Princess Diana’s First Work Contract—Which Includes a Fib from Diana Herself Written In Her Own Handwriting—Sells at Auction for a Staggering Sum

Hey, we’ve all gotta start somewhere right? Princess Diana’s first-ever work contract—on which she lied about her age, to boot—has just netted a huge sum at auction for being, you know, just a piece of paper: $10,500, People reports.

Lady Diana Spencer—not yet married to Prince Charles—filled out the form for the nanny agency Solve Your Problem Ltd. in May 1979 by hand. (Diana worked as a nanny and a nursery school assistant before her July 29, 1981 wedding, the same month she turned 20 years old.) The contract, People reports, “included a lie about her age,” as Diana, then 17, put her date of birth on the application as July 1st, 1960, a year earlier than her actual birthdate of July 1, 1961 “to make her appear over 18,” People writes.

According to Auctioneum Ltd., “The vendor having always been told that this was thought to be deliberate, Diana making herself appear older in order to get a job quicker, or receive more pay”; the lie was apparently caught, as the words “nearly 18” were written in blue ink next to her stated date of birth.

The form also included Diana’s London address, telephone number, religion, and desired start date, which she wrote was “Soon as possible.” Her listed skills included “cook—basic” (girl, same), “housework,” “animals,” and “ballet dancer.” On the lower part of the form is a note that seems to be from the reviewer of her application and reads “Lovely girl—send anywhere.”

Auctioneer Andrew Stowe told the BBC that interest in purchasing this work contract came from all over the globe, with bids from the United States, Hong Kong, Australia, and Canada. “Princess Diana, her life, and her story hold a very special place in so many people’s hearts, and the result of this auction shows that she is still well remembered all around the world,” Stowe said. “At face value, this is just an everyday work contract—a piece of office stationery that lived in a filing cabinet alongside hundreds of others. Yet, just over two years later, Diana Spencer would become Princess of Wales, and her life, and the whole of our history, would never be the same.” 

Stowe added that the work contract was “one of the last remaining snapshots of Diana’s ‘normal’ life.”

By February 1981, Charles and Diana were engaged, and married five months later at St. Paul’s Cathedral; Diana, author Wendy Holden told People, was exactly the “particular kind of girl” that the royal family wanted Charles to marry.

“It was a collision between different aspirations and ideas,” she said. “The royal family wanted Charles to get married because he was 30 [editor’s note: he was actually 32 at the time of their wedding], and they wanted a particular kind of girl. She needed to be young, she needed to be aristocratic, and she needed to be without a past. It was a very pragmatic decision. She was practically the only person who was left. He had had so many girlfriends by then,” including one, Camilla Parker-Bowles, who he never could seem to get over.