Princess Diana’s friends say she would be ‘horrified’ by Spencer biopic: ‘She’s seen as this kind of martyr’

‘All I’d say is that the portrayals you see now are not the best way to understand her’

A number of Princess Diana’s friends recently said that the late royal would be “horrified” by her portrayals in pop culture, including in the forthcoming film Spencer.

In a recent interview with The Telegraph, Majesty editor Ingrid Seward, hair stylist Sam McKnight, make-up artist Mary Greenwell, and fashion designer Jacques Azagury explained that the film — starring Kristen Stewart as the Princess of Wales and directed by Pablo Larrain — doesn’t necessarily get everything right.

Set in December 1991 over a three-day period at Sandringham Estate, Spencer touches upon Princess Diana’s struggles with bulimia and self-harm.

However, it has been claimed that the film does not accurately reflect events, and that she had stopped self-harming by the time the film is set.

Seward said: “That Christmas she was there with Fergie, she was pretty miserable and she wasn’t speaking to Charles, but she wasn’t cutting herself at that stage.

“They’ve piled every bad thing into one weekend which is taking poetic licence a little far.”

Seward added that Diana would “never try to destroy the monarchy” because it was her “sons’ future”.

“She would be very sad that people think she and Charles never loved each other, that wasn’t true. She’d be horrified at the way she’s portrayed now,” she continued.

Diana was also recently imagined on screen by Emma Corrin, who played the “people’s princess” on the hit Netflix series The Crown.

Greenwell, who worked with Diana for her December 1991 Vogue cover, said: “[Diana is] now seen as this kind of martyr, which I think is wrong. She did amazing things, but she’s misunderstood.

“All I’d say is that the portrayals you see now are not the best way to understand her. “

Diana didn’t see herself as a victim, Seward added, conceding that Diana could be “different things on different days”.

McKnight, who gave Diana the “short, sharp shock” of a haircut in 1990, said he deliberately avoids watching portrayals like Spencer because “I’d only pay attention to the flaws”.

In Spencer, Stewart’s hair is longer and floppier than it should have been and more evocative of Diana’s style in the Eighties.

“It was a departure from that 1980s romance,” McKnight said.

Spencer is released in UK cinemas on 5 November.