Princess Diana was often the centre of attention during her numerous royal excursions abroad. The Princess of Wales travelled overseas to represent the crown alongside her then husband, Prince Charles, now 70. The couple visited India together, after the Prince of Wales had made a touching pledge to take his wife there during an earlier visit. Yet prior to their split, in 1996, their marriage had soured – although their royal duties overseas remained.
Royal author Sarah Bradford detailed how Princess Diana’s trip to Belfast, shortly after their visit to India in 1992, had sparked a “message” to the wider royals.
In her new book Queen Elizabeth Her Life In Our Times, Sarah wrote of the short-haul trip: “The public took sides, most of them with Diana.
“On a visit to Belfast at the end of June she paid a spectacularly successful visit to the Falls Road, Republican heartland and stronghold of the IRA.
“An estimated 2,000 people came to ‘shout for Diana’.”
She added: “As the Daily Mirror put under a banner headline: “We want Di”, and frontline Belfast had a ‘message for the royals.’
“Even the normally anti monarchist Dublin press reported sympathetically on the princess.”
Tragically, Princess Diana died in a car crash in 1997 a year after her split with Prince Charles.
Meanwhile Express.co.uk previously reported Diana’s wardrobe trick when venturing on royal excursions, something she may well have employed in India.
In her new book, The Royals, Kitty Kelley detailed Dian’s networking wardrobe technique abroad and wrote: “Diana knew that style was the first priority of a Princess, and she was determined to be the best dressed Princess of Wales in history.
“She would show substance beneath the surface later, right now all she cared about was creating a lip-smacking first impression.”
“She consulted fashion editors and designers.
“She let them know that she intended to bring style and glamour to her role and and distance herself from the rest of the Windsor women in their white purses, garden party hats and sturdy platform shoes.”
It is likely she took this approach during her trip to Belfast, as well as visit to India.
On Monday, Princess Diana’s youngest son Prince Harry welcomed a baby boy with his wife, Meghan Markle.
The pair are, as yet, to name the tot yet revealed he weighed 7lbs. 3oz.
