Surprisingly, there are details on Princess Diana’s media war with her ex-husband, then-Prince Charles. According to a former royal staff member, Princess Diana was “predatory” in her media war against King Charles. She and her team spent a great deal of time and effort to upstage the royals.
The two got divorced in 1996 after announcing their separation in 1992. There was widespread speculation around their split. Many made it to the news, while some were kept out of public view. Now, a report from 1995 shows how much Diana was involved in the media war.
According to the three-decade-old reports from Ireland’s National Archives, the public appearance of the King in Ireland could have been subjected to Diana’s media war strategies. There were several comments by the king’s former deputy press secretary, Sandy Henney. She told Joe Hayes, “If practice to date was any guide, we could shortly expect an approach from Princess Diana.”
Sounds like Charles’ PR staff were mad that Diana was beating the palace at their own game, given the palace’s cosy relationship with the press & their greater resources. Why did Sky omit Charles’ earlier 1994 interview & revelation of adultery? pic.twitter.com/3DVB49eNE6
— CG Hive (@AliciaJ1985) December 27, 2025
Hayes said he initially thought it was a joke, but then Sandy Henney repeated herself. That made it clear that her statement was not a joke and confirmed Princess Diana was skilled at this media battle. Hayes added, “The princess was by far the more predatory and skilled, and her staff devoted a great deal of time to finding ways and means of upstaging St. James’s Palace.”
The visit to Ireland was to improve King Charles’ image after his infidelity became public, accelerating their divorce. It was a strategic appearance to ensure the British public sees him in a good light.
While people loved Diana’s carefree attitude, the so-called ‘revenge dress’ after the divorce, King Charles had to suffer from negative publicity. This is another reason his media team saw Diana as a massive threat after the divorce.
All these headlines today, about how “Diana tried to upstage Charles back in the day” – yes she did, she was incensed with his infidelity, (yet she was unfaithful first, and allegedly had 10 affairs within the marriage) Diana played the media like a fiddle! Using it to overshadow… pic.twitter.com/3R4G2Et38d
— Fi ❄️☃️❄️ (@Fibutton) December 27, 2025
The new revelation from the documents has split people into teams. Some of them are pointing out that she did not need to work hard with the media since she already got all the attention. One X user commented, “Diana was not unfaithful first; that’s a revisionist history conjured by those in the opposing camp, long after her death. She did not try to upstage her husband; she was the natural media draw. It was natural star power; she was on the cover of over 100 magazines/papers a month for over a decade.”
Another one had a strong opinion over their doomed marriage and split, “We’ll never know for sure, but in my opinion, Charles didn’t ever stop seeing Camilla, driving Diana to seek solace elsewhere.”
