it took the late princess so long to see herself for who she truly was.