Who Does Diana Belong To?
Domenic Lawson, the editor of a leading Sunday newspaper, knew Princess Diana well, and decided to finally speak out a year after her death, as many different people try to reclaim her.
Princess Diana was godmother to Lawson's daughter and a longtime friend. He told CBS News Senior European Correspondent Tom Fenton that the royals who dropped her after her divorce with Prince Charles have no business trying to reclaim her.
"The Windsors...floated her at the time of her wedding," Lawson says. "But they were trying to cancel the stock by taking away her royal title and taking away the prayers of the established church say for the family. Her name was removed from that, so I don't think the Windsors wanted any part of her."
Since the emotional hurricane that hit Britain at the time of her death, the royal family has tried to appropriate Diana's style.
 Charles Spencer |
"I think they had lost her some time ago, and now they are trying to regain her," Lawson says. "There is an irony, as you know, because during her life, she wasn't particularly close to her family."
Lawson says Diana had moved away emotionally from her family, including her brother.
"Her brother had refused to give her safe haven at his estate while she was alive and being pursued by the paparazzi," Lawson recalls.
Another claimant on Diana's memory is her self-proclaimed future father-in-law, Mohammed al Fayed.
 Mohammed al Fayed |
"Al Fayed has tried very hard to propagate the myth that she was about to get married to his son, Dodi. Nobody who spoke to her at the time, other than people employed by Mr. al Fayed, have come up with any suggestions that this was the case," Lawson says. "It was a summer fling."
Lawson says that al Fayed was responsible for the security arrangements on the night of Diana's death.
"The driver was highly intoxicated, criminally drunk. You would expect some degree of contrition or at least some amount of silence on the part of the man who employs all these people and under whose protection this all of this has happened, and there has been nothing of that," Lawson says.
In his new role as a single father, Prince Charles has seen his popularity soar. But the sons of Charles and Diana have said nothing.
"Ultimately, I expect that her sons have the right to speak for her," ays Lawson. "But they have not attained the age of majority. But until they attain that age or have the desire to speak, I don't think that anyone can speak for her - not Mohammed al Fayed, not the House of Windsor, and not the Spencers."