The Royal Divorce
1996 August 28
Created by Millie 17 years ago
The Prince and Princess' divorce was finalised on 28 August 1996. Diana received a lump sum settlement of around £17,000,000 along with a legal gag order preventing her from discussing the details.
On February 29, 1996, the Princess announced that she had agreed to a divorce. True to her high-profile image, in March of 1996 Diana suggested to Charles that they announce their divorce on television; according to The Daily Telegraph, Diana argued that such an appearance "would help the nation as much as themselves." After some stalling, Prince Charles agreed to the request.
The Princess was stripped of the title Her Royal Highness and instead was styled as Diana, Princess of Wales. However, since her death, Buckingham Palace has maintained that Diana was still, at the time, officially a member of the Royal Family, since she was the mother of the second- and third-in-line to the throne. This has since been confirmed by the Deputy Coroner of the Queen’s Household, Baroness Butler-Sloss, who after a pre-hearing on 8 January 2007 ruled that: "I am satisfied that at her death, Diana Princess of Wales continued to be considered as a member of the Royal Household." After the divorce, Diana retained her apartment on an upper floor of Kensington Palace, which remained her home until her death.