(Newser) – Admirers of the late Princess Diana gathered outside Kensington Palace today, a bright sunny day that would have been the troubled royal's 50th birthday. Cards, a cake, a collage, and other mementoes were among the gifts left at the gates of Kensington Palace, where Diana once lived—an echo of the massive, makeshift memorial set up there following her 1997 death in a Paris car crash. "She would've been so popular still. Everyone would have been here to help celebrate," said a 49-year-old Australian woman. "We'll never get to see her grow old."
Although her public image was the "People's Princess," Diana died at a time of turmoil in her life. A discreet and lengthy romance with heart surgeon Hasnat Khan had recently ended; her relationship with wealthy playboy Dodi Fayed, who died with her in the accident, was less than two months old. But it was probably because Diana died young—at only 36—that so many are still drawn to her story. "Marilyn Monroe was an icon, Grace Kelly was an icon, and Princess Diana was an icon," the woman said. "They all died young. They'll be remembered as princesses—beautiful, radiant, princesses."
(NEWSER) - Life will soon be even sweeter for Prince William and his popular Princess Kate. Wills is about to inherit as much as $16 million from the estate of his late mother. "It will be quite a handy sum if he wants to buy his and Kate’s first family house," a source tells the Daily Mail . "What else would he need the money for?" The royal duo have digs in London's Kensington Palace, but might now consider a second pad close to Prince Charles' Highgrove retreat, some speculate. More»
(NEWSER) - Roll out the royal couch. Prince Harry is crashing with his older bro and sister-in-law for the foreseeable future. Things likely won't get too tight as there is plenty of space on the grounds of Kensington Palace, where Harry, William, and Kate reside. Harry, 27, has moved into a small apartment near Will and Kate's cottage, reports ABC News . When the couple moves into bigger digs on the grounds after renovations, Harry will take over that cottage. More»
(NEWSER) - Not exactly what you'd expect from the pre-Tina Brown Newsweek : A Photoshopped Princess Diana strolls on the cover with daughter-in-law Kate Middleton, as the magazine imagines what Di would be like today, at age 50. (Brown speculates that she'd still be "great-looking," with the help of some Botox, would have had at least two re-marriages, and would, of course, have 10 million Twitter followers.) Not surprisingly, reaction to the doctored cover has not been great. Some headlines: More»
(NEWSER) - Regardless of your enthusiasm (or lack thereof) for the royal wedding, it's hard not to feel sorry for Kate Middleton. After all, being a princess isn't what it used to be—partially because of Middleton's would-have-been mother-in-law, Princess Diana. "Once the embodiment of beauty and glamor, Diana's face now conjures sorrow and regret," writes Mary McNamara in the Los Angeles Times . Since her death, even Disney has given up on the princess brand. "In many ways, Diana began the princess boom and the princess bust, looking up at the world through lowered lashes and besotting us all with her shy ways before ripping the curtain apart to reveal the infidelity and bulimia, the cold-hearted calculation and resultant hysteria, the sheer prickly weight of all those sparkly gems." More»
(NEWSER) - With just three days left before the royal wedding, the inevitable complaints of guest list snubs are coming to the surface. News came out over the weekend that the last two British prime ministers weren't invited, and now the New York Times notes that some of Princess Diana's close friends were also excluded. Some have speculated that Prince Charles's second wife, Camilla, vetoed any potential guests who may have been on Diana's side in the divorce, but palace officials insist that a lack of space is to blame. More»
