\u201cI was only found out to have very severe ADHD late in life, and I know it\u2019s exactly what Diana had. It\u2019s so similar.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut Diana was as extreme. So I\u2019ve got really upset when people have tried to say, because Diana could get very hurt and emotional, they would say, \u2018Oh, maybe she had bipolar or borderline personality\u2019 and all these. Who knows? I know it\u2019s not those, by the way, but these people throw out these theories. I think it\u2019s more humdrum in a way. I think it was ADHD, and rejection for people with ADHD goes very, very deep.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spencer\u2019s new book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, details the earl\u2019s memories of his sister abruptly freezing out members of her inner circle, and he believes she behaved that way because of undiagnosed ADHD.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThis isn\u2019t a criticism. It\u2019s a recognition that she was struggling with a condition that was totally undiagnosed, and she could turn on a pin. If she felt a friend had let her down, that was a really big deal and it was difficult to come back from that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very straight in the book. There wasn\u2019t a single member of my family who Diana didn\u2019t fall out with and turn her back on for some time.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I suppose as family, we weren\u2019t going anywhere, so we came back into favour or whatever. But understanding the ADHD aspect of that is really helpful. And also the extraordinary pressure she was under …<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople said, \u2018Oh, she was paranoid.\u2019 No, she wasn\u2019t. She was sensitive to rejection, and she felt very let down by people.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd because of her ADHD, because of her personality and her character, she felt these things very deeply.\u201d<\/p>\n
The earl worried Diana used to \u201cgive\u201d too much of herself to other people, leaving her exhausted.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cAnd I think particularly so because she was giving so much of herself in her public life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to feel this extraordinary thing about Diana, that it was almost like people had no idea how much they were taking from her. And I\u2019m talking about innocent members of the public, who adored her, but she felt the need to give. I think it made her feel better about life, but it was draining.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen she was at home alone in Kensington Palace, she\u2019d often go to bed by 9pm because she was just done. And then the next day she\u2019d go and do a public event and be the life and soul of the day and make these people\u2019s … Give them life memories. This is not done without cost to the individual.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI was only found out to have very severe ADHD late in life, and I know it\u2019s exactly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3867,29385,31468,8668,107137,128519,156,1351,4507,111,139,69,28821,2848,21038,303],"class_list":["post-607599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-adhd","tag-believes","tag-brother","tag-diana","tag-dianas","tag-earl","tag-entertainment","tag-had","tag-late","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-princess","tag-severe","tag-spencer","tag-very"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}