Editor's Note:
Mari Rodríguez Ichaso has been a contributor to Vanidades magazine for several decades.
She is a specialist in fashion, travel, gastronomy, art, architecture and entertainment, film producer and style columnist for CNN en Español.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely his own.
Read more opinion pieces at cnne.com/opinion.
(CNN Spanish) -
I have never met anyone with such a beautiful and perfect complexion as that of Princess Diana!
And such a sincere and warm smile!
And in the brief encounters I had with her, I was not only impressed by that “English rose” skin that seemed to be her hallmark of beauty, but also by the sincerity and closeness of her personality.
And the strong and very warm handshake with which he greeted me!
It all happened in 1995, when in one of the theaters of Lincoln Center in New York, a small group of journalists (barely half a dozen) were chosen to meet the princess in "backstage" when she would present an award to her friend Liz Tilberis, the editor of Harper's Bazaar.
Princess Diana and her friend Liz Tilberis
At that time he also covered his visit to Mother Teresa of Calculta in her Bronx convent. And in 1996 I greeted her again at the Gala of the Metropolitan Museum's Dress Institute, where she arrived in a lingerie-type dress, without a bra - which looked like a nightgown and made her nervous, as she spent the night adjusting her suspenders and covering herself with a satin shawl of the same navy blue color. It was actually very cute to notice her obvious modesty in those clothes!
And on those three occasions I understood that Diana was different — in possession of that quality that they call “having an angel” -.
Tall and slim, she reflected joie de vivre, enthusiasm for what she did and that seemed to "bounce" and illuminate everything around her.
Among the many celebrities that I have met in my career, there are actually few who project this radiance and this genuine spirit.
And Diana was one of them.
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And now - after the 24th anniversary of her tragic death - her life is once again being discussed, reviewed and everything about her discussed. And at a time when so much has changed in the world - and her two children are married men, in love with their wives and parents - one of the aspects that moves me the most is precisely Diana's desperate search to find love. For recovering that feeling that you never stopped longing for. And although she had “affairs” and romances with several men throughout her 36 years of life (including the military redhead James Hewitt, the Pakistani surgeon Hasnat Khan and the “playboy” Dodi Fayed) Princess Diana —with only 19 years— she had fallen madly in love with 32-year-old Prince Charles — and his prince charming, just like in the story books.And having felt cheated and used from the very beginning of her marriage — by a man who was in love with another woman — was too painful a stab — and difficult to recover from it — for a girl with no life experience and who believed in love.
A girl of the high aristocracy, beautiful, healthy, who had never had a boyfriend or lovers, who when she married at the age of 20 seemed to be the perfect one to beget "the heir and the substitute" ("the heir and the spare") and be the future queen of the United Kingdom. A plan for Charles of England to finally marry, despite the prince's well-known relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles.
That's why I like what one of the best books ever written about Diana explains - that of her bodyguard and Scotland Yard Inspector Ken Wharfe who for seven years protected the princess and played a very close role in the most difficult moments of her life. her life— titled “Diana: Closely Guarded Secret,” Wharfe (who was said to have been in love with Diana) and wrote: “She was a young wife and mother who desperately wanted to be loved by her husband. Prince Charles is not a bad man, but the way he treated her was unforgivable. From then on, Diana did not give up the fight for her husband's affection, but she told me that she did not have the strength to fight any more ”. And having their own affairs and romances was already "a cry for vengeance and a cry for the attention of Prince Charles," Wharfe wrote.
That is why a betrayed and in love Diana is the one that moves me.
And when I think of his smile - and his evident love for life and people, in whom he has left such fond memories - it saddens me that he had lost his life so enormously young and vital.
Princess Diana