Princess Diana and Meghan Markle stepped into the royal spotlight at very different points in their lives. Meghan joined the royal family as a 36-year-old biracial American actress;
Diana, as the 20-year-old daughter of a British earl. Yet the two are linked by their attempts to revolutionize royalty.
In fact, the women share more in common than their diametrically different backgrounds would suggest — as explored in the latest issue of PEOPLE Royals, out now.
Like Diana, the Duchess of Sussex, 40, joined the royal family on a wave of public enthusiasm.
And, like Diana, her royal fantasy ultimately turned sour under the weight of tabloid intrusion and a perceived lack of support from inside the royal family.
The constant scrutiny and battles with palace insiders and the media took a toll on both women. The highly publicized breakdown of Diana’s marriage to Prince Charles led her into a spiral of bulimia and
self-harm, for Meghan, the criticism, sexism and racism directed her way by Internat trolls and U.K. tabloid newspapers also brought her to a dark place.
“I was ashamed to say it at the time and ashamed to have to admit it to Harry. But I knew that if I didn’t say it — then I would do it. I just didn’t want to be alive anymore,” the Duchess of Sussex told Oprah Winfrey in March 2021.
The women are also uniquely linked by their unconventional approaches to their royal roles.
Prior to her August 1996 divorce from Prince Charles, Diana pioneered an entirely new brand of royalty that saw her get up close to the homeless and shake hands with HIV-positive patients at the height of the 1987 AIDS epidemic.
Through this simple act, “She transformed public attitudes and improved the life chances of such people,” the late South African leader Nelson Mandela said of Diana’s actions, adding that she used her royal status to “fight stigma attached to people living with HIV/AIDS.”
Since her tragic August 1997 death at age of 36, this hands-on approach has been taken up by leading members of the royal family, including Prince William, Kate Middleton, Prince Harry, and ultimately, Meghan, herself.
In January 2018, Meghan’s second public event as an engaged royal took her to the Reprezent 107.3FM radio station in Brixton, south London, an area dubbed “London’s Harlem” and synonymous with the city’s Caribbean community.
Four months after her May 2018 wedding, she also published Together: Our Community Cookbook in association with the all-female Hubb Community Kitchen, based out of the Al Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre in Notting Hill.
Since then Meghan has famously stepped back from frontline royal duties and relocated to California with Prince Harry, far away from the prying eyes of the British tabloids. Here, the Duchess of Sussex is free to continue her cause-driven work and raise her children — and Diana’s grandkids — Archie, 3, and Lilibet, 1, on her own terms.
In many ways, she is also continuing to embody the philosophy of Diana outlined by the princess during her November 1995 interview with now-disgraced BBC journalist, Martin Bashir.
“I do things differently because I don’t go by a rule book because I lead from the heart, not the head,” Diana told Bashir. “That’s got me into trouble in my work, I understand that. But someone’s got to go out there and love people and show it.”
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Source: Tampa Bay Times
