Diana:Before The Royal Family

Princess Diana was born Diana Frances Spencer on July 1, 1961 at Park House, the home her parents rented on the British royal family's estate at Sandringham.

 Her parents were Edward John and Frances Spencer Viscount and Viscountess Althorp, later Earl and Countess Spencer. Diana had two older sisters, Sarah and Jane, and a younger brother, Charles. When she was 6 her parents split up and her mother got married to businessman, Peter Shand-Kydd. 

Diana's father received custody of the children. In 1975 he became the eighth Earl Spencer, making Diana a Lady. Diana and her siblings moved to Althorp, the Spencer family estate in Northampton.

The Spencer children continued to see their mother regularly and often spent school holidays at Frances' new home in the north-west of Scotland. As was the custom among the aristocracy at the time, when she was about 8 Diana was sent off to boarding school first at Riddlesworth Hall and later to West Heath Girls School in Kent.

Earl Spencer's second marriage to Raine, formerly Countess of Dartmouth and daughter of the romantic novelist Barbara Cartland, and a colourful and strong headed character, did not meet with the approval of his children, and it was never to be a peaceful household. On her arrival 'Raine stopped play' was caustically entered into the visitor book at Althrop.

Diana never enjoyed the academic life and on leaving school at sixteen without a single 'O' level was enrolled at a Swiss finishing school, the Institut Alpin Vidamenette. 

She suffered terrible homesickness, and after two weeks of pleading letters her parents allowed her to return, and her indulgent father bought her a London flat, which she shared with friends.

As she had always been fond of children, she embarked on a career first as a nanny and later as a nursery assistant at the Young England Kindergarten in Pimlico, London. It was here that she first attracted the attention of the British Press.