Word: diana
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Left to the imagination is the whole curtsying rigmarole. In some ways the court has not changed in hundreds of years, and technically, having lost her H.R.H. (reserved mostly for those who are in line for the throne and male heirs' wives and children), Diana would be obliged to curtsy to her kids and Prince Andrew's daughters. It isn't likely to happen...
...financial settlement has not been made known, but it is probably about $23 million. (Diana reportedly asked for $75 million, a sum not unheard of. Actress Amy Irving is said to have received close to $100 million from director Steven Spielberg in 1989; two years later, TV magnate Norman Lear paid an estimated $112 million for his freedom.) It is not clear whether the payment will be made in the lump sum Diana reportedly wanted. The Queen is notoriously tightfisted, so the settlement amount may represent principal held in trust from which Diana can draw interest. In that case...
...gets to keep her 30-odd-room apartment in Kensington Palace rent free. That may not be the Windsors' preference or Diana's. In recent years she has been offered a look around other grand London houses, but the excellent security at Kensington Palace, a dormitory for various royals, including Princess Margaret, was doubtless the deciding factor. The concern would not have been just for Diana's well-being but also for the children's. There has never been any squabbling over custody, and the boys will continue to split their time between their parents...
...interesting part of the statement released by the palace concerns the niceties of Diana's rank. She will "from time to time receive invitations to state and national public occasions." At such ceremonies she will "be accorded the precedence she enjoys at present." In other words, she will not be banished far from her boys should they be in attendance. If Diana wishes to be part of the family, she can gradually reingratiate herself. Lord Snowdon, the photographer and Princess Margaret's former husband, has reappeared on the court scene and can be found at receptions and other occasions...
...stupidity, cruelty and greed. The Windsors, bearing up well under their hereditary burden of chinlessness and a tendency to run to twits, managed nonetheless to turn the saga of the stunningly unbright Duke and Duchess of Windsor into one of the century's great love stories. Perhaps Charles and Diana, in their follies, are simply enlarging the dramatic franchise of the family, giving it a contemporary feel...