Insider Photos Of Princess Diana's Kensington Palace Home Left Us In Tears

Sep 13, 2022 by apost team

Princess Diana was adored for her kindness and humanitarian work, and she was universally loved by not only the British public but by people the world over. She was always a trailblazer, from her stunning sense of style to her activism and the kind way she interacted with everyone she met. 

Diana used her influence to enact good, spending much of her time campaigning for humanitarian causes that improved the lives of others. She sat with people who were ill, helping to break the stigma of the then-new disease AIDS. These are the reasons she became known as the "People's Princess" — she was a shining beacon of light in the royal family.

Born into the British nobility, she grew up close to the royal family and later married into it when she married Prince Charles in 1981, thus making her the Princess of Wales. The general public had a fondness for the new princess and took to her liking pretty well. Together, Diana and Charles had two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry. However, the couple's marriage was full of problems, leading to a separation in 1992 and a divorce in 1996.

While living under the royal family's name, Princess Diana lived in some beautiful, traditional, and luxurious homes. Even after parting ways with Prince Charles, she was still considered to be part of the royal family. However, she spent years trying to establish herself and separate herself as her own person from her previous royal life. Before her tragic death in 1997, Princess Diana's main residence remained Kensington Palace. 

Little Diana was born to a family with 500 years of nobility. Her upbringing was posh, but it wasn't always the fairytale that people assumed she had her whole life. Diana was born into an aristocratic family, and Queen Elizabeth even attended her parents' wedding. After her parents divorced, she was left to live mostly with her father, though according to the book, he apparently left her in the care of nannies and boarding schools. Though she had a keen sense of style from an early age, the little fashionista's childhood dream was to be married and be a mom. "Diana's dreams all through her childhood really were just to be happily married and to have a large family," nanny Mary Clarke told CNN. By July 29, 1981, her dream was starting to begin when she and Prince Charles were married at St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

According to Town & Country, the dress Diana wore for her wedding to King Charles III in 1981 is valued at an estimated $115,000. The ivory taffeta gown was designed by British husband-and-wife team David and Elizabeth Emanuel and features a 25-ft train which, according to Vogue, is a record in royal family history. It was the subject of much talk at the time of Diana's and Charles wedding, with many commentators gushing over the intricate details and sheer size of the voluminous piece of clothing. 

Diana was just 20 years old when she married Charles, who was 32. Although they had known each other for a few years, Diana revealed later that the couple had only met 13 times prior to their engagement announcement.

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A large wedding by any standard, 3,500 attendees fit into St. Paul's Cathedral that day, while a televised home audience watched on around the world. The couple had a beautiful, traditional ceremony and there were even events held around the Commonwealth so everyone could join in on the romantic festivities.

Although King Charles III and Princess Diana's wedding appeared very traditional, there were in fact quite a few aspects that either broke from tradition or set new records at the time. Notably, Diana was the first bride of a British heir without a royal title in over 300 years.

The chosen location, St. Paul's Cathedral, also broke from tradition, as a royal wedding hadn't taken place there since 1501. Westminster Abbey had been the site for royal weddings in the last few centuries but since it could only host 2,200 guests, Charles and Diana opted for the much larger St. Paul's Cathedral, which had room for 3,500 people.

Furthermore, the couple's vows went against tradition when they omitted the word "obey." The omission was growing in popularity for weddings at the time but nevertheless, it was unprecedented for a royal wedding. The move made international headlines and was apparently Diana's idea, while Charles fully supported her. In total, it's believed that around 750 million people across 74 countries tuned in to the royal wedding around the world, while 600,000 people lined the streets of London. The BBC described this as "marking a highpoint in the popularity of the royal family." However, Charles and Diana's ceremony wasn't the first one to be broadcast live on TV. 

The wedding looked picture perfect and a large part of that came from the fact that Diana was a beaming bride who truly looked like a princess. Her iconic wedding dress, which was designed by Elizabeth and David Emanuel, also set a record for having the longest train, which measured 25 feet, of any royal wedding dress. David told Today just this year that it was intentionally designed to be dramatic in order to make Diana "look like a fairytale princess." The dress went on to influence wedding gown trends in the 1980s. 

Clearly establishing a close relationship with the designers, who also designed other garments for Diana, the design duo even surprised the princess on her big day by revealing they'd sewn a diamond-studded horseshoe into the waistband of her gown for good luck. David revealed to Hello! last year:

"We only told her on the wedding day. She didn't know about the horseshoe for good luck, she was very touched. She was traditional."

For such a large wedding, there needed to be enough cake to celebrate, and the big day certainly didn't disappoint. A total of 27 cakes were made, including a duplicate of the 5-foot-tall main cake in case an accident were to occur. Thirty-three years after the wedding, one slice of the cake sold at auction for around $1,375, still in the original box that it was given to guests in.

Charles and Diana's wedding might have been perfect but a fairytale wedding doesn't come without a hefty price tag, especially one for which a huge amount of security had to be taken into account. According to Business Insider, the wedding cost a whopping $48 million, which comes to $110 million when accounting for inflation.

Just a few short years after the beautiful spectacle of a wedding, Princess Diana gave birth to Prince William in June of 1982. Prince Harry was born two years later, in September of 1984. 

Raising her two sons, the family resided in apartments eight and nine in Kensington Palace in London. According to Hello Magazine, Diana hired Dudley Poplak, who turned three floors of the palace into a gorgeous family home. When they weren't residing at the palace, the family would escape to Highgrove House. Sadly, the couple divorced in August of 1996. After divorcing, Diana was still thought of as a part of the family. According to Express, Diana was "regarded as a member of the Royal Family." However, the divorce did cause major problems within Diana's own family. 

King Charles III and Diana origianlly seperated in 1992. After Diana and Charles divorced in 1996, eventually the Princess moved on. This was another hiccup in the mother-daughter relationship.

Burrell also told the Mirror that conversations between Diana and her mother were less than ideal, “It was a hate-filled personal attack on the men and their religious beliefs."

While in court the butler was forced to open up and said "She said that she was messing around with 'effing Muslim men' and she was disgraceful and said some very nasty things."

After this phone call, he said Diana vowed to never speak to her mom again. "How prophetic and sad those words were - because she didn't. It is something her mother will have to live with for the rest of her life,” Burrell said. 

According to Express, since she was still thought of as a royal family member, this meant that she was still welcome to reside in royal addresses. Having lived in Kensington Palace since 1981, when she married Prince Charles, it is no wonder that she was so at home there. She raised her two sons there and created a whole life within the palace walls. 

When she decided to stay at her long-time home within the palace, Diana made quite a few changes to her residence. Starting in 1996 and ending a year later in 1997, she made major renovations and updates within her living quarters. Not only did she update her home's look, but she also changed the amount of staff that she kept in her life. She reduced her staff to a cook, cleaner, and dresser. She also decreased her private security to just police escorts while attending public events. 

Leading up to her tragic death, Paul Burrell, a former servant of the royal household and someone close to Diana, shared that she spent many hours in her home and in her study within the palace. According to Express, he described her long hours in the palace and study as time spent in "her fortress." 

Her two sons enjoyed coming home on the weekends from boarding school and spending time with her at their Kensington Palace home leading up to her death. Diana died 25 years ago on Aug. 31, 1997, from the injuries she sustained in a car crash in a tunnel in Paris, France, which caused widespread media attention and mourning from people all over the world. She was buried on Sept. 6, 1997. Her untimely death has been the topic of conversations for many years, as people have continued to do their part to help carry on the late princess’ legacy.

After her death, her brother, Lord Charles Spencer shared, "And Diana deserves a place in history," he said in the documentary "The Story of Diana." "This was a special person, and not just a beautiful one." 

Over the years since Diana’s passing, many royal family members have shared heartfelt words about missing the late princess. Her eldest son, William, opened up about the moments his mom missed out on. “I would like to have had her advice,” he told British GQ in 2017. “I would love her to have met Catherine and to have seen the children grow up. It makes me sad that she won’t, that they will never know her.”

In 2016, Harry said, “I hope she’s looking down (at our family) with tears in her eyes being incredibly proud of what we’ve established. I’m sure she’s longing for me to have kids so she can be a grandmother again… but I hope that everything we do privately and officially, that it makes her proud.”

On July 1, 2021, William and Harry came together at Kensington Palace to commemorate and unveil a statue of their mother on what would have been her 60th birthday. The official statue of Diana, Princess of Wales is located at the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace, a spot that is said to have been her favorite on the grounds. The BBC also reported in 2017 that the statue had been a long time coming, considering Diana was the wife of a future king — King Charles III — and the mother of another — Prince William. 

British culture has been incredibly impacted by the work Diana did when she was still alive, and William and Harry have made sure to never let their mother’s contributions go unnoticed or be forgotten. “We will do everything we can to make sure she’s never forgotten, and carry on all of the special gifts and such that she had and that she portrayed when she was alive,” Harry said. “I hope that a lot of my mother’s talents are shown in the work that I do.”

Since passing away in 1997, Diana has remained at the forefront all over the world. The late princess was also honored in other ways to coincide with what would have been her milestone 60th birthday in July 2021. Her iconic wedding dress, designed by David and Elizabeth Emmanuel, was put on display at Kensington Palace, as per BBC News. The dress was only one part of a larger exhibition featuring royal heirlooms and artifacts but had been given prominence as the exhibition's central piece.

Aside from her statue, Princess Diana also had an exhibit in 2021 dedicated to her and her original wedding dress. According to news obtained by Vanity Fair, the exhibition included many more iconic pieces of fashion and even some that have never been open to the public before.

While Diana’s loved ones have continued to share her message and legacy with the world, her influence has also left its mark on pop culture. Even though it’s been 25 years since Diana’s tragic passing, her memory is ever present and will surely continue to inspire others for many years to come.

What do you think about Princess Diana residing in the royal palace after her divorce? Would you have stayed?! If you found this article interesting— send it to family members and friends who will too!