Valentine Low

“After their engagement in February 1981, Diana was given a desk in Colborne’s office. Naive, and a little bit lost, she was often left to her own devices for lengthy periods and would spend hours on end talking to Colborne. After an unfortunate incident in which Diana went for a walk in Windsor Great Park without telling anyone, thus throwing her security detail into a panic, Colborne told her about the realities of the existence she faced. She would, he said, never be on her own again, and her life would be dictated by the staples of the royal diary, from Royal Ascot to the Cenotaph service. ‘You’re going to change,’ he told her. ‘In four to five years you’re going to be an absolute bitch, not through any fault of your own, but because of the circumstances in which you live. If you want four boiled eggs for breakfast, you’ll have them. If you want the car brought round to the front door a minute ago, you’ll have it.”
― Valentine Low, Courtiers: Intrigue, Ambition, and the Power Players Behind the House of Windsor