It was the early hours of the morning when my phone rang. I was asleep and it took me a moment to get myself together. The voice of my friend Anne in California dispensed with usual greetings and instead simply said “Simon, your princess is dead.”
The TV news was carrying pictures of a smashed car in a Paris tunnel. Details were sketchy and confused. But by the time the country awoke that Sunday morning Diana, Princess of Wales, was dead and everything normal seemed to stop, as if standing in shock like everyone else.
I won’t re-hash what newspapers around the world will doubtlessly be saying today. I’ll just take this moment to remember Diana, Princess of Wales, who died on this day 10 years ago.
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BBC News announce Diana’s death
BBC Report on the Funeral of the Princess
[Video] Tribute video (alternative version)
Wrote the following comment on Aug 31, 2007 at 9:40 am
I remember that day to. It was my birthday around that time and so we were using the Sunday to have a BBQ party.
I remember everyone coming to the BBQ but all they wanted to do all day was watch TV and they didn’t really want to celebrate my birthday. Who can blame them though?
It is one of those events were, like JFK, everyone know’s where they where and what they were doing the day Diana died.
Wrote the following comment on Aug 31, 2007 at 1:02 pm
as Mark said above, with amazing tragedies like the death of Princess Diana, time stands still and the place in which you were at that moment is embossed in our mind forever. I believe that there are only three such moments in my life…. the Space Shuttle Explosion, Princess Di, and 911.
I was camping and sitting around a campfire when the news of the Princess came over the radio. We all sat there in shock and in silence.
The world was a better place with her in it.
Wrote the following comment on Aug 31, 2007 at 3:07 pm
She had the most magnificent smile. And a larger than life presence. Her death was a moment forged for an entire generation.
Wrote the following comment on Aug 31, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Well done Simon.
She was a class act.
Wrote the following comment on Aug 31, 2007 at 4:10 pm
It’s a great video.. she had a great smile.
i agree with bubblz, it was a day i think everyone remembers. That was also the year Mother Theresa died.. such a tragedy to lose two of the worlds most caring persons
Wrote the following comment on Aug 31, 2007 at 7:01 pm
I’ll never forget that day. =( I remember watching television when the news broke in and I ended up watching t.v. all night long. I was just in shock. I don’t think it ever fully sunk in, even now.
Her sons, imho, are absolute wonderful gentlemen. I think she would be so proud.
Wrote the following comment on Sep 1, 2007 at 11:14 am
I remember this day as it was yesterday! 1997. There had been fourteen people in my home the night before. The events in Paris took place while those people gathered in my home.
Wrote the following comment on Sep 1, 2007 at 1:20 pm
Come on people, she was a total lunatic! She had lost the plot completely and was become a tragic figure. If she hadn’t died then where would she be today? Would any of us really care about her? She’s been made into an icon far above her true standing in the world.
Glorifying this woman is all well and good but ask yourself this, what did she really do?
Wrote the following comment on Sep 1, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Andy, I agree with you to a point about how Diana has now been elevated to a near sainted position, however, this is not an entirely uncommon thing. I think people like to think well of those who are no longer with us. If we were to remember the faults of flaws of historical figures in the same tabloid way the media highlight their failings when they are alive, then many of our historical heros would be unfit for the status they have been afforded.
Diana was a somewhat tragic figure when she was killed. She had lived in a marriage that was a sham, her husband had been cheating on her from day one and yet she was not in a position where the options available to you or I were a possibility.
In being cast out from the Royal family she was somewhat marooned more than set free. I would expect she was angry, like many people would be in that situation. She was having to find her feet and reposition herself in life, all under the glare of a media spotlight that continued to insure her place as the most photographed person in the history of the world.
Personally I think that Diana’s death is suspect. She was killed at a time when she was most threatening to the British monarchy. If she were alive today then I very much doubt that Prince Charles would have remarried. With Diana gone the Prince could continue his life without the annoyance of an ex wife acting as a thorn in his side.
I too wonder who Diana would have been today had she lived. I wonder if she would have found a place in life, a role in which she could excel. I think that after some soul searching she would have made it through those turbulent times following her high profile divorce. Today the Princess would likely be just another public figure whose days in the spotlight would have faded with her beauty.
I’m not sure what her achievements in life were. The media was far less interested in them than they were her. If she had lived to be an old woman then perhaps her achievements would have outshone her beauty, and maybe we could remember Diana for being much more than just a beautiful woman?
Wrote the following comment on Sep 1, 2007 at 3:48 pm
I don’t believe that she would have quickly been forgotten by the spotlight with age. Diana was an icon of icons inspite of her tabloid appeal. William and Harry would have cemented her place with the media even if she never stepped foot on another mine field or hugged a sick child. Their actions will always be fodder for the paparazzi and her reactions and thoughts would have triggered more photos. Diana was the people’s princess. That says it all.
Wrote the following comment on Sep 1, 2007 at 4:23 pm
I don’t believe she would have been forgotten. Though as a beautiful woman she would unarguably be more photogenic than some old wrinkly lady, no? That was my point. And as a beautiful single woman cavorting around on private yachts of millionaire playboys in the harbor on Monte Carlo she was the paparazzi’s dream. Once that period of her life had passed the army following her would surely deplete as they chase some other celeb for the juicy picture that would adorn the front page of the tabloids.
Wrote the following comment on Sep 1, 2007 at 7:01 pm
Nicely done on the video.. whatever would have happened, who knows? But she put up with a lot and she was a Princess, indeed.
Wrote the following comment on Sep 2, 2007 at 3:28 pm
That is a moving video Simon.