Princess Diana
Former Roommate Reveals: “None of us, including Diana, received any help”
Princess Diana leaving her apartment in Chelsea, London in 1980
© Jacob Sutton / Getty Images
Princess Diana lived with three friends in a shared apartment in the London borough of Chelsea from 1979 until her engagement to Prince Charles in 1981. One of those women, Virginia Clarke, recalls the time when her house suddenly became a press hotspot – and Lady Dis’s game of cat-and-mouse began.
When Virginia Clarke thinks back to her time together with Princess Diana, † 36, these memories should be filled with lightheartedness and laughter. Diana herself described her time in the shared apartment as “great”. But Old Brompton Road is also the place where Lady Dis’s ordeal began and the press crossed the boundaries that would lead to the royal’s death 16 years later.
On Wednesday, September 29, 2021, Clarke remembers how little protection the young women received from the press and how the palace failed to do so, when the blue English Heritage plaque was unveiled to honor the princess’ former home -year-old Diana to offer help.
Princess Diana’s former roommate Virgina Clarke unveiled the English Heritage plaque on the building of the former apartment on Old Brompton Road in London on Wednesday 29 September 2021.
© Dana Press
Princess Diana: Your roommates should check the cars for bombs
When Diana Spencer’s relationship with the heir to the throne of the British monarchy became public in 1980, life changed suddenly. “That was when the world press came to us,” said Virgina Clarke. The media besieged the house day and night, reporters peered through the windows, rang the doorbell and never missed an opportunity to get photos of Di. “I think you can say that we had absolutely no idea how to deal with them. They were professional, experienced reporters who attacked us from all over,” said Diana’s former roommate.
Diana remains the queen of hearts
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According to Clarke – at that time still Pitman – the royal family misjudged the extraordinary situation and did not intervene. “Interestingly, none of us, including Diana, received any help. I’m not sure who could have helped us […]. Some PR or palace person, I don’t know. “The woman can only remember one piece of advice that came from the palace:
“We were told to look for bombs under our cars. Unfortunately, neither of us had read the bomb-hunting manual so we didn’t know where to start. The situation was surreal.”
A fight that Lady Di lost in 1997 was born out of fun at the beginning
The surreal situation seemed “very funny” to the young women at the beginning, says Clarke and reveals: “Diana enjoyed it.” The mother of Prince Harry, 37, and Prince William, 39, even played tricks on the press, misled them and laid tracks so that they could later secretly disappear in the other direction. “She was overjoyed with this success,” explains Dis’s companion to a small crowd who had come to unveil the plaque.
But to see how this initial fun slipped away more and more and Princess Diana was exposed to the press without protection even after her separation from Prince Charles, was only painful to watch for Virginia Clarke. And even if the apartment in the Chelsea district of London will always symbolize the beginning of Diana’s fight against the press, Clarke is still sure that the princess would have liked the blue plaque very much.
Sources used: telegraph.co.uk, standard.co.uk