Photographer Who Took The Legendary Photo Of Diana Crying Finally Explains The Real Situation

If there was any time when those strains were likely to be visible, it was the couple’s much-publicized 1983 tour of Australia and New Zealand. And it’s well established now just how much tension it caused between Charles and Diana. For starters, they had become parents for the first time only months before.

But Diana was determined that she would be a different kind of royal parent. Instead of leaving Prince William at home to be cared for by nannies, Diana insisted her son came on tour with her. This was a big break with royal tradition, but it proved to be a good PR move. Australians were very impressed that Diana had refused to be separated from her son. 

Of course, that wasn’t the only thing the public liked about Diana. Even though most Australians had, well, mixed feelings about the royal family, the princess won people over with her warmth and beauty. Suddenly, excited crowds were following Diana wherever she went, holding up signs praising her.

But Charles and Queen Elizabeth II hadn’t expected Diana to be such a success. Reportedly, the monarch had expressed concern about her daughter-in-law before the trip because she had seemed so frail and nervous. And the British media had begun to publish rumors that she had an eating disorder, leading to cruel speculation that she was mentally unstable.

But Diana’s supposed failings were actually the things that made her relatable to the public. When she and Charles stopped off at Uluru — the famous landmark previously referred to as Ayers Rock — Diana asked for a drink of water because she was too hot. And the simple fact that she was able to admit to weakness meant people took her to their hearts.

Meanwhile, the future King wasn’t doing so well. He made a joke about feeding baby William “warm milk and minced kangaroo,” and many Australians didn’t take that kindly. He also fell off his horse in front of a large audience at a polo match. And when he was with Diana, she constantly seemed to be upstaging him. 

Diana’s biographer Andrew Morton wrote extensively about the trip in his 1992 book Diana: Her True Story. He noted, “The crowds complained when Prince Charles went over to their side of the street during a walkabout... In public, Charles accepted the revised status quo with good grace; in private, he blamed Diana.”

And as the tour continued, ABC News reported on the royal visitors, “The princess seemed more anxious to meet the people than did her husband. She dispensed tidbits concerning Prince William’s health, the weather, and jokingly inquired of an elderly citizen if she had any whisky in her picnic basket.” It seemed clear in many people’s minds that Diana was the star attraction, with Charles merely her sidekick.

Diana spoke about this in the 1992 Morton book. She remembered, “Everyone always said when we were in the car, ‘Oh, we’re on the wrong side, we want to see her, we don’t want to see him.’ And obviously, he wasn’t used to that, and nor was I. He took it out on me… I understood the jealousy, but I couldn’t explain that I didn’t ask for it.”

But Charles attempted to hide his jealousy with quips. He reportedly joked to a group who met him rather than Diana, “It’s not fair, is it? You’d better ask for your money back!” He also said on the trip, “I have come to the conclusion that it really would have been easier to have had two wives. Then they could cover both sides of the street, and I could walk down the middle, directing operations.”

That “two wives” comment may have stung Diana. Back when she and Charles announced their engagement, a reporter had posed the cheeky question about whether they were in love. And Charles gave the infamous answer “Whatever ‘in love’ means” as Diana stood there next to him. She had been his second choice… and she knew it.

Before Charles had even met Diana, he had been in love with the future Queen Consort — Camilla Parker Bowles. Just before the wedding, Diana apparently even found a bracelet for Camilla among Charles’ possessions. But at that point, it was much too late to call things off. Diana walked down the aisle knowing her groom still held a torch for someone else.

Doubts about her husband’s feelings for Camilla may well have lingered in Diana’s mind on the Australian tour. But Charles had reportedly stopped seeing her at that point. Both were married — Camilla’s husband was Andrew Parker-Bowles, who reportedly had a lot of affairs himself — and they wouldn’t get back together until 1986.

It’s clear that Charles and Diana always tried to present a happy facade for public consumption. When their tour took them to Sydney, they took part in a charity ball and danced together. Onlookers, or people who viewed the photos of the event, would have thought they were a young couple happily in love.

But Morton, among others, always knew of Diana’s great turmoil underneath her warm smile. In a 2017 article for the New York Post, he recollected that the princess had told him, “I’ve got what my mother’s got. However bloody you’re feeling, you can put on the most amazing show of happiness.”

According to Morton, Diana hadn’t been looking forward to the Australia trip at all. He wrote in his article, “The newly minted royal was petrified of facing the crowds, meeting the countless dignitaries as well as the fabled royal ‘rat pack,’ the media circus who follow the royals around the globe.”

“When [Diana] walked into the media reception in the unglamorous setting of an Alice Springs hotel, she was hot, jet-lagged, and sunburned,” Morton went on. “Yet she was able to charm and captivate the representatives of the Fourth Estate. Only later did I realize that the tour was utterly traumatic.”

Morton told the New York Post, “Back in the privacy of her hotel room, [Diana] cried her eyes out, unable to handle the constant attention. She wanted to go home. She wanted to hide, overwhelmed by the size of the crowds in a nation gripped by Di-mania. But she survived.” 

One of the so-called “rat pack” was ready with his camera as Diana went through all this. He was Ken Lennox, and he’d known Diana — if “known” was the word — since the early days of her courtship with Charles. Lennox considered her a polite, cooperative young woman who was good with photographers.

But as time went on, Lennox overstepped accepted boundaries, as many photographers did with the royals. In 1982 he snapped a picture of a pregnant Diana in a bikini on a private beach. Queen Elizabeth II condemned this as “the blackest day in the history of British journalism,” and Lennox later regretted it.

Then, one year later, while the Australia tour was in full swing, Lennox would snap another notorious picture of Diana. She was caught in another unguarded moment, but a very different one this time. For one brief minute outside the Sydney Opera House, Lennox saw her crying, and he took a shot.

When the picture was released to the media, it had the caption, “The Princess of Wales pulls a funny face as a bouquet of flowers hits her on the head when thrown from the crowd into the car.” But according to Lennox himself, the reality had been very different.

Lennox explained what had really happened on the 2020 documentary Inside the Crown: Secrets of the Royals. He said, “I’m about 4 feet from the princess, and I’m trying to get a bit of the opera house in the background and some of the crowd. And Diana burst into tears and wept for a couple of minutes.”

The photographer recalled, “After it was over, I went to see the press officer for the prince and princess at that time, and I said what happened.” But the press officer told him that Diana and Charles simply had jet lag and were unaccustomed to Australia’s tremendous heat. At the time, Lennox accepted this.

However, decades after the fact, Lennox said in the documentary, “Charles, I don’t think, has noticed [Diana crying] at that stage. If he has, typical of Prince Charles to look the other way.” It was the first sign that “something was wrong,” he said, and later there would be even more obvious signs.

As the years progressed, more and more photos showed Diana and her husband turning away from each other or appearing openly hostile. Despite their attempts to maintain stiff upper lips in public, or “put on the most amazing show of happiness” as Diana had suggested, the images said it all.

But there are indications that Diana knew how to manipulate photo opportunities to her own advantage. In 1992 – just before the couple separated – Charles left Diana alone at the Taj Mahal while the two were in India together. And Diana posed solo outside the monument looking forlorn. Did she do this on purpose? Some think so.

In 1997 Lennox also spoke to PBS about his experiences with Diana and Charles. And he remembered, “Diana from day one had upstaged Prince Charles. It wasn’t a simple development. Up until then, Charles was listed as one of the most eligible men in the world… The Princess of Wales came onto the scene, and Charles was forgotten.”

And Diana was the one who sold all the newspapers. “Anyone covering the Princess of Wales was guaranteed [the] front page day after day,” Lennox remembered. “It was funny sometimes. She would go to Australia or New Zealand, and from the photographs you saw nothing of Australia or New Zealand. We cropped everything out.”

We don’t know what Diana thought of that one particular pic of her crying, but we do know what she thought of the paparazzi in general. Basically, she hated them. In 1993 she told the whole world how the media intrusion had affected her.

Diana announced, “When I started my public life 12 years ago, I understood that the media might be interested in what I did. But I was not aware of how overwhelming that attention would become, nor the extent to which it would affect both my public duties and my personal life, in a manner that’s been hard to bear.”

And of course, as the whole planet knows, the paparazzi played a role in Diana’s untimely and tragic death. When her car crashed in a Paris tunnel in August 1997, the driver had been fleeing from a crowd of photographers. There were other factors in the accident, but many members of Diana’s own family blamed the media.

At Diana’s funeral, watched by millions all over the world, her brother Charles Spencer pointed the finger at the paparazzi. He described his sister as “the most hunted person of the modern age,” adding, “She would want us today to pledge ourselves to protecting her beloved boys William and Harry from a similar fate.”

Lennox was actually among the journalists on the front line, so to speak, when Diana passed away. He was picture editor of The Sun newspaper at the time, and he later admitted to having initially opted to purchase photographs of the badly injured princess in the back of her wrecked car. When he was told she had died, however, he deleted them.

And Morton also wrote about the fatal crash in his 2004 book Diana: In Pursuit of Love. He claimed that as soon as the crash photographs were taken, “they were... evidence of a terrible complicity in the shameful ending of the fairytale; a damsel in distress exploited by commercial greed to feed the public’s shameless voyeurism.”

Prince Harry still harbors anger towards the paparazzi for the way his mother died. In 2017, he revealed in the documentary Diana, 7 Days, “One of the hardest things to come to terms with is the people who chased her into the tunnel were the same people who were taking photographs of her while she was still dying on the back seat of the car.”

And Lennox agreed that the media tended to go too far in their pursuit of the royals. After a photo of Kate Middleton in a bikini was published, he told Hello! magazine, “Prince William and his brother Harry have a slow-burning inner rage about press intrusion… How can it be otherwise, when Kate is enduring the same treatment that was meted out to Diana over 30 years ago?”

But royal photographs, including the one of Diana in tears in Australia, are an important part of history. If Lennox hadn’t happened to have pointed his camera at Diana at that precise moment, we wouldn’t have had that insight into her personal feelings about her life and marriage. Yet there will always be the question of how much intrusion is too much. 

In a way, it’s a double-edged sword. Charles wanted media attention on the Australia press tour, and Diana was the one who got it. But in the end, it would ruin her life. Perhaps the princess herself expressed it best in her 1995 BBC interview. She said, “With the media attention came a lot of jealousy. A great deal of complicated situations arose because of that.”

Even today, the media is still creating a lot of complicated situations for the royal family. It’s a major reason Harry and Meghan stepped down, for one. And it seems to have played a part in driving Diana’s sons apart. Thankfully, though, there have been a few signs that all is not lost in terms of the bond between the brothers. One of those came at the unveiling of Diana’s statue. While everyone was looking at how the pair were interacting, though, they missed one key detail about the outfit worn by the artwork. You’ll be surprised by its deep meaning, too.

The statue itself? That was commissioned by the brothers in early 2017 — so, a few years before Harry and William’s rift began. And the princes explained why they’d given the artwork the go-ahead, saying, “It has been 20 years since our mother’s death, and the time is right to recognize her positive impact in the U.K. and around the world with a permanent statue.” 

“Our mother touched so many lives. We hope the statue will help all those who visit Kensington Palace to reflect on her life and her legacy,” William and Harry continued. First thing first, though, they had to find the right person for the job. It had to be a sculptor who could perfectly capture Diana’s likeness — and that particular outfit, too. 

The search didn’t take long. Ian Rank-Broadley got the nod — perhaps because he’s the guy who created the famous image of the Queen on British coins. And the brothers released a joint statement to the media talking about the choice. They also revealed what it meant for them to have reminders of their mother. 

William and Harry said in their statement, “We have been touched by the kind words and memories so many people have shared about our mother over these past few months. It is clear the significance of her work is still felt by many in the U.K. and across the world — even 20 years after her death.” 

“Ian is an extremely gifted sculptor, and we know that he will create a fitting and lasting tribute to our mother,” William and Harry added. “We look forward to unveiling the statue.” But plenty would have changed by the time the pair met up to actually do this. 

It was during this same year that both princes opened up to the world about their mother’s passing. It had been 20 years since Diana’s sudden death, but judging by what William and Harry revealed, the wounds still felt fresh. And hearing them talk about their mom was harrowing. Even thinking about that statue — and its very specific outfit — may have been too much to bear. 

The documentary Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy revealed the deep grief that both men still felt. William said on camera, “Losing someone so close to you is utterly devastating, especially at that age. There’s not many days that go by that I don’t think of her.” 

Meanwhile, Harry said, “[Diana] smothered us with love, that’s for sure. There’s not a day that William and I don’t wish that she was… still around. And we wonder what kind of a mother she would be now, and what kind of a public role she would have, and what a difference she would be making.” 

That same year, Harry opened up about the mental health struggles he’d experienced following Diana’s death. Speaking on the podcast Bryony Gordon’s Mad World, he said, “I can safely say that losing my mum at the age of 12, and therefore shutting down all of my emotions for the last 20 years, has had a quite serious effect on not only my personal life but my work as well.” But at least he had someone in his corner to help him.

Harry revealed that eventually he had “started to have a few conversations.” And it was William, he said, who had encouraged him to get therapy. The younger prince explained, “For me, my brother — God bless him — has been an enormous support.” Yes, at one time, the pair had a strong bond. When the time came to unveil the statue, however, that bond seemed to be broken. 

It all started — as far as we know — in January 2020. That’s when Harry and Meghan made the shock announcement that they were no longer going to be senior royals. And in the chaotic aftermath, William and Harry’s brotherly relationship appeared to completely fall apart. 

At the time, an insider said to The Sun that William was “incandescent with rage” about the bombshell decision. Then a few days later, The Sunday Times reported that William had told a friend, “I’ve put my arm around my brother all our lives, and I can’t do that anymore. We’re separate entities.” It was sad to hear — especially when you consider all the two had gone through together. 

Harry told his side of the story during that much-publicized interview with Oprah. He said, “My father and my brother, they are trapped [within the royal family]… They don’t get to leave. I love William to bits, he’s my brother, we’ve been through hell together... but we’re on different paths.” 

That was the energy in the air when the two brothers met to unveil the statue, complete with its distinctive outfit. It was a big moment in both their lives: honoring the mother who had loved them so much. And while both men were too professional to let any bad blood get in the way of the event, you had to wonder how they were really feeling. 

Harry also traveled to Kensington Palace separately from his brother. If media reports are to be believed, he was driven there by a member of his new press team. And, apparently, Harry and William only reunited mere minutes before the statue was set to be unveiled in the Sunken Garden. 

But that could have been because there were other guests at the event for William and Harry to greet. That would have kept them busy. Their uncle Charles Spencer and aunts Lady Jane Fellowes and Lady Sarah McCorquodale were present. Some of Diana’s friends were also there. And, of course, Ian Rank-Broadley had been invited, too. 

The princes seemed very friendly indeed with their aunts and uncle, and there didn’t seem to be any animosity towards Harry as they all hugged and kissed. But because the event was so private, it was up to lip-readers and body language experts to work out what was going on between the brothers. 

Lip-reader Jeremy Freeman told the Daily Star that he thought he knew what the princes were saying. After being told how to remove the statue cover, Harry apparently remarked to William, “We will be okay.” Then William supposedly said in response, “I didn’t want anything to go wrong. It’s important we unveil it right.” 

The signs looked good on the body language front, too. That’s according to Judi James, who said to the Daily Mirror, “They could have opted for a chilly distance with just a few curt words exchanged, but instead William and Harry took the decision to show a display of unity.” How did she know this? 

Well, James went on, “There were clearly some signs of inner tensions, but the self-comfort ritual that was Harry’s wedding ring fiddling and William’s jacket-patting and touching were all normal traits for both brothers.” And, she told the newspaper, there were definitely some notes of hope for the brothers’ strained relationship. 

“There were moments of eye contact between them — and with no obvious changes of eye expression or face-dropping that might suggest suppressed enmity,” James said of Harry and William. “Instead, Harry’s wide, horizontal grin looked so much like the old, playful Harry before the rift. And William’s rounded cheeks and rather more puckered lips suggested genuine pleasure.” Could their estrangement finally be coming to an end? 

In any case, the unveiling seemed to go well, and both William and Harry appeared happy with the statue. It was a tribute laden with meaning, after all. The sculpture depicts a casually dressed Diana accompanied by three young children. Touchingly, it looks as though she’s interacting with the kids in a caring, motherly way. 

And while the “clothes” on the statue may look pretty ordinary, they, too, appear to hold extra meaning. The media was quick to notice that the outfit looks very much like the one Diana wore for her 1993 Christmas card. That was the first she had posed for after splitting up from Charles, and she made sure to involve the young William and Harry in the picture. 

It’s very possible that the statue’s outfit — a pleated shirt paired with a skirt and belt — was a deliberate choice by William and Harry. After all, the sculpture depicts Diana as a caregiver more than a princess or a celebrity. It could be that the two went back over old outfits to decide which one represented Diana best. Maybe they even did so together. Perhaps the brothers would mention this after unveiling the statue? 

Well, if William and Harry had carefully chosen that outfit, they kept that information to themselves. In a joint statement — released to the media after the statue was revealed — they said, “Today, on what would have been our mother’s 60th birthday, we remember her love, strength, and character. [They were] qualities that made her a force for good around the world, changing countless lives for the better.” 

“Every day, we wish she were still with us, and our hope is that this statue will be seen forever as a symbol of her life and her legacy,” the princes continued. “Thank you to Ian Rank-Broadley, [Sunken Garden designer] Pip Morrison and their teams for their outstanding work, to the friends and donors who helped make this happen, and to all those around the world who keep our mother’s memory alive.” 

Kensington Palace also released a statement about the statue, and that explained the outfit a little further. “The figure of Diana, Princess of Wales, is surrounded by three children who represent the universality and generational impact of the princess’ work,” it said. “The portrait and style of dress was based on the final period of her life as she gained confidence in her role as an ambassador for humanitarian causes, and [it] aims to convey her character and compassion.”  

But if any royal fans were expecting the artist himself to speak out on the outfit, they would have been disappointed. At least he was gracious about Diana and her legacy. Speaking in a statement, Ian Rank-Broadley said, “Diana, Princess of Wales was an icon who touched the lives of people right around the world, so it has been a privilege to work with Prince William and Prince Harry on this statue... We wanted to capture her warmth and humanity while showcasing the impact she had across generations.” 

But did the acclaimed sculptor succeed in his aim? Well, there was a bit of a mixed reaction from art critics once the statue had made its debut. The Guardian’s Jonathan Jones slammed it as “a spiritless hunk of nonsense” — and that was just for starters. 

Jones went on to say that the statue “stands in an awkward, stiff, lifeless pose and has a face that’s more manly than I remember, modeled apparently with thickly gloved hands and no photo to consult.” Ouch. But it seems that at least one photo must have been consulted for the outfit. 

The critic went on, “It is a religious image that shamelessly plays up to the most mawkish aspects of Diana worship. She deserves to be remembered. But does she need to be turned into a colossal divine protectress of all children? If that is how Harry and William think of her, that’s up to them. But this looks like the art of a new religion.” Other commentators were kinder, though. 

The Independent’s Mark Hudson wrote of the statue, “The symmetrical arrangement brings a medieval feel, while there’s a strong sense of Victorian philanthropy in Diana’s majestic magnanimity. The Queen in People’s Hearts has become the mother of children everywhere. And there’s a moving and slightly eerie sense of an image glimpsed beyond the grave.” 

Other critics weren’t happy about the choice of outfit given to the statue. Alastair Sooke, writing for The Daily Telegraph, called the chosen clothes “kitsch.” That said, he also conceded, “For die-hard fans [of Diana], [the statue] will suffice.” 

Rachel Campbell-Johnston also criticized the shirt and skirt combo in her review for The Times. She wrote of the Diana statue, “She stands, arms outspread in the pose of a traditional religious Madonna. But instead of flowing veil and falling robes, she is wearing a somewhat frumpy 1980s outfit.” Oh, dear... 

Hopefully the statue’s mixed reception wasn’t too hard on William and Harry, as they very much did what they set out to do. They unveiled the statue of their mother while acting as a family unit. It may even have been the first step in repairing their relationship for good. 

There’s a hint that bridges may eventually be mended. Royal experts Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand made waves in 2020 with their book Finding Freedom — apparently an inside look at Harry and Meghan’s break from the royal family. And an updated version, released a year later, included more details about the Diana statue ceremony as well as a quote from an unnamed friend of the prince. 

The friend apparently said that William and Harry were “deeply devoted to carrying on their mother’s legacy, and no amount of hurt feelings would ever get in the way of that. It is an absolute priority. And even amidst this other stuff, they simply wouldn’t proceed without one another together.”  

That wasn’t the only good news. Not long after the ceremony, another supposed insider told Us Weekly, “William and Harry spent the morning before the statue unveiling looking through old keepsakes, notes from Diana, and bonding. They have absolutely turned a new page in their relationship and have started the healing.” 

The source added, “Everyone around [William and Harry] was thrilled to see how close they were on the day of the statue unveiling.” So that’s good news for those who want the brothers back together like they used to be. Hopefully, they’ll spend the next big anniversary bonding over their mother as well. Or maybe the release of Prince Harry’s memoir will be enough to push what's left of their relationship over the edge. William does seem to be very protective over his family, after all.

In September 2021 royal expert and author Duncan Larcombe referenced the upcoming book in an interview with OK! magazine. “William and Kate are concerned about absolutely everything that comes out of America in regards to Harry and Meghan — especially Harry’s tell-all warts and all memoir that’s gonna hit the shelves sometime next year. They have no control over the narrative.” Indeed, at the time of writing, no one knows yet what the memoir might reveal.