"I don't want expensive gifts; I don't want to be bought. I have everything I want. I just want someone to be there for me, to make me feel safe and secure."

That quote tells you everything about Princess Diana. Not the tiaras. Not the headlines. Not even the charitable work. At her core, she wanted what every human wants - to be loved.

But Diana's search for love became the most watched drama of the 20th century. And understanding why she was the way she was? That's where it gets fascinating.

TL;DR: Why Princess Diana was an Enneagram Type 2
  • Core Wound: Her mother's abandonment at age 5 created a lifelong fear of being unloved and unwanted.
  • Need for Validation: She sought constant approval in relationships, at a level "no one could maintain."
  • Helping as Identity: Her humanitarian work wasn't just charity - it was how she found meaning and felt worthy of love.
  • Stress Response: Under pressure, she became aggressive and fighting (Type 8 disintegration) - pushing her stepmother, using media for revenge.
  • World Through Love: She said "the biggest disease the world suffers from is people feeling unloved" - projecting her core wound onto the world.

What is Princess Diana's Personality Type?

Princess Diana was an Enneagram Type 2 - The Helper

Type 2s are called "The Helpers" - but that's too simple. What drives them is deeper: a fundamental belief that they must earn love by meeting others' needs.

Type 2s fear being unwanted. Unloved. Dispensable.

Sound like Diana's story?

Their core desire is to feel loved and needed. They often struggle to recognize their own needs because they're so focused on others. And when they don't receive the love they give? Resentment builds. Sometimes explosively.

Diana embodied all of this - the warmth, the giving, and yes, the shadow side too.

Diana's Childhood: Where the Helper Was Born

The five-year-old Diana stood on the doorstep of Park House, waiting.

Her mother Frances had promised to come back. She never did.

"While she was packing her stuff to leave, she promised Diana she'd come back to see her," her brother Charles Spencer later revealed. "Diana used to wait on the doorstep for her, but she never came."

That moment shaped everything.

Diana's parents' 1969 divorce was brutal. Her father won custody - with help from Frances's own mother testifying against her daughter. Diana felt like a nuisance from birth. "I couldn't understand why I was perhaps a nuisance to have around," she later said. Her parents had wanted a boy.

Then came Raine, her stepmother. The Spencer children called her "Acid Raine." Diana reportedly pushed her down the stairs once. That's not typical Helper behavior - unless you understand how Type 2s react under extreme stress.

Charles Spencer underwent "agonizing and horrible" therapy to deal with their childhood. He described having "a predisposition for rescuing people" because of it.

Diana never got that chance to fully heal.

Rise to Fame: A Shy Girl Becomes the World's Princess

They called her "Shy Di."

When the 19-year-old Lady Diana Spencer became engaged to Prince Charles, the world saw a demure young woman who lowered her head and kept her gaze down during interviews. Classic Type 2 behavior - self-deprecating, unassuming, accommodating.

"I was always told by my family that I was the thick one," Diana once said. "That I was stupid and my brother was the clever one."

She went to her headmistress crying, saying she wished she wasn't so stupid. The woman who would become one of the most photographed people on Earth genuinely believed she was "as thick as a plank."

This is crucial to understanding Diana. Type 2s often have shaky self-esteem. They derive their worth from being needed by others - not from internal confidence.

The wedding? She described it as "the worst day of my life."

She'd met Charles only a handful of times. She was 19. He was 32. She was stepping into a cold institution that demanded she hide every feeling she had.

For Diana - who wore her heart on her sleeve - this was psychological torture.

The Helper's Personality Patterns

The Touch That Changed Everything

In 1987, Diana did something revolutionary.

She shook hands with AIDS patients. Without gloves.

At a time when people believed you could catch HIV through casual contact, the Princess of Wales sat on hospital beds, held patients' hands, and looked them in the eyes.

"When she stroked the limbs of someone with leprosy or sat on the bed of a man with HIV/AIDS and held his hand, she transformed public attitudes," Nelson Mandela said.

This wasn't calculated PR. This was pure Type 2 - seeing suffering and physically moving toward it, not away. Diana didn't just donate. She showed up. She made charity personal.

Bulimia: The Secret Disease

"I didn't like myself. I was ashamed because I couldn't cope with the pressures."

Diana battled bulimia for years. She described it as "a secret disease that you inflict upon yourself because your self-esteem's at a low ebb. You don't think you're worthy or valuable."

Type 2s who feel unloved often turn inward with their pain. The bulimia started when Charles made a comment about her being "a bit chubby." Between her first wedding dress fitting and her last, Diana's waist shrank from 29 inches to 23.5.

She called bulimia "a symptom of what was going on in my marriage" and "a survival mechanism."

When Diana finally went public about her struggles in 1992, the number of reported bulimia cases spiked. Thousands of people sought treatment because she'd given them permission to not be ashamed. That's the Helper's gift - transforming personal pain into collective healing.

"Three of Us in This Marriage"

Diana's famous line about Camilla Parker Bowles became iconic: "Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded."

But there's something deeply Type 2 about how Diana handled the betrayal.

She didn't retreat. She fought. She gave interviews. She used the media. She wanted the world to see her pain - and validate it.

Critics called her manipulative. Tony Blair described her as "a manipulator and extraordinarily captivating." But for a Type 2, public validation can feel like survival when private love has been denied.

The interview with Martin Bashir? She did it because she regarded the public "as an extension of her family."

When your actual family - both birth and married - has failed you, you find a bigger family.

Major Accomplishments

Walking Through Minefields

In January 1997, Diana walked through an active minefield in Angola.

Not metaphorically. Literally.

"I'd read the statistics that Angola has the highest percentage of amputees anywhere in the world," she told reporters. "That one person in every 333 had lost a limb, most of them through landmine explosions."

James Cowan, CEO of the Halo Trust, credits Diana with the success of the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty, which 122 countries signed months after her death.

Diana reported that her prime motivation was "to try and help the most vulnerable people in society." She told the BBC it was "a goal and an essential part of my life, a kind of destiny."

Type 2s don't just want to help. They need to help. It's how they feel worthy of existence.

The People's Princess Legacy

After her divorce, Diana resigned from over 100 charities. She kept only six: Centrepoint, English National Ballet, Great Ormond Street Hospital, The Leprosy Mission, National AIDS Trust, and the Royal Marsden Hospital.

She went from quantity to quality. Depth over breadth.

Her son Prince Harry continues her landmine work through HALO Trust. Meghan Markle, his wife, has faced her own complicated relationship with the royal family - perhaps drawing strength from Diana's example of choosing authenticity over protocol.

Drama and Controversies

The Helper's Dark Side

Type 2s have a shadow side. When their love isn't reciprocated, they can become resentful, manipulative, and aggressive.

Diana showed all of these.

She tipped off tabloids. She timed appearances to upstage other royals. She gave explosive interviews. Sally Bedell Smith characterized her as "unpredictable, egocentric, and possessive."

But here's what the critics miss: Type 2s under stress move toward Type 8 energy - becoming controlling, confrontational, and willing to fight. Diana's "revenge" behaviors weren't random. They were a wounded Helper fighting back.

"She won't go quietly, that's the problem," Diana said of herself. "I'll fight to the end, because I believe that I have a role to fulfill."

Paranoia or Justified Fear?

Toward the end of her life, Diana exhibited what some called paranoid behavior.

But was it paranoia?

The 2021 investigation revealed that journalist Martin Bashir used forged documents and lies to secure her famous Panorama interview. He manipulated an already vulnerable woman.

"It is not paranoia if you have reasonable grounds to believe that they are out to get you," her former private secretary Patrick Jephson said.

Diana declined royal security before her death - in part because she didn't trust anyone connected to the institution that had hurt her.

For a Type 2 whose core wound is being abandoned and unloved, betrayal by those closest to you confirms your worst fears.

Diana's Legacy: Still Helping

Diana died at 36. But her impact keeps rippling.

She transformed how we talk about mental health. The "Diana Effect" made it acceptable to admit struggles with eating disorders, depression, and loneliness.

She humanized AIDS patients when the world treated them as pariahs. She made princes hug homeless children.

Queen Elizabeth II, Diana's former mother-in-law, represented the old way - duty over feeling, protocol over connection. Diana represented something new: authentic emotional expression from public figures.

The world chose Diana's way.

Understanding Diana Through the Enneagram

What the Enneagram reveals about Diana isn't that she was simply "kind" or "troubled." It shows why.

Her childhood abandonment created the Type 2 wound: the belief that she was unworthy of love unless she earned it through giving. Her humanitarian work wasn't just charitable - it was existential. She needed to help to feel worthy of being alive.

Her "difficult" behaviors weren't random - they were a hurt Helper fighting for the love she'd been denied since age five.

"The biggest disease the world suffers from is people feeling unloved," Diana said. "I know that I can give love for a minute, for half an hour, for a day, for a month, but I can give."

She wasn't just describing the world's disease.

She was describing her own.

The question Diana leaves us with: What would have happened if someone had made her feel safe and secure? Not the tiaras. Not the titles. Just... loved?

Disclaimer: This analysis of Princess Diana's Enneagram type is speculative, based on publicly available information, and may not reflect her actual personality type.