From the time she became a member of the British royal family, Princess Diana was desperately unhappy as she struggled with the inevitably big adjustment in her life. She quickly became the People’s Princess, but behind palace walls, Diana’s husband Prince Charles’ resentment of her popularity increased.
In episode 3 of the podcast “Fatal Voyage: Diana Case Solved,” former detective and seasoned investigator Colin McLaren lays out all of the details regarding the release of secret tapes of Diana and an old flame, as well as recordings from Charles and his future wife, Duchess Camilla.
By this point, the Princess of Wales’ strategic manipulation of the press continued to bring her fame — but it came with a price.
“She certainly was going to get her story out, and she did,” biographer Tina Brown says. “It was like another one of these big firebombs that she lobbied at the house at Windsor.”
For Queen Elizabeth II, it became “the last straw,” Brown notes. “She just thought, ‘This has got to end.’”
The secret tapes threatened to expose the private lives of not only Diana, but also Charles and Camilla. The drama within the family came to a head with a tell-all book and a tearful TV appearance.
In the midst of it all, Diana amped up her charity work with AIDS awareness and began campaigning against land mines. She courted enemies in the process as her campaign to ban land mines threatened the multibillion-dollar business of powerful international arms dealers.
“There were factions around the world who said that Diana was meddling in something she didn’t understand because the land mine campaign was worth billions,” Diana’s former butler Paul Burrell says.
The 12-part docuseries features interviews with a global team of retired crime scene detectives, forensic pathologists and royal insiders as they examine what exactly led to Diana’s tragic death at age 36 in 1997.
Download and stream “Fatal Voyage: Diana Case Solved” everywhere podcasts are available.
To read more about “Diana: Case Solved,” purchase the companion book by McLaren and investigative journalist Dylan Howard at bookstores or online.