Media’s weighty speculation

Press, 22 May 1986, Page 29

Media’s weighty speculation

By

KAREN NIMMO

NZPA staff

correspondent London Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson have both become victims of a weight-conscious society. Princess Diana, who has been tagged “her royal thinness,” is said to be “dreadfully underweight.” While Royal bride-to-be Sarah faces a different problem. She would be “more beautiful than a Dallas soap dish” if she shed 10 to 12 pounds, according to the press.

The press began focusing on Royal “body weight” just two weeks ago when the 24-year-old Princess of Wales fainted during a visit to the World Fair in Canada.

Stress caused by a gruelling itinerary, both at

home and on the tour, was said to be the reason for the collapse, but almost immediately there was growing speculation that Britain’s favourite ambassadress of fashion was suffering from the summers’ disease, anorexia nervosa.

Pictures comparing a youthful Diana before her marriage to Prince Charles in 1981 and the sleek, highly fashionable Princess at social functions this year, appeared daily in the papers.

The difference was remarkable. Gone, said the press, , was the slightly chubby girl who liked Indian cotton skirts and giggling with her girlfriends. Here was a “gaunt, highly strung thoroughbred in the fashion stakes.” This is not the first time

the poor health of the Princess has worried Royal watchers. A spell of crash dieting in 1982 after the birth of Prince William also seized the attention of the public.

At the time two London tabloids claimed she had anorexia nervosa — the disease which her sister, Lady Sarah Spencer, now 31, suffered from for two years in her early twenties.

This year there has been some news media argument over the number of times the Princess has fainted. The “Daily Express” said Canada was her second collapse in three months. The "Sun” said it was her fourth this year. Now the focus has shifted to the eating habits of the 55kg Prin-

cess. She consumes just 380 calories on a typical day, according to the “Sun.” If Prince Charles is not around, she eats even less. Diana, who used to enjoy fish and chips, burgers and chocolates, is “very picky” when eating out But she insists she never diets, the “Sun” said.

Health experts quoted in the press agreed the Princess was “extremely tall and slim.” One doctor said, however, she was “obviously fundamentally a very healthy young lady who had given birth to two healthy boys.”

But while concern surrounds the svelte Diana, Sarah Ferguson appeared in a tabloid feature as “the girl who just can’t slim.”

With the wedding just two months away, Prince Andrew’s fiance remains a robust size 14 who happily admits to a healthy appetite. Designers have expressed concern that in spite of careful dieting since her engagement, she has failed to lose a single pound.

"She’d look just wonderful if she were lighter,” the award-win-ning designer, Bill Travilla, was quoted as saying.

Adjectives used to describe the 26-year-old redhead include “a bit of a jumble,” busty, buxom, a comfort eater and curvy.

But Prince Andrew doesn’t seem to mind. She has also been called bubbly, warm, humorous and spirited. Besides, he told the press, it was the red hair that got him.