mother left her, feelings of being rejected or abandoned were always there. there is now a danger that has become a threat to us all. it is a deadly disease, and there is no known cure. in the mid 1980s aids was massively stigmatized. there was a huge amount of ignorance about it. and it was bound up with a huge amount of homophobia. so gay men were represented as being debauched and diseased. the broderick ward of the middlesex hospital is the only specially designed aids ward in britain. today the hospital reckoned that the princess s visit was worth all the government propaganda put together. diana s a heterosexual princess but she decides to take on aids as one of the main causes she s going to champion. this shows you just how fearless and radical she really was. the male nurse on the ward is himself hiv infected, and spoke out to her about the myth surrounding aids.
i think the princess helped get that point across by the fact she wasn t wearing gloves and she shook hands with the patients and myself. such is the aids stigma that patients in the new ward were afraid to be seen in photographs with the princess. only this patient agreed to a still photograph, and then only with his back to the camera. the sight of her shaking hands with somebody who had aids in the 1980s was extraordinary. that picture went around the world, and it immediately busted the myth that you could transmit aids via human touch. it was really one of the most pivotal moments in her life. it showed her that she had the power to make a difference. diana realized the power of her royal platform, and i think
so fergie began to emerge as a rival to diana, which began to inject competition in that relationship. diana took her husband s criticisms to heart. when he said why can t you be more like fergie she was like i can be fun, i ll show you fun. there were pictures of the two of them poking friends in the bottom with their umbrellas. dressing up as policewomen and going into anabel s nightclub on prince andrew s stag night. they were skiing together and messing around on the slopes. all these kinds of things irritated prince charles beyond belief.
across the globe. the monarchy and britain was on the knife edge. 2.5 billion people tuned in. william is thinking, what are t why are they crying? i can t. diadiana, whose beauty will never be extinguished from our minds. did you know what you were talking on in that kind of sense, not being able to just walk down the street? no. i didn t. i don t think the royal family quite knew what to do with her. there was just a real frenzy around diana. it was like having a rock
no, we don t. charles and diana were fundamentally incompatible. they were like chalk and cheese. the 12-year age gap in itself was problematic. diana was 24. charles was 36. and he was an older 36. just because of growing up knowing that you re going to eventually be the king of england. she is absolutely pure 20th century and he is fundamental 19th century man. he is super into his watercolors and archaeology and history. and she loves dancing. she s full of energy. she s full of life. the only commonality existed between them was william and harry, the children. and inevitably tensions grew. diana did feel that she wasn t getting enough attention from charles. we have to remember that diana grew up in a broken family. she wanted this close tight-knit family. that meant charles needed to be a part of it. but he wasn t.