As a teenager, Princess Diana was a hopeful romantic, says novelist and journalist Wendy Holden. Holden, author of a fictionalized novel based on a young Lady Diana's life called "The Princess," tells Salon what her research revealed about the beginnings of Diana's relationship with the royal family and why she hoped Prince Charles would bring her bliss. Holden identifies where it all went wrong, how Diana was doubly betrayed and why her connection to everyday people became part of her legacy. "The British people, people all over the world felt that she understood them," Holden said. "They completely saw her as someone who understood them and they understood her because she'd suffered and she knew what it was like. There was just always this instinctive connection."