grandmother. “A courtier to the end,” explained the Spencer relative, Ruth Fermoy “wanted Diana to stay in the marriage, no matter how bad it was, in order to spare the royal family the embarrassment of a divorce.”
Diana’s unwavering antagonism was evident in her comments to Morton:“My grandmother tried to lacerate me in any way she could. She fed the royal family with hideous comments about my mother, so whenever I mention her name the royal family come down on me like a ton of bricks. Mummy came across very badly because grandmother did a real hatchet job.”
On April 15, 1969, the court granted Johnnie his divorce.According to the
Evening Standard
, Johnnie was given his decree “on the ground of the adultery of thirty-two-year-old Viscountess Althorp with Mr. Peter Shand Kydd. Lady Althorp did not proceed with the petition which she had filed. Her husband denied her allegations of cruelty.” The account continued, “Adultery was alleged at an address in Queens Gate, South Kensington, in April and May 1967. The judge ordered that the wife and Mr. Shand Kydd should pay jointly an agreed £3,000 [$30,000 at today’s values] for the husband’s costs.” The two paragraphs in
The Telegraph
the following day contained the additional information that Johnnie “was granted custody of his four children.”
As a leading divorce judge described the situation to Diana’s biographer Gordon Honeycombe, “The fact that the father was staying in the family home and that he wanted the children to stay there with him would have been the most powerful factor in coming to the decision about custody.” Explained Honeycombe, “Several factors worked against Lady Althorp…. The weight of aristocratic opinion was against her, as was her own mother. And Norfolk, where the children had spent nearly all their lives, was a better place to bring them up than London. The law itself favored the father, who happened to be the son of an earl. Custody of children involved in a divorce case is invariably given to the mother, unless she is mentally deranged, a drug addict—or married to a nobleman. His rank and title give him prior claims.” In the divorce of Diana’s parents, the final condition seemed to prevail. Said Honeycombe, “It reflects the aristocracy’s view of women.”
That May, Frances married Peter Shand Kydd.Two years later, in July 1971, she reopened the custody question, and after a five-day hearing behind closed doors was rejected again. Throughout these disputes, Johnnie freely permitted the children to visit Frances on weekends in London and on the West Sussex coast, where she and Peter bought a house shortly after their wedding.
For different reasons, each of Diana’s parents was undone by the separation and divorce. Frances had lost her children, and her mother had repudiated her, which “unbalanced” Frances, said Robert Spencer. “It was a very emotional period for Diana,” he added. Even more troubling was Johnnie’s state of mind. “He was really miserable after the divorce, basically shell-shocked. He used to sit in his study the whole time,” Charles Spencerrecalled. Johnnie’s “body language was appalling,” said his friend Rupert Hambro. “He walked with a stoop and he wasn’t concentrating on what was going on.” Recalled another friend, “He used to come over and visit my sister and just talk to her and then thank her for listening to him.”
But Johnnie couldn’t bring himself to talk to his children about the divorce, which left Diana and Charles mystified and uneasy.Diana recalled that not only was her father silent about the divorce, neither she nor her brother asked about it. Charles remembered “asking where [my mother] was, and being told that she’d gone away on holiday, then asking every day and sensing that something was very wrong but not understanding at all, really.… I can remember that, as a child, you know if somebody’s lying to you.”
Johnnie clearly
Diana’s unwavering antagonism was evident in her comments to Morton:“My grandmother tried to lacerate me in any way she could. She fed the royal family with hideous comments about my mother, so whenever I mention her name the royal family come down on me like a ton of bricks. Mummy came across very badly because grandmother did a real hatchet job.”
On April 15, 1969, the court granted Johnnie his divorce.According to the
Evening Standard
, Johnnie was given his decree “on the ground of the adultery of thirty-two-year-old Viscountess Althorp with Mr. Peter Shand Kydd. Lady Althorp did not proceed with the petition which she had filed. Her husband denied her allegations of cruelty.” The account continued, “Adultery was alleged at an address in Queens Gate, South Kensington, in April and May 1967. The judge ordered that the wife and Mr. Shand Kydd should pay jointly an agreed £3,000 [$30,000 at today’s values] for the husband’s costs.” The two paragraphs in
The Telegraph
the following day contained the additional information that Johnnie “was granted custody of his four children.”
As a leading divorce judge described the situation to Diana’s biographer Gordon Honeycombe, “The fact that the father was staying in the family home and that he wanted the children to stay there with him would have been the most powerful factor in coming to the decision about custody.” Explained Honeycombe, “Several factors worked against Lady Althorp…. The weight of aristocratic opinion was against her, as was her own mother. And Norfolk, where the children had spent nearly all their lives, was a better place to bring them up than London. The law itself favored the father, who happened to be the son of an earl. Custody of children involved in a divorce case is invariably given to the mother, unless she is mentally deranged, a drug addict—or married to a nobleman. His rank and title give him prior claims.” In the divorce of Diana’s parents, the final condition seemed to prevail. Said Honeycombe, “It reflects the aristocracy’s view of women.”
That May, Frances married Peter Shand Kydd.Two years later, in July 1971, she reopened the custody question, and after a five-day hearing behind closed doors was rejected again. Throughout these disputes, Johnnie freely permitted the children to visit Frances on weekends in London and on the West Sussex coast, where she and Peter bought a house shortly after their wedding.
For different reasons, each of Diana’s parents was undone by the separation and divorce. Frances had lost her children, and her mother had repudiated her, which “unbalanced” Frances, said Robert Spencer. “It was a very emotional period for Diana,” he added. Even more troubling was Johnnie’s state of mind. “He was really miserable after the divorce, basically shell-shocked. He used to sit in his study the whole time,” Charles Spencerrecalled. Johnnie’s “body language was appalling,” said his friend Rupert Hambro. “He walked with a stoop and he wasn’t concentrating on what was going on.” Recalled another friend, “He used to come over and visit my sister and just talk to her and then thank her for listening to him.”
But Johnnie couldn’t bring himself to talk to his children about the divorce, which left Diana and Charles mystified and uneasy.Diana recalled that not only was her father silent about the divorce, neither she nor her brother asked about it. Charles remembered “asking where [my mother] was, and being told that she’d gone away on holiday, then asking every day and sensing that something was very wrong but not understanding at all, really.… I can remember that, as a child, you know if somebody’s lying to you.”
Johnnie clearly
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