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AFTER FIVE YEARS,
DIANA'S MOTHER VENTS HER ANGER

By Caroline Davies

The Sun-Herald
Sept. 1, 2002

Five years after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales her mother has attacked the commercialism surrounding the anniversary and spoken of those who have betrayed her daughter's trust by selling stories about her.

She also felt bitter at not having been allowed to see her daughter's body and being prevented at passing on the news of the death.

Frances Shand Kydd said: "I think memories are kept in the heart and the commercialisation of my daughter Diana's death has gone way beyond limits of decency and sensitivity."

She hoped that people would be "more sensitive" to her grandchildren, princes William and Harry, and "understand that it is quite hard for us to be dragged into the arena time and time again".

The interview, filmed for a program called My Favourite Hymns, took place at the home of Mrs Shand Kydd, 66, on the Scottish island of Seil in July.

The filming took place before she had knowledge of the publication of a tell-all memoir by Diana's former bodyguard Ken Wharfe entitled Diana: Closely Guarded Secret.

The program will be aired on British TV tonight.

Mrs Shand Kydd, who left Diana and her brother in childhood to live with another man, is forthright in condemning those who have made money out of her daughter.

"I am certainly disappointed that since her death so many people she trusted have broken the trust and, for financial gain, have spilled the beans, so to speak," she said.

"I believe that trust is for life, natural life. Even if one half goes to the grave, it does not release you from the bond of trust. It is sad for her that so many people failed her in that department."

Mrs Shand Kydd, a devout Catholic, also regretted not seeing her daughter's body after the fatal car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997. She was even prevented from passing on the news for an hour because officials had not been told.

"That seemed to me very off, if not insensitive, that I, her mother, could not tell anyone she was dead because of a rule book from somewhere else."

"I remember being very surprised and rather hurt that I was not consulted about collecting her body or asked to go to Paris to do so."

Diana had talked to her mother about "everything - personal, family and state", Mrs Shand Kydd said.

"She had been pensive, unhappy for some years in her marriage and had rung me day and night."

She praised the emotional speech given by her son, Earl Spencer, at his sister's funeral in Westminster Abbey but denied it was a direct attack on the Royal Family.

"I thought it was the finest expression of articulate brotherly love," she said.



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