She used the media to her advantage
For all of Diana’s complaints about the media, she used it to develop sympathy in the final days of her marriage to Charles and in its aftermath. It was revealed that Diana herself, through close confidante James Colthurst, was the main source of Andrew Morton’s infamous biography, Diana: Her True Story.
The book was essentially the public’s first taste of Diana’s personal troubles, including her bulimia and past suicide attempts, and it made her a sympathetic character to the world. Combined with her legendary Panorama interview, her public image “rocked the royal family.”
Charles Spencer told People that Diana’s methods were deliberate, but not malicious, and were mostly an effort to preempt any bad press to protect herself, her reputation, and her access to her sons. “When you look at why she did these things, you have to look at the circumstances. Whether she was right or wrong in these decisions, she felt really in a tight spot.”
She was better at handling the press than Charles
On an official visit to India with Diana in 1992, Charles talked to the press about marriage, saying (via People), “I’ve got to get it right the first time, or you’ll be the first to criticize me.” He wasn’t wrong.
Public rumblings of trouble began when Charles refused to visit the Taj Mahal with Diana, a snub that the princess’ former bodyguard said “genuinely upset her.” Ken Wharfe wrote in his book Guarding Diana: Protecting the Princess Around the World (via the Mirror) that Diana deliberately released the now-infamous photo of herself looking forlorn and alone in front of the palace. “The Princess had privately decided to drive home the point,” Warfe claimed, adding that she later purposely and publicly snubbed Charles when he went in for a kiss in full view of cameras at a polo presentation in Jaipur during the same trip.
Warfe said that when he asked Diana why she “intentionally humiliated” her husband, she mentioned the grotesque phone sex recordings that had leaked between Charles and Parker-Bowles. “Ken, I am not about to pander to him,” he recounted her saying. “Why the bloody hell should I? If he wants to make a fool out of me with that woman, he deserves it.”
Charles may have been jealous of the attention she received
In Diana: In Her Own Words (via Us Weekly), she claimed Charles was envious that her star power eclipsed his. It was a dynamic they both struggled to get used to.
“On the outside, people were saying I was giving my husband a hard time. I was acting like a spoiled child. But I knew that I just needed rest and patience and time to adapt to all of the roles that were required of me overnight. By then, there was immense jealousy, because every single day I was on the front of the newspapers.”