An alarming new report by the Daily Mail has revealed that a 21-year-old Princess Diana was reportedly labelled “dangerous” and a “dynastic disaster” after royal doctors alleged she was suffering from a congenital medical condition that threatened to uproot the House of Windsor.
According to the publication, as Diana learnt of her husband Prince Charles’ infidelities with Camilla Parker Bowles, Sir John Batten, who was the head of The Queen’s medical team at the time, harshly concluded she had a mental disorder as opposed to the general upset one would suffer after discovering your husband was cheating.
In a letter unearthed by the The Daily Mail’s Richard Kay and penned by Dr Alan McGlashan, who examined the Princess of Wales in February 1983, the physician said Diana had been “dosed with anti-depressants and sleeping drugs” and “surrounded by an army of doctors” who were “plainly scared” by her mental state and “overawed by the possibilities of dynastic disaster.”
It’s a harsh assessment and even more worrying is the fact the doctor’s concern was about the consequences on the royal household, not Diana.
The report claims Diana’s problems arose after the birth of Prince William and royal doctors ordered her to undergo behavioural therapy, while take a heavy dose of anti-depressants and sleeping pills for fear of passing on her illness to her son.
Prince Charles was said to be worried about his wife and reached out to his spiritual adviser Sir Laurens Van der Post for help.
Sir Laurens Van der Post recommended the princess be treated by a doctor removed from the situation and not working for the royals.
Eventually Diana and Dr McGlashan teamed up and he ruled out the first and somewhat extreme conclusion she was suffering from a hereditary mental condition.
WATCH: An off-duty Princess Diana jokes about with William and Harry. Post continues below…
Dr McGlashan, who met with Diana eight times, concluded: “She is a normal girl whose troubles were emotional, not pathological. She is a very unhappy girl, facing situations on various fronts which she finds difficult to deal with, though making a courageous effort to do so.”
“She has been surrounded by an army of doctors… and has been dosed with anti-depressants and sleeping drugs, and behaviourist techniques.”
He added: “Her doctors had been treating her as a patient with an obscure and dangerous illness which baffled them. Her symptoms plainly scared them. She complained to me that they all treated her ‘as if I were made of porcelain.'”
In her controversial Panorama interview in 1995, Diana later reflected on her battle with anxiety and bulimia.
“It was a symptom of what was going on in my marriage. I was crying out for help, but giving the wrong signals and people were using my bulimia as a coat on a hanger. They decided that was the problem: Diana was unstable.”