The royals - Kitty Kelley [252]
When the Duchess signed a $2.2 million book contract, one newspaper placed the story alongside a cartoon showing two men walking in the park. One man, hanging his head in shame, said: “I lied. I cheated. I betrayed my spouse. My boss. My friends. And my Sovereign. I sullied my reputation…. I’m the lowest of the low….” The other said, “Call Fergie’s publisher.”
When Sarah sent Princess Margaret an extravagant bouquet on her birthday, the Princess pitched the flowers. Then she fired off a letter to Fergie: “You have done more to bring shame on the family than ever could have been imagined. Not once have you hung your head in embarrassment even for a minute after those disgraceful photographs. Clearly you have never considered the damage you are causing us all. How dare you discredit us like this and how dare you send me those flowers.”
After published disclosures from former lovers and former employees, Sarah locked herself in her home for days, weeping inconsolably. Newspapers reported the Queen became so concerned, she placed her under a suicide watch. But the Palace denied the story, implying the Queen couldn’t care less what her former daughter-in-law did to herself. The Palace reaction seemed to signal tacit permission to pile on. Days later the Sun ran a poll asking, “Who would you rather date—Fergie or a goat?” The goat won by a ratio of seven to one.*
Seeing what happened to Fergie when she lost her title, Diana objected to relinquishing hers. When Charles’s lawyers suggested that she trade in HRH the Princess of Wales for the Duchess of Cornwall, she balked. Then they proposed that she be styled HFRH (Her Former Royal Highness). Diana turned to her supporters in the media, who debated the offer, pleading with the Queen to retain Diana’s status and keep her within the royal family. They argued that as the mother of the future King she deserved no less. Historian John Grigg wrote, “The reductio ad absurdum is that, if she were to cease to be HRH, she would be obliged to curtsy to Princess Michael of Kent.” And to her own sons.
Charles maintained that he did not care one way or the other about his wife’s royal status. But he let it be known that his parents cared, particularly his father, who said that Diana was not entitled to be treated as royalty. In Philip’s eyes she had betrayed the Firm, and her indiscretion and disloyalty barred her from any consideration other than bare civility. He was riled by her demand that any future children she might have by another man be given an hereditary title. And she pushed too far when she proposed that Clarence House become her official residence upon the death of the Queen Mother. Philip insisted her title be lifted, and the Queen agreed.
“At the end of the day, it became clear,” said one of Diana’s representatives, “that the lamb was going to be fleeced.” So Diana was advised to yield what was about to be snatched. Her lawyers tried to save face for her by negotiating a title that sounded like the one she had enjoyed during her fifteen-year marriage. They settled on Diana, Princess of Wales. They also inserted a clause into the final agreement that she would be “considered on occasion a member of the royal family.” One skeptic familiar with the legal document realistically assessed such an “occasion” as “when corgis fly.”
Diana said she stopped fighting for her title after talking to her fourteen-year-old son. She asked Wills if he would mind her not