Princess Diana at 50: Mag Digitally Alters Her Photo, Reimagines Her Life

On July 1, Princess Diana would have turned 50 had she not been killed in a car accident back in 1997. To “celebrate” what would have been her birthday, Newsweek has created a digitally altered image of her, made a mock-up with Kate Middleton and reimagined her entire life.

Given that Princess Diana remains to this day one of the few public figures the British media would not touch (read slander in any way), there’s a lot of commotion right now because of the Newsweek piece.

For starters, the magazine shouldn’t have altered her photo and then included it in a photo with Kate, her daughter-in-law. Secondly, editor Tina Brown, shouldn’t have let her imagination run wild with her take on Diana’s life.

Speaking of which, Brown claims in the lengthy piece that Diana would have led a very adventurous life, had she lived to turn 50.

Staying in good shape with Botox and lots of hours spend weekly at the gym, she would have become the darling of the fashion industry.

She would have probably moved to New York shortly after her divorce, and, in her quest for everlasting love, would have married at least two more times – and had countless younger lovers.

Diana would have eventually put all animosity between herself and Charles and Camilla in the past, to the point where she’d have befriended both, Brown believes.

She would have been close to William’s wife, Kate, though she wouldn’t have accepted her from the first, because she would have probably resented seeing her son favoring another woman than herself.

“Diana, rejoicing in her flawless Spencer pedigree, would have positioned herself as a firm defender of the Middletons against the palace snobs and ostentatiously made Carole Middleton, Kate’s dynamic mother, her new BFF,” Brown writes.

Above all, Princess Diana would have remained a very active charity campaigner and would have lent her name to various major causes, meant to help millions of people from around the world.

“In the world disasters of the last few years – 9/11, the tsunamis, the Pakistan earthquake, Hurricane Katrina – you know Diana would have been first at the scene in a hard hat with a camera crew (and, by now, 10 million followers on Twitter),” Brown says.

“She would have kept her spotlight trained on individual sufferers whom she’d continued to visit and care for and touch. At a time when the world has disaster fatigue, I miss the generosity of her star power and what it could accomplish,” the Newsweek editor writes.