Diana (24 page)

From her December 1995 speech at her favorite homeless charity: “It is truly tragic to see the total waste of so many young lives, of so much potential. Everyone needs to be valued. Everyone has the potential to give something back, if only they had the chance.”

On scaling back

In 1993, in a very emotional address, Diana announced to the National Head Injury Association in London that she would scale back her public duties at the end of that year. “For the past year, I have continued as before; however life and circumstances alter and I hope you will forgive me
if I use this opportunity to share with you my plans for the future which now indeed have changed. When I started my public life twelve years ago, I understood the media might be interested in what I did. I realized then their attention would inevitably focus on both our private and public lives. But I was not aware of how overwhelming that attention would become nor the extent to which it would affect both my public duties and my personal life in a manner that’s been hard to bear. At the end of this year, when I’ve completed my diary of official engagements, I will be reducing the extent of the public life I’ve led so far. Obviously I attach great importance to my charity work and I intend to focus on a smaller range of areas in the future. Over the next few months, I will be seeking a more suitable way of combining a meaningful public role with hopefully a more private life. My first priority will continue to be our children, William and Harry, who deserve as much love and care and attention as I am able to give, as well as an appreciation of the tradition into which they were born. I would like to add that this decision has been reached
with the full understanding of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, who have always shown me kindness and support. I hope you can find it in your hearts to understand and to give me the time and space that has been lacking in recent years. I couldn’t stand here today and make this sort of statement without acknowledging the heartfelt support I’ve been given by the public in general.”

In a letter written to charities at the time of this decree, she stated: “It has been a great privilege for me to serve as your patron, and it has always been my wish that I should do so wholeheartedly and to the best of my ability. Therefore it is with great sadness that I write to you in order to explain matters which have now become apparent.

“As you know, my personal circumstances, in particular my marriage to the Prince of Wales, have been the subject of detailed conjecture in recent months, and this will soon be formalized in the normal legal manner.

“Although I am embarking on the future with hope, I also do so with some trepidation since
there are a number of matters which I shall need to resolve. It is for this reason that I am writing in order to resign my current role as patron with you. As I seek to reorganize my life, it will not be possible for me to provide you with the level of commitment that I feel you deserve. I feel that someone else in the royal family may now be better suited to support your tremendous endeavors. I will always retain a keen interest in everything that you do and trust that we shall have reason for our paths to cross in the not-too-distant future.”

On Bosnia

In 1996: “I feel very strongly that I should go to Bosnia, but absolute hell would break out if I did. The Foreign Office would get at me.”

“Poverty I have seen in many places, but not war damage of this kind.”

On land mines and their victims

At the outset of her land-mine tour in Angola, Diana told the press: “It is an enormous privilege for me to be invited here to Angola in order to assist the Red Cross in its campaign to ban, once and for all, antipersonnel land mines. There couldn’t be a more appropriate place to begin this campaign than in Angola.”

In a BBC documentary filmed during a visit with mine victims in Angola, Diana proclaimed: “I am not a political figure, nor do I want to be one. But I come with my heart, and I want to bring awareness to people in distress, whether it’s in Angola or any other part of the world. The fact is, I’m a humanitarian figure. I always have been, and I will always be.”

On the Angolan children wounded by land mines: “I looked into their eyes and saw it all.”

“People always say that the eyes mirror the soul. During the last few days [in Angola] I’ve seen a lot of anguish and a lot of hope in the eyes of people I’ve met.”

In a speech during her antiland-mine campaign, she said: “Having seen for myself the devastation that antipersonnel land mines cause, I am committed to supporting, in whatever way I can, the international campaign to outlaw these dreadful weapons. Achieving a global ban is one step because mines are being laid at the rate of two million a year, but removed at only 100,000 per year. But helping mine victims is equally important.”

Jerry White, a cofounder of the Landmine Survivors Network who lost his legs to a mine, explained to Diana before they were to fly from London to Sarajevo in a six-seater Lear Jet that
in any airplane it’s more comfortable for amputees to remove their prostheses. “Oh, my God, you’re taking off your legs?” she blurted out. White remembers, however, that “she went with the program.”

Joking with a one-armed man: “I’ll bet you have fun chasing the soap round the bath!”

“The mine is a stealthy killer. Long after conflict has ended, its innocent victims die or are wounded singly, in countries of which we hear little. Their lonely fate is never reported. The world, with its other many preoccupations, remains largely unmoved….”