Details About Princess Diana's Secret Affair That Challenge Her Good Girl Reputation

Princess Diana was called "the People's Princess" for a reason: the masses loved her and felt like she was more one of them than one of the royal family. She valued humanity over tradition, and instilled a lifetime of philanthropy in both her sons, William, Prince of Wales, and Harry, Duke of Sussex. In fact, Prince William is making sure his children follow in their late grandmother's footsteps. Diana even donated her coats to the homeless, which is why those items will never be auctioned off, and didn't feel the need to hold a press conference to brag about how charitable she was being. (Current celebrities, please take note.)

She learned to take advantage of her celebrity status for good, bringing awareness to the AIDS epidemic and educating people about how the disease actually spread. However, though she was innately a kind person with a good girl reputation, she was still human — and still made mistakes. According to royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith, whose work was reported by the Daily Mail, Diana had an affair with Oliver Hoare, an art dealer. Though Diana had since separated from then-Prince Charles, Hoare very much still married. To make matters worse, Hoare and Charles were good friends.

According to Smith, Diana struck up a friendship with Lady Elsa Bowker and confided in her about the affair. Lady Elsa told Bedell Smith that the dalliance became so spicy that Diana once went to Hoare's house completely naked, wearing only a fur coat and jewels. Thankfully, Hoare's wife and children weren't home at the time.

As selfless as Princess Diana could be with her constituents, she did have a flair for the dramatic. During one episode of their alleged liaison, Diana was reportedly convinced Oliver Hoare was leaving her to go and see his wife, when he explained he was actually going to see his sick daughter. The lovers were riding in a car and Diana could not be convinced that Hoare wasn't secretly heading off to see his wife. "She was very suspicious and mistrustful," Sally Bedell Smith said Lady Elsa Bowker told her.

Per the recounting, Diana's doubts were so strong that she eventually left the car while it was stuck in traffic and just bounced. She didn't even take her things with her. According to Lady Elsa, "[Hoare] drove all over London for three hours and finally found Diana in the park near Kensington Palace, lying down and weeping." This whole charade resulted in Hoare never actually going to see his sick daughter.

Moreover, Diana allegedly once snuck her lover into Kensington Palace, and when he eventually tried to end things, she went berserk, calling him nonstop. While having an affair doesn't mean someone is a terrible person overall, it could have changed the public's perception of the People's Princess had the sordid relationship been made public at the time.