Princess Diana

It was Princess Diana ' s birthday yesterday, she would have been 56. In August it will be 20 years ago that she died. If you are anything like me, I've read dozens of articles about her and watched hours and hours of videos, documenting the Royal family.
It still saddens me today to think what that poor woman went through. She made some pretty bad choices during her marriage, her affair with Hewitt being just one of them and her questionable judgement in dating someone like Dodi. Playing with fire is putting it mildly.
I've thought about her a lot over the past 20 years and there is no doubt her unhappy childhood wasn't the best foundation for marrying into the Royal family.  Insecure, young, inexperienced was a recipe for disaster marrying a man so much older than she was. She had her doubts about the wedding, red flags had already started waving in the breeze, which they both chose to ignore, after all, their names had already been embossed on everything from tea cups to dish towels.
Diana did the best she could to cope with Charles affair with Camilla, her bulimia a symptom of extreme pain, rage and helplessness.  Those were the days before psychologists knew much about bulimia and nothing of CPTSD, which I am absolutely sure she suffered from.
Was she emotionally unhinged when she gave her infamous TV interview, I'm sure. Quite honestly when things started falling apart during their separation and divorce she was on her own, fighting for her survival against the entire British Monarchy who accused her of suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder. Maybe that was true, in the dark ages people with mental illness were thrown into a padded cell and forgotten, but this wasn't the dark ages.
The way I see it, is that Diana had to contend with years of abandonment issues, emotional abuse, her own struggle with bulimia,  possibly CPTSD, a divorce and separation from her beloved children.  What chance was there for her to make calm, wise, healthy choices at that time, she made some huge mistakes, who could blame her, sadly those choices ended her life, had she been entitled to Royal security, it may not have happened, but she lost that privilege soon after her divorce.

We watch from our tiny insignificant lives the tragedies of the rich and famous, their stories are no different to our own. We witness their pain and shame on the world stage in front of millions, while we experience the same dramas unfold in our lives with family and friends, it can't compare.

To honour Princess Diana in life and in death, we continue to fight for the down trodden, the weak and broken in society. May we all be less judgemental and more compassionate, reaching out to support those who struggle alone.