Reaching back from the grave, Princess Diana offers a love sonnet full of prescient warnings for Kate Middleton. To appreciate the value of the advice, it is helpful to appreciate that while it is good to be the King, it might be even better for a horny young Englishman to be first in line for the throne—thereby to feast at leisure upon a royal smorgasbord of desirable, hot-to-trot sexual partners.

Thus, William’s father, Prince Charles abandoned his first love, Camilla Shand, romped the field for many years, and then came back later to cuckold Camilla’s hapless husband. To be fair, Camilla, wise to the common ways of royalty, probably got a voyeuristic kick watching—and patiently waiting—as her secret lover bedded other aspirants to royal fame and fortune. Recall, too, that after a night of polishing the royal knob on the eve of his wedding, Camilla scampered off to perch in a Westminster Abbey pew to watch her kneeling Prince recite his sacred marriage vows before his doe-eyed bride, his family, his country, and his God.

Tacky? Yes! But the iffy apple never falls far from the damaged tree. William also deflowered and abandoned a commoner, Katie, leaving her to suck it up, swallow her pride, and watch and wait for seven long years. Then, like his father before him, pressure fell upon William to sire an heir. So, also like his father before him, the now-balding prince picked up with a commoner—Waity Katie. Westminster Abbey next stop! God only knows which of the discards would perch in the pews.

All of which leads us to Diana. She left a treasure trove of insight into her heart and life. And, studying her most memorable nuggets stitched into a sonnet, one is struck by the aptness of Diana’s advice for Katie. Diana’s first warning is plain: don’t enter a royal circle too hopefully or you’ll wind up disappointed—or as Diana puts it:

Being a princess isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
I didn’t want gifts or fancy wages,
just to be queen of hearts and then decree
love for the unloved to last for ages.

Diana entered her marriage yearning to find a loving partner, but came up short. If it is true that the sins of the father are visited unto the son, then Katie might well meet the same unhappy fate. In sharing how her own hopes were dashed, Diana applies a bandage of acerbic irony to her wounds:

I never needed a golden carriage;
all I wanted was someone there for me—
but there were three of us in that marriage,
a bit of a crowd, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Sure, there were three in the marriage, but it was never a ménage a trois, just a sad affair. On the bright side, Diana never surrendered her belief in the guiding wisdom of the heart. So, here, for sure, concisely expressed is the core life-philosophy she’d urge Katie to adopt, as both a princess and a princess in love:

Life’s just a journey, we all wind up dead,
so I wore my heart on my sleeve and led
from the heart, not the rule book of the head:
if you find love, Hang On, is what I said.

Hang on, indeed, yes! But Katie will surely pay close attention to the “if” in that last line. Might Diana be warning to examine the authenticity of Prince William’s commitment? And, given Diana’s own loveless marriage, perhaps she is also cautioning Katie to anticipate the enchanted evening when a real lover might sight her across a crowded room, and race to her side.

Finally, from wherever she might be right now, Diana makes an ultimate and ultimately heart rending offer to share warmth, affection, advice and love:

Yes, be a free spirit, hear your heart sing
Or call on me, and I will come running.