18. She Was Named After Another Young Lady Who Also Died Young
Oddly enough, Princess Diana was named after a different woman in her family, who was also named Diana Spencer. She, too, courted the Prince of Wales and died young. Creepy, right? The first Lady Diana Spencer lived in the 18th Century. She passed away at 25 years old from tuberculosis, and never had the opportunity to become a princess. Just like the modern-day Princess, Lady Spencer was known for her kind heart and the fact that she loved to help people. With so much in common, it almost seems as though the name “Diana” was a curse upon their family.
If you want to know more about the first Diana Spencer, check out the book called The First Diana: Almost a Princess: The Tragic Story of the First Lady Diana Spencer by Sarah J. Freeman. Most of the book is pieced together from letters from the 1700’s that Diana wrote to her grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Marlborough. Just like the modern-day Diana, her parents seemed to be cruel, and her life was full of tragedy before dying young. This is a strange coincidence, but a larger piece of the puzzle in the Spencer family history.