Meghan Markle spoke openly about her struggles as a new mum in the royal spotlight while Prince Harry discussed his relationship with his brother and determination to protect his family in their behind-the-scenes documentary.

The couple have been praised for speaking so honestly and openly, and showing a raw side of the Royal Family that we very rarely see.

But they aren't the first members of The Firm to speak so publicly about extremely personal issues, and Princess Diana gave a number of moving interviews.

The most famous was with BBC's Martin Bashir in 1995, when she dropped a number of bombshells about her relationship with Prince Charles and life in the Royal Family.

Buckingham Palace had no idea about her interview and shortly after it aired the Queen wrote to both Diana and Charles advising them to get a divorce.

Diana, Princess of Wales, during her interview with Martin Bashir (
Image:
PA)

She spoke for the first time of Charles's affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles, and one of the most famous quotes from the interview became: "Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded."

She also spoke about her bulimia, saying: "That's like a secret disease.

"You inflict it upon yourself because your self-esteem is at a low ebb, and you don't think you're worthy or valuable. You fill your stomach up four or five times a day - some do it more - and it gives you a feeling of comfort.

"It's like having a pair of arms around you, but it's temporarily, temporary. Then you're disgusted at the bloatedness of your stomach, and then you bring it all up again.

"And it's a repetitive pattern which is very destructive to yourself."

Diana was remarkably candid in her talks with the Panorama presenter (
Image:
BBC)

Just as Meghan spoke about adjusting to life in the spotlight, Diana was asked if she was aware of the "significance" of becoming the Princess of Wales.

She said: " I wasn't daunted, and am not daunted by the responsibilities that that role creates. It was a challenge, it is a challenge.

"As for becoming Queen, it's, it was never at the forefront of my mind when I married my husband: it was a long way off that thought.

"The most daunting aspect was the media attention, because my husband and I, we were told when we got engaged that the media would go quietly, and it didn't; and then when we were married they said it would go quietly and it didn't; and then it started to focus very much on me, and I seemed to be on the front of a newspaper every single day, which is an isolating experience, and the higher the media put you, place you, is the bigger the drop.

"And I was very aware of that.

Diana says she wasn't aware of why people were so interested in her

"It took a long time to understand why people were so interested in me, but I assumed it was because my husband had done a lot of wonderful work leading up to our marriage and our relationship.

"But then I, during the years you see yourself as a good product that sits on a shelf and sells well, and people make a lot of money out of you."

She also spoke about becoming a mum for the first time, admitting she struggled from post-natal depression in the months after welcoming Prince William.

Diana spoke in a way we had never heard from a royal before (
Image:
Tim Graham/Getty Images)

She said: "Well, everybody was thrilled to bits. It had been quite a difficult pregnancy - I hadn't been very well throughout it - so by the time William arrived it was a great relief because it was all peaceful again, and I was well for a time.

"Then I was unwell with post-natal depression, which no one ever discusses, post-natal depression, you have to read about it afterwards, and that in itself was a bit of a difficult time. You'd wake up in the morning feeling you didn't want to get out of bed, you felt misunderstood, and just very, very low in yourself.

"I never had had a depression in my life.

But then when I analysed it I could see that the changes I'd made in the last year had all caught up with me, and my body had said: `We want a rest.'

"I received a great deal of treatment, but I knew in myself that actually what I needed was space and time to adapt to all the different roles that had come my way. I knew I could do it, but I needed people to be patient and give me the space to do it."