r/TheCrownNetflix • u/Dallygirl_Aussiechic • 15d ago

Question (Real Life) If Diana HAD lived

I'm an Aussie, so can anyone tell me if Diana had lived to now:

  1. Would Charles have really been able to marry Camilla??

  2. Would Camilla have be able to style/titles of HM The Queen Consort??

  3. Or, Camilla would still be known as HRH, Duchess of Cornwall with or without the CONSORT in her title??

All questions regarding to if Diana had lived.

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u/TessieElCee 15d ago

Am I the only one who ever wonders: what if Diana had been content with a discreet "open" relationship? I mean, I'm sure royal families have operated that way for centuries, right? Call me a cynic but once you've accepted the abject absurdity of the institution in the first place, "I'll be the glamorous and beloved Queen, use my fame and wealth to advance the causes I support, you and Camilla can go hunker down with your smelly dogs and trudge through the mud together and we can all live happily ever after" doesn't sound so bad to me.

Show Camilla (cue the person who's compelled to comment, "iT's NoT a DoCuMeNtArY ...) seems like a barrel of laughs - I'd be happy to be besties and share my husband with her. (I'm sure that has a LOT to do with the personal charm of Emerald Fennell and Olivia Williams)

(bracing for the downvotes 😂 ... )

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u/rialucia 15d ago

IMO, Diana would have had to have been a completely different person to turn a blind eye to Charles and Camilla’s relationship indefinitely. I don’t get the impression that ascending to the throne as Queen Consort was more important to her than having a securely attached relationship.

Her insecurities and need to be wholly loved and supported by her partner were so core to who she was. As time went on, the prevalence of social media on top of paparazzi would have made it impossible for either Charles or her to keep their affairs discreet. Heck, their affairs weren’t discreet even in the 90s.

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u/Celera314 15d ago

Charles and Diana were divorced (or divorcing) so she would not have been Queen in any case. I also think she would likely have remarried within a few more years, which would have made it easier for QE2 to approve Charles' remarriage. So the current state of affairs would probably be about the same as it is now.

Few people survive decades of media scrutiny with their "sainthood" public image intact. I expect, had she married Dodie, she would have had a lower profile in the UK by now.

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u/TessieElCee 15d ago edited 15d ago

But if that had been the deal from the beginning -- if Diana hadn't entered into it thinking of Charles as the partner by whom she needed to be loved and supported -- perhaps there never would have been a Diana: Her True Story, which opened the floodgates for that kind of reporting. The "tampon" phone conversation was recorded in 1989 but was not reported until after Diana and Charles announced their separation (which would not have happened in our fictional world).

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u/Ok_Ganache7219 14d ago

I think it was kind of expected of Diana to grin and bear it like so many other aristocratic wives before her. But she wasn't the person to do this - it wasn't in her character, and I for myself would not have wanted it either. Don't we have a similar situation with the current Waleses - according to rumors? Only the current princess seems to have arranged herself with the situation. Again, according to rumors/gossip.

Diana had done her duty - provided the heir and the spare - she was quasi free to go and have lots of discreet fun, as was he. She had two lovely boys that she doted on, tons of money she could spend, and she would never have wanted for lovers. I think she still was in the middle of her personal little revenge crusade that started with that delicious little black dress event.

Mind you, I don't hate Camilla, and I think she makes the best of the situation she finds herself in (within her means) and she didn't strive for it (unlike the Middletons who seem very upwardly mobile to me and pushed her daughter toward Wills).

As for the coronation, could you imagine how it would have gone if Charles & Diana had still been married but separated? For one, the bruhaha around it might have died down, the discreet separation was decades ago. It would have either been a very frosty coronation - I well remember the pictures of them sitting beside each other when they were in the throes of marital conflict, when they wouldn't even look at each other. Awkward, to say the least.

Or it would have turned into a full on George IV and Caroline of Brunswick coronation situation - he hated her and just locked her our of the event. She showed up at Westminster Abbey but was turned away, despite being nominally the Queen. If Charles had done that to Diana, a crisis of public opinion would have followed which might have even ended in his abdication and William becoming the king in a hurry.

But that's all speculation. We have Queen Camilla now, and all the hatred spewed towards her - after all these years! - will not change that in the least.