The following article contains references to domestic violence and substance misuse.
Decades after the fact,Princess Diana’s deathremainsone of the most shocking royal tragediesof all time.
Princess Diana’s funeral was heartbreaking, with her mother forced to bury her own child.
Kydd was seen weeping as she said goodbye to her daughter, a painful prospect for any parent.
Let’s explore the cycle of heartbreak that beset the Spencer family.
Here are tragic details about Princess Diana’s parents.
The couple had welcomed two daughters, Sarah McCorquodale and Jane Fellowes, in 1955 and 1957 respectively.
In 1960, they finally produced a male heir.
The devastating loss would spell the undoing of the Spencers' marriage.
Devastated by her inability to produce a male heir, she sought specialist treatment.
Eventually, she gave birth to a son, Charles Spencer, in 1964.
In 2022, Diana’s surviving brother restored John’s grave, which was previously falling apart.
“Looking as it should, now,” Charles wrote.
Kydd was in love with wallpaper heir Peter Shand Kydd, whom she met in 1966.
She blamed the attraction on her lack of connection with her husband.
This decision had a devastating impact on her children, particularly Diana.
“Diana used to wait on the doorstep for her, but she never came.
She could hear me crying down the corridor …
It was ignorance rather than malice.
Frances tried to retain custody of her children.
By her own admission, she never apologized for being an absent mother.
(via The Telegraph), “I do think repetitive apologies are a form of self-pity.”
“She began to plot an escape route for herself.
He did, however, state that he doesn’t blame his mother for neglecting her children emotionally.
“Not her fault, she couldn’t do it.
She was in love with someone else infatuated, really.”
In 1978, John Spencer suffered a stroke, the effects of which he never recovered from.
“He’s remained estranged but adoring since.
If he comes and sees me he comes and sees me, if he doesn’t he doesn’t.
It’s not my problem anymore.
It’s his.”
Despite his mobility problems, Spencer was determined to walk his daughter down the aisle in 1981.
Walking down the aisle with a limp, Spencer was praised by his son, Charles.
One such revelation was the estrangement between Diana and her mother.
Diana and Frances Shand Kydd’s relationship began to disintegrate following the former’s wedding day in 1981.
“My mother let me down terribly with the wedding,” Diana told Andrew Morton, perPeople.
“She kept crying … saying that she couldn’t cope with the pressure.”
Diana also became enraged when Kydd dished to Hello!
“My mother had a very tricky mother herself,” Charles toldThe Guardian.
“No doubt these things can get passed down generationally.
And she was so young.
And she couldn’t navigate the demands of that.”
While away, she called the hospital every day.
Staff told her John was in good spirits and watching the cricket World Cup.
Likewise, Charles Spencer was told his father’s condition was stable.
Charles received a call informing him his father had taken a turn for the worse.
John died from a heart attack and complications of a hemorrhage.
She was extremely distraught at the arrest and initially denied the charges.
“On that occasion, she was not her usual self.
She was tearful and she didn’t know why she was there.
Moreover, she criticized the royals for reportedly not contacting her over funeral plans.
Subsequently, she claimed those in power treated Diana like an object, as opposed to a human being.
“She had divorced, she had lost her title,” Kydd told VSD (viaThe Guardian).
“It makes you take less for granted, and it’s a very enriching experience, really.”
Subsequently, she reportedly lived as a recluse.
“It took a while to diagnose but I feel it is my business to keep it to myself.
It’s nothing to do with anyone else.”
It was later reported that she had Parkinson’s disease.
Despite her children’s pleas for her to move away from her remote Scottish abode, Kydd refused.
“I just couldn’t leave here.
It is still where my heart is and always will be,” she said, perThe Telegraph.
As with her ex-husband, John Spencer, Kydd died without her children by her side.
“She led a rather tragic life really,” said royal historian Hugo Vickers, perThe Guardian.
If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available.
Visit theSubstance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration websiteor contact SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
