I think it was a mixture of her being incredibly famous and it being such a quick, shocking death. And the first reports saying she'd just got a broken arm.
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1st I heard was that and that Dodi was dead. I went off to bed thinking she'd be devastated at that, didn't occur to me for one second she'd die.
Same. I then got a phone call in the morning "Diana's dead" and I said "no, Dodi" at first, took a few seconds to sink in
It was really OTT with people saying they could see her face in the clouds and god knows what else, I couldn't believe it, it was like people were possessed. People keening at the funeral as well as if she was their close friend or relative ridiculous!!I’m not a ‘Sussex Stan’
I was alive at the time. It too young to understand. But I don’t understand the outpouring, it seems excessive seeing videos of the time and people are breaking down in the street and hysterically sobbing.
There was a book of remembrance opened at work - which I could never understand. She had never been and there was no connection at all plus there was also one in the Town Hall if anyone really wanted. There was no rhyme or reason to the way some people went absolutely OTT.
It was incredibly unexpected but do you think there was some sort of mass hysteria surrounding it?
Without a doubt.
it was a Folie à deux involving a whole country and Elton’s eyebrow.
I awoke to a strange atmosphere, put the TV on and could see men and women crying at some black railings. I was thinking omg what's happened?!! We had just had a bereavement in the family of a young person so the atmosphere kind of fitted our mood. For men to be openly crying I thought something horrific must have happened.
4 years later I was gardening in the afternoon and same strange atmosphere of silence, birds stopped singing. Don't know why but I went inside and put on the TV to see 9/11 "in progress"....
4 years later I was gardening in the afternoon and same strange atmosphere of silence, birds stopped singing. Don't know why but I went inside and put on the TV to see 9/11 "in progress"....
Were people this crazy about her in life? Like did people talk about her in everyday life and her have an impact day to day?
I know she was incredibly famous, but for people to go that crazy and possessed as described above, surely she was impacting peoples everyday lives? Or was it just people wanting to be part of something bigger than them?
I know she was incredibly famous, but for people to go that crazy and possessed as described above, surely she was impacting peoples everyday lives? Or was it just people wanting to be part of something bigger than them?
That morning a friend of mine who lived not too far away went to KP. There were tourists posing for pics holding up a copy of the News of the World with DIANA DEAD on the front page.
Well she completely overshadowed Mother Theresa who died a few days later
It was true that the UK public lost their heads at that time. Princess Diana was such a public figure, pictured in the papers on daily basis just going about her business. The British public had seen her growing up before their eyes, from a seemingly shy mousey teenager into a global beauty with real star power. She had also, many believed, been cruelly used by the BRF.
When HM the Queen finally relented to public pressure to travel south to London, cutting short her annual holiday in Balmoral, and walked amongst the crowds the hostility was palpable. Shocking. I felt HM was brave to face the crowds. I've never witnessed anything like it before or since. For a while it wasn't obvious what the reaction would be. Luckily, the crowd was mollified by her presence.
When HM the Queen finally relented to public pressure to travel south to London, cutting short her annual holiday in Balmoral, and walked amongst the crowds the hostility was palpable. Shocking. I felt HM was brave to face the crowds. I've never witnessed anything like it before or since. For a while it wasn't obvious what the reaction would be. Luckily, the crowd was mollified by her presence.
She was very popular with the public and was in the papers every single day for one thing it another.
The few months before her death it sort of reached fever pitch. She was hanging about with Dodi and photographed holidaying in Sardinia on a boat. The paparazzi where driving them mad and ultimately caused their death (them and their drunk driver). It was all a bit chaotic at the time.
It wasn't the crowd that needed to be mollified at that moment though. It was two children who had lost their mother and were probably comforted by having their father and grandparents around. They did not need to be paraded around looking at flowers. The DoE was palpably furious when a woman told him to ' look after the boys' after they had been forced away from doing just that because grown adults decided to go into some mass hysteria. The press were complicit in whipping up the outrage imo, because they knew they would be blamed. They decided to heap all the attention on The Royals to detract from their own complicity. The Queen should have said ' I'm sorry we are busy caring for two grieving children' instead of pandering to a baying mob.
100%. It escaped the attention of many who were demanding their return from Balmoral that two kids had lost their mother. PC had travelled to Paris to accompany Diana's body back so naturally the grandparents would have been with the kids.
I have a particular fondness for the ones who stood shouting ‘don’t worry, Diana, we‘ll look after them for you’ … forgetting to add the rider as long as they behave exactly how we want them to and think they should, and if not we reserve the right to turn on them. Okay?
Prince William said himself he found solace in Scotland.
' I was at Balmoral [Castle] when I was told my mother had died. Still in shock, I found sanctuary in the service at Crathie Kirk that very morning. And in the dark days of grief that followed, I found comfort and solace in the Scottish outdoors. As a result, the connection I feel to Scotland will forever run deep.'
Diana wasn't on my radar after the divorce, I assumed in a not very conscious way that she was zipping around doing glamorous things and being healthy (there were pics in the press of her off to the fitness club), she seemed happy
Yes this is an interesting point. In retrospect, HM was correct to keep the boys away from London and to give them space to get over the shock and start to grieve. It was really quite barbaric to have them face the angry crowds. At the time though the public mood was angry and HM must have taken advice to come back.
It really was a weird time.
The media hounded her back to London. All the headlines about "where is the Queen" as if she was letting her people down. Her priority was her two young grandsons who had just lost their mother. Random wailers and criers on the street did not need the Queen to be in London for them.
The Sun <spit> had a headline - Where is our Queen, where is her flag … well, the Queen was looking after 2 bereaved boys in peace and quiet and her flag was where it always is. Over the residence she was in.
Another tabloid urged the Queen to ‘speak to us because People are suffering’ with pictures of people sobbing in the streets - and She did actually do a TV address to the nation the day before the funeral.
There was a collective taking leave of senses.
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