She received no help or support from her husband. Even the family turned a blind eye to he serious issue.
When Diana gave birth to a baby boy back in 1982, the world rejoiced at the arrival of Prince William. While she was elated to be a new mom, the experience was at times "unbearable." In the book, Diana: Her True Story, by Andrew Morton, Diana revealed that the pressure of the media talking about her pregnancy was too much for her to handle.
“When we had William, we had to find a date in the diary that suited Charles and his polo,” she said, reported by People. She continued, “William had to be induced because I couldn’t handle the press pressure any longer, it was becoming unbearable. It was as if everyone was monitoring every day for me.”
She then added, “Anyway, the boy arrived, great excitement. Thrilled, everyone absolutely high as a kite – we had found a date where Charles could get off his polo pony for me to give birth. That was very nice, felt grateful about that!” But the arrival of the heir was just the beginning of a lasting problem, which she had to secretly battle all by herself.
People reported her saying, “Came home and then postnatal depression hit me hard and it wasn’t so much the baby that had produced it, it was the baby that triggered off all else that was going on in my mind,” and added, “Boy, I was troubled.”
She was suddenly burdened by the responsibility of being the perfect mother, wife, and the princess. The pressure made her worry about even those who ignored her, like Prince Charles. “If he didn’t come when he said he was coming home I thought something dreadful had happened to him. Tears, panic, all the rest of it. He didn’t see the panic because I would sit there quietly,” she said.
At the christening of Prince William, the royal family made an already lonely Diana fell even more shunned with their actions. Describing the day, she said, “Endless pictures of the Queen, Queen Mother, Charles, and William. I was excluded totally that day. I felt desperate because I had literally just given birth – William was only 6 weeks old. And it was all decided around me. Hence the ghastly pictures.”
“Everything was out of control, everything. I wasn’t very well and I just blubbed my eyes out. William started crying, too. Well, he just sensed that I wasn’t exactly hunky-dory,” she added.
She opened up about her struggle with severe postpartum depression in her infamous The Panorama Interview with Martin Bashir in 1995. She confessed that it was a huge relief when she found out she was going to have a boy as she was under enormous pressure the entire time. "It felt like the whole country was in labor with me,” she said.
Admitting to a difficult pregnancy, she revealed that the psychological issue after giving birth just added on to her already disturbed psyche. She said, “I was unwell with postpartum depression, which no one ever discusses, postpartum depression, you have to read about it afterward, and that in itself was a bit of a difficult time."
Giving more details, she continued, "You’d wake up in the morning feeling like you didn’t want to get out of bed, you felt misunderstood, and just very, very low in yourself. [...] I never had had depression in my life. But then, when I analyzed it, I could see that the changes I’d made in the last year had all caught up with me, and my body had said: ’We want a rest.’”
Always ahead of her times, Instead of being ashamed of her condition, she considered getting help and undergoing treatment. To her disappointment, she didn't receive enough support from the family. she had to take care of herself but it had it took a toll on her already crumbling marriage. “It gave everybody a wonderful new label — Diana’s unstable and Diana’s mentally unbalanced. And unfortunately, that seems to have stuck on and off over the years,” she said.
Diana even tried to harm herself when things got out of control. “When no one listens to you, or you feel no one’s listening to you, all sorts of things start to happen." She continued, "For instance, you have so much pain inside yourself that you try and hurt yourself on the outside because you want help, but it’s the wrong help you’re asking for. People see it as crying wolf or attention-seeking, and they think because you’re in the media all the time that you’ve got 'enough attention.'"
Her actions were a cry for help because although she wanted to continue her duty "as wife, mother, Princess of Wales," it was difficult without emotional support. Although she did admit rather candidly, "I was ashamed because I couldn’t cope with the pressures." This prompted her to work with women who went through similar circumstances. It helped her to "understand completely where they’re coming from,” she added.
Even though she worked her way through it all, her marriage couldn't survive for too long. Prince Harry's birth helped repair Prince Charles' and her relationship a little. But by 1996, they decided to separate legally. As much a loving mother and devoted wife she was, she is also the most beloved People's Princess of all time.
References:
https://people.com/royals/princess-diana-revealed-postpartum-depression-hit-me-hard/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/politics97/diana/panorama.html
