For other uses, see , , , and. Diana, Princess of Wales born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 — 31 August 1997 was a member of the. She was the first wife of , the to the British throne, and the mother of , and. She grew up in Park House, situated on the , and was educated in England and Switzerland. In 1975—after her father inherited the title of —she became known as Lady Diana Spencer. She came to prominence in February 1981 when her engagement to Prince Charles was announced to the world. Diana's took place at on 29 July 1981 and reached a global television audience of over 750 million people. During her marriage, Diana was , , , and. The marriage produced two sons, the princes William and Harry, who were then respectively second and third in the. As Princess of Wales, Diana undertook royal duties on behalf of the and represented her at functions overseas. She was celebrated for her charity work and for her support of the. Diana was involved with dozens of charities including London's for children, of which she was president from 1989. She also raised awareness and advocated ways to help people affected with , cancer, and mental illness. Diana remained the object of worldwide media scrutiny during and after her marriage, which ended in divorce on 28 August 1996 following well-publicised extramarital affairs by both parties. Media attention and public mourning were extensive after in a Paris tunnel on 31 August 1997 and subsequent. Diana Frances Spencer was born on 1 July 1961, in Park House,. She was the fourth of five children of 1924—1992 , and his first wife, ; 1936—2004. The has been closely allied with the for several generations. Both of Diana's grandmothers had served as to. The Spencers were hoping for a boy to carry on the family line, and no name was chosen for a week, until they settled on Diana Frances, after her mother and after , a many-times-great-aunt who was also a prospective Princess of Wales. On 30 August 1961, Diana was baptised at. She grew up with three siblings: , , and. Her infant brother, John, died shortly after his birth one year before Diana was born. The Spencers leased the house from its owner,. The royal family frequently holidayed at the neighbouring Sandringham House, and Diana played with the Queen's sons and. Diana was seven years old when her parents divorced. Her mother later began a relationship with and married him in 1969. Diana lived with her mother in London during her parents' separation in 1967, but during that year's Christmas holidays, Lord Althorp refused to let Diana return to London with Lady Althorp. Shortly afterwards he won custody of Diana with support from his former mother-in-law,. In 1972, Lord Althorp began a relationship with. They married at , London in 1976. Diana's relationship with her stepmother was particularly bad. Diana became known as Lady Diana after her father later inherited the title of in 1975, at which point her father moved the entire family from Park House to , the Spencer seat in. Diana was initially home-schooled under the supervision of her , Gertrude Allen. She began her formal education at Silfield Private School in , and moved to , an all-girls boarding school near , when she was nine. She joined her sisters at in , , in 1973. She did not shine academically, failing her twice. Her outstanding community spirit was recognised with an award from West Heath. She left West Heath when she was sixteen. Her brother Charles recalls her as being quite shy up until that time. She showed a talent for music as an accomplished pianist. Diana also excelled in swimming and diving, and studied ballet and. After attending a in for one term in 1978, Diana returned to London, where she shared her mother's flat with two school friends. In London, she took an advanced cooking course, but seldom cooked for her roommates. She took a series of low-paying jobs; she worked as a dance instructor for youth until a skiing accident caused her to miss three months of work. She then found employment as a playgroup pre-school assistant, did some cleaning work for her sister Sarah and several of her friends, and acted as a hostess at parties. Diana spent time working as a nanny for the Robertsons, an American family living in London, and worked as a nursery teacher's assistant at the Young England School in. In July 1979, her mother bought her a flat at Coleherne Court in as an 18th birthday present. She lived there with three flatmates until 25 February 1981. Lady Diana first met , the Queen's eldest son and , when she was 16 in November 1977. He was then dating her older sister, Lady Sarah. They were guests at a country weekend during the summer of 1980 when she watched him play and he took a serious interest in Diana as a potential bride. The relationship progressed when he invited her aboard the royal yacht for a sailing weekend to. This was followed by an invitation to the royal family's Scottish residence to meet his family one weekend in November 1980. Lady Diana was well received by the Queen, the Queen Mother and the. Prince Charles subsequently courted Diana in London. The Prince proposed on 6 February 1981, and Lady Diana accepted, but their engagement was kept secret for the next few weeks. Engagement and wedding The wedding of Charles and Diana commemorated on a 1981 British Their engagement became official on 24 February 1981. Diana selected a large that consisted of 14 solitaire diamonds surrounding a 12-carat oval blue Ceylon sapphire set in 18-carat white gold, which was similar to her mother's engagement ring. The ring was made by the Crown jewellers. In 2010, it became the engagement ring of. The Queen Mother gave Diana a sapphire and diamond brooch as an engagement present. Following the engagement, Diana left her occupation as a kindergarten assistant and lived for a short period at , which was the home of the Queen Mother. She then lived at Buckingham Palace until the wedding. Diana was the first Englishwoman in 300 years to become the spouse of an heir apparent, and she was also the first royal bride to have a paying job before her engagement. She made her first public appearance with Prince Charles in a charity ball in March 1981 at , where she met the. Twenty-year-old Diana became Princess of Wales when she married the Prince of Wales on 29 July 1981 at , which offered more seating than , a church that was generally used for royal nuptials. Diana valued at £9,000 with a 25-foot 7. After she became Princess of Wales, Diana automatically acquired rank as the third-highest female in the after the Queen and the Queen Mother , and was fifth or sixth in the of her other realms, following the Queen,
