Diana, princess of Wales, 1961–97, wife of Charles, prince of Wales, heir to the British throne. The daughter of the 8th Earl Spencer, Lady Diana Frances Spencer was a kindergarten teacher in London before her 1981 marriage to Charles. They had two sons, the princes William (b. 1982) and Henry (b. 1984), but separated in 1992 and were divorced in 1996. Diana and Charles were rivals for acceptance by the British public after their marriage unraveled spectacularly; her death in a Paris car crash in Aug., 1997, brought a huge outpouring of sentiment.
See biographies by A. Morton (1992), S. B. Smith (1999), and A. Edwards (2000).
