A devoted Princess Diana superfan who has spent millions on memorabilia has criticised Earl Spencer's new book, calling it contradictory. Renae Plant, 55, is on the verge of realising her life's dream by organising a major exhibition of 750 of Diana's personal possessions. She has been captivated by the princess since watching her wedding on TV at age 10.
Plant says: "To keep bringing up these pieces that are going to sell a book when you're telling people you're never going to cash in on your sister is kind of contradictory to me."
Concerns Over Book's Impact
Los Angeles-based Plant, who met Princess Diana at age 12 when the royal visited her native Queensland, Australia, has not yet read the Earl's book, Swan Song. But she says: "It doesn't sit well with me. If you want to protect your sister, you don't go and talk about her in a way that's going to stir everything up again to make it negative."
Plant has spent millions on 2,700 items previously owned by Diana, who died with Dodi Fayed, 42, in a high-speed car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997, aged just 36.
Disappointment with Harry and Meghan
Plant, who owns a preschool with husband Livinio and has some investment properties, says she is also disappointed by the behaviour of Prince Harry and Meghan, who until recently lived in California, like her. She says: "You can't leave the Royal Family, then come back and pretend you are a royal and then cash in on it. It's just a mess.
"The biggest gift I learned from Diana was to do something for others expecting nothing in return. I'm really upset with Meghan and Harry. I hope they can just live a happy life and go off and do what they wanted to do, which was to be left alone."
Exhibition and Royal Reactions
Plant invited Prince William to the Diana: Love Life Legacy – A Life of Giving exhibition and opening at The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in California in November. She says while he cannot attend, he is happy about the project.
As a mother of three, she believes Diana would be distraught at the fallout between William and Harry. She says: "She would roll over in her grave if she could see what was happening now. I think Diana, if she was still alive, would have bashed William and Harry's heads together long ago."
Early Enchantment and First Meeting
Plant has idolised Diana since she became enchanted by the 1981 Royal Wedding, which she watched on TV as a 10-year-old girl. She says: "The fairytale where a girl marries the prince, runs off and lives happily ever after is every little girl's fantasy. I was enamoured by the whole spectacle."
In 1983, they met. Plant recalls: "It was the 1983 [Australia] tour and she had just had Prince William. Kids were dragged out of their schools waving flags in 110 degree heat. I met her when they came to the ginger factory in Queensland. She was wearing a beautiful yellow dress and a big white hat. She reached out and shook my hand. When she looks you in the eyes, there's something you can't put into words. I felt seen.
"She waited for me to say something and I didn't, so she kept going slowly. I thought, 'Oh my god, I didn't say anything.' So I ducked under a barricade and walked behind them – Charles and Di, the lady-in-waiting and the security guard. All of a sudden, a girlfriend of mine yells out, 'Renae, she's dropped something in the dirt.' I pick it up and it's this little clay platypus."
With the royal party about to depart in a black Rolls-Royce, Plant ran over to give it back. She continues: "They're shutting the gates. I said to a policeman, 'Lady Di dropped this?' I've got it open in my palm. And he looked at me. He looked at the platypus. He closed my hand. He said, 'She must have dropped it to give it to you.'"
Later Encounters and Collecting
Plant met the princess again in 1988, when she visited Bondi, in Sydney. She recalls: "I had to get a milk crate, tip it upside down, stand on it, and then reach out over the crowd three deep. She's wearing this Bellville Sassoon 'Caring Dress'. I start screaming out, 'Lady Di! Lady Di!' She looks up at me, smiles, reaches up and shakes my hand again."
Last year, Plant bought that very dress for almost £400,000 when it went up for sale in LA. It features in the exhibition. She began collecting Diana memorabilia in 2014 – spending her life savings, intended for investment in a restaurant, on one of the princess's dresses instead. She says: "Right as we were about to pull the trigger on it, I heard about an auction coming up with six of Diana's dresses. So I asked my husband what he thought about this instead of the restaurant... and he said yes."
Plant bought a Caroline Charles burgundy wool coat dress that Diana wore in March 1983, while carrying baby Prince William off a plane at Aberdeen Airport in Scotland. She says: "I wanted that one, because that was the only dress I'd ever seen where she's actually with the boys. I knew it would hold its historical value. We paid $125,000 – we used up all our savings."
Her next acquisition was the Versace dress that Diana wore for her 1997 Harper's Bazaar cover shoot, taking out a second mortgage on her house to do so, but was confident it was a wise investment.
In 2015, Plant started the Princess and the Platypus Foundation, a non-profit organisation honouring Diana through a virtual museum, showing artefacts, clothing and art. Plant says: "William and Harry gave their blessing. I reached out before I even started this project to be respectful. They wrote back and said 'go for it.' So I did."
Remaining in touch with William over the years, she says she likes him and Kate but that they will never replace Diana in her heart. She says: "She was more than anybody can ever ever be."
