As much as I hate to join with the rest of the world in discussion about Princess Diana and her life, there is no divorce in recent times that was in the spotlight than hers. Every step, every turn, every breath came under minute scrutiny and then was put into the media for public consumption.
Why? Because she was larger than life. She was glamorous. She rose from obscurity, became a fairytale princess who married a real prince, and when that prince turned into a man with flaws and the marriage failed, she became the visual voice of wronged wives everywhere. She was newsworthy because of who she was and because of who her ex-inlaws were.
News about Diana still sells newspapers and magazines. People could relate to her because she wasn’t royalty, because she had been “wronged,” because she had shown vulnerability. She was a real person, like the rest of us, and we could all relate to her marital problems.
Prince Charles, on the other hand, as the royal cheat with the stiff upper lip, has not been a figure who could command public sympathy or empathy for his situation. After all, he was a man with a lovely, dutiful wife who provided him with two fine sons, a good public image, and he threw it all away for a married woman. Even marriage to Camilla didn’t improve his public persona.
Did you see the wedding? Who didn’t! It was time for Prince Charles to take a wife, and in order to keep the proper image, he chose someone other than who he really wanted for his wife. He bowed to the royal need because people would talk otherwise. Instead of making a mistake then, he made a bigger mistake later.
How much will you let the opinions of others control your life? It is ultimately not important what someone else thinks about you or how you lead your life. It is important what you think about yourself.
Unless you are a celebrity with a name like Madonna, Cher, Elton, Michael, Brad or Demi, whatever you do with your life, whatever decisions you make, won’t have any interest to any but a relatively small circle of acquaintenances, friends and family. Even if you are a celebrity, your news will be old news very quickly.
Had Diana lived, she would have married again and her life may have stabilized enough that her activities would not have commanded so much media attention. She might have become old news.
It does not matter what anyone else thinks or says about you and the decisions you make in your life. You may believe you are under a microscope but you are not. Learn to focus outward, look farther than your home, your street, your town. Look up to the sky and count the stars. How significant to the scheme of the universe is the decision you are contemplating?
People may talk. So what?