The innocence endured. She had made a fool of herself the way a lot of other women around the world knew they'd made fools of themselves, and so they forgave her. When you forgive the rich and powerful, it's love that's at work. Her last love came in the form of Egyptian playboy Dodi Fayed. Like all princesses in the public mind, Diana was always on the verge of happiness.
Mythology is full of the hazards of moving from one world to another.
So are old newspapers. Look at the public disgust with Jackie Kennedy when she married the troglodytic Greek shipping magnate, Aristotle Onassis. She may well have married him to escape the Kennedy family, and for enough money to live like the princess we thought she was, but we only forgave her after years of silence that followed Onassis's death. Look at the the weird and endless silence that was the price of Garbo's return from goddess to mortal. Unless they are born as princesses, there has to be a metamorphosis.