Yesterday, after weeks of soggy weather, the sun peeked out from behind the clouds and looked down on the more than 60,000 fans who had come to London’s Wembley Stadium for a day-long concert celebrating the life of Princess Diana. Millions more around the world watched the event — organized by her sons, Princes William and Harry; and featuring performers like Elton John, Kanye West, Joss Stone, and Tom Jones (the last two, pictured) — held on what would’ve been Diana’s 46th birthday.
Clearly, the late princess still has a powerful hold on the public imagination. (Bear in mind that these concert-goers chose to attend even amid theheightened anxieties following the terrorism scares in London andScotland.) This year, which also marks the 10th anniversary of her death (she was killed in a car accident, along with boyfriend Dodi Fayed and the driver of their car, on August 31, 1997), has already seen the release of several Diana-themed books and DVDs, including Tina Brown’s dishy bestselling biography, The Diana Chronicles.
To be honest, I never quite understood the endless fascination with Princess Di. Sure, she was a basically good person who supported worthwhile causes and did an apparently fine job raising her kids. And God knows how she managed to deal with crushing scrutiny that comes with being both a member of a royal family and a global pop-culture icon. And, yes, I was truly saddened to hear of her sad and horrific end. But I felt — and continue to feel — strangely isolated from Diana’s passing.
Okay, PopWatchers: Ten years after her tragic demise, what did Diana mean to you? We’re looking for thoughtful answers here. Are you still stirred by memories of the beautiful but troubled young royal? Or do you think she is yet another celebrity whose legacy was amplified by an untimely death?
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My mom went out and bought a new TV and made me get up early to watch Di and Charles get married. When she died, I was in shock and actually cried for about an hour watching the news. I went to see a collection of her dresses, etc., in 2005 when they toured the states. The wedding dress was breathtaking.
I think every little girl dreams of marrying a prince and living “happily ever after” Di showed us that even in royalty, things are not always what they seem, but inner strength and love will pull you through the hard times.
When I looked at Diana, all I could think about was her miserable marriage to a man who did not love her.
She was a sad princess indeed.
I find it quite sad that so many would want to smear her reputation. Her husband was a pathetic cheater. I am not saying that she was right in having an affair because her husband was doing so, but she must have felt awfully lonely to have had someone on the side.
Her children loved her, and I believe that meant plenty to Diana.
I’m still not sure. I was very moved by her life and death – dunno why. I liked her. Some of my sympathies were enagaged by her youthful marriage to a twit hubby, the royal imperative to produce “an heir and a spare”, having to live within those royal constraints, her becoming a single parent, her honesty in the Andrew Morton book, a beautiful woman who was a human sacrifice to ensuring the royal bloodline. yeah. There’s lots there to connect with. I was stunned when she died. Shocked. And I shed a few tears watching the concert too. But – what did she “mean” to me? No clue. A stranger I was rooting for, I guess.
When she was 19 and getting married, I was 15. To me she was a beautiful princess finding her prince and all the magic that goes with it. I actually never reveled in the turns her life took. In an odd way I felt like I grew up with her and was devastated when she died. Sort of like a fairy tale book having a horrible end.
There’s always a certain element of timing – for whatever reason, on the cultural landscape, Diana came along at the right time and presented a sweet and shy face that captivated the world. We don’t pay much attention to royalty of any sort except that of the U.K. and Monaco, and the latter only because of Grace Kelly. I remember being just as fascinated by Fergie (Sarah, Duchess of York) when I was a child. There was a mystique around Diana that went beyond those of normal royals. She felt like one of the people. More than doing charity work that made her “one of the people”, she had a personality that was humble and quiet. There wasn’t evidence of a silver spoon. It’s not definable, really, but it was the sum of Diana’s parts that made her someone that could be looked up to and admired.
My sister and I were entranced with Princess Diana. We are all about the same age (Diana, the princess, was four months younger than I was, and Diane, my sister, was born a year before I was). We related to her in many ways and so, when she married Prince Charles, it was the embodiment of our girlish dreams to marry into royalty.Then when she had problems, we could relate to them, too, though ours were not heralded in the international press. We felt like we knew her. We felt like, had we had the chance to sit down with her, we could all be close friends. We felt like distant aunts to her children. We mourned her death as if we had lost a friend. We felt the same kind of shock when JFK Jr. died. I watched the Concert for Diana (which was a double memorial for me since my sister has since died) and was very touched. The family movies made me cry.
A great example The world.
A great example The world.
“I never quite understood the endless fascination with Princess Di”
Why must everything be analyzed? She was the fraking Princess of the United Kingdom, supported great causes, and died much too young. What is too difficult for you to understand?
I was 11 when Diana married. My grandmother and I sat up all night to watch the wedding live and she even served tea from her china teapot for us during the ceremony. As I grew up I felt like I was watching her grow up as well. She went from young teacher to wife to mother to miserable and finally to a happy woman. I was very sadden by her death. Again, my grandmother and I sat up all night and watched the funeral procession live, only this time there was no tea. I can’t exactly put into words what she meant to me. I think it was that she gave me something to strive for…her graciousness, her caring ways with others, and the unending love she showed both publicly and privately for her children. She also showed that even though life may not always turn out the way you plan, the best thing to do is hold your head high, try to make the best of it, and never let anyone push you into a corner or silence you. Her time on earth was short, but her influence will last forever.
I remember watching the 4-hour wedding festivities: like watching a Disney
animation film come “alive” for a short time with all it’s heroes & heroines, castles and courtly behavior,
gowns, jewels, horse-driven carriages
and most of all: Royalty. Is fascinates
me (us) as we Americans do not have
anything even remotely resembling this
way of life, pomp & circumstance.
All too soon I realized that Diana was
a beautiful gilded bird within a dazzling, bejeweled cage. How sad…
the things that some of us bargain &
trade our lives for.
Although Diana was a few years younger than I,I identified with her as I got up early and watched the wedding ten days after I got engaged. Then, two years later, my daughter was born on her anniversary. She was an incredible style icon, at a time when couture and fashion were still a novelty to the everywoman. At first at least, she was coy and mysterious and had an innocent glow about her. It was reflective of the cynicism of the times as her marriage deteriorated and her own dirty laundry began to be aired. When she died, there was so much tragedy in the finality of her lost innocence–that she would never regain that glow we first saw around her. I was crushed at the loss of her, especially for those little boys.
I remember getting up way early to go to a friend’s house to watch the wedding. And being disappointed because we fell asleep and missed the kiss on the balcony. At the time of her death I was living in a place that didn’t get good T.V. reception so was spared all that went with that. Probably for that reason her death has never really affected me. I have always felt for her sons to loose her when they were so young.
Diana was a humanitarian who fought for many important causes. Still she should be admired for her work,not for who she was physically or what family she married into. I think that was what she would have wanted people to believe.
I taped Diana’s wedding for a friend who couldn’t figure out how to set the timer on a VCR, but never watched it. I also taped her funeral for that friend and did watch it. I admired Diana for reaching out to the “untouchables” of AIDS victims and lepers at a time when so few would. She had a wonderful gift of empathy. But I also thought and think she wasn’t that bright and liked being a celebrity and manipulating the media a bit too much. But her sons seem to have turned out well and I think that’s a credit to both her and Charles.
I admired Diana because she took a fairy tale that didn’t have a happy ending and made it into something that suited her. She had a multitude of well documented problems and a fascination with the spotlight but she also brought attention to causes and people that wouldn’t have made the news without her. She was going to be a media spectacle anyway, she didn’t need to use her fame for anything other than wearing great clothes and going to fabulous events but she made it into something more and I admire her for that. She moved beyond her circumstances and lived a brave life. She was the first royal, prior to her sons, to actually seem human and that in itself is an amazing accomplishment.
Princess Diana was a beautiful woman, whose compassion and dedication in helping others shone through. She dedicated so much of her too short life in helping those in need, the sick and often marginalized. She connected to people in a way that is inexplicable, no one ever forgot she was a princess, yet she never acted like she was better than anyone. On top of her humanity, she was a wonderful mom, and this is evident in the wonderful young men the princes have turned out to be. Her death was a devastating loss to the world, yet, after ten years have passed, we should feel lucky that she was in the world at all, in her 15 or so years of being the most famous woman in the world, she did more to help others than most will ever do in a full lifetime.
Diana was someone who married for position, honored her vows as little as her husband did, and played well to the cameras.
Recently, with all the jail-nonsense, someone compared that lame-o hotel heiress to Princess Diana. What an insult to Princess Di. Whatever the circumstances of her private life may have been, for her public life, she was someone who set an example. She did charitable work and helped so many through out the world. If we were all even a fraction as giving as she was, we make a huge difference in the world we live in.
I got up at 4 a.m. to watch the wedding and remember being shaken by her death and amazed by the way the world seemed to stop for a few days. In the past ten years, my view of her has grown more cynical, but I was really touched by the concert yesterday. For some reason, it also brought back memories of JFK, Jr.’s death. Maybe it was because they were so young and had unrealized potential. But, mostly, I think it’s a reminder that death comes for everyone in the end.
So what kind of “ten years after her death” celebration spectacular is Mother Theresa going to get? A middle school class in Iowa playing “Taps” on the recorder?
Furry Tom: You sure know how to light a fire.
I’m not trying to start anything. It’s just that my first thought went to Theresa since the two of them died just a few days apart, and while Diana gets a star-studded TV special, Theresa will probably just go unremembered. Just makes me sad.
Sorry if my inital post seemed callous, but my knee-jerk reaction to everything is sarcasm.
I was only 12 when Diana died, but I remember feeling inexplicably sad. Having spent the past year living in London and recently watched “The Queen”, I can only imagine the public’s obsession when she lived. Trapped in a marriage where it was outright known that her groom was in love with another woman- a perfect recipe for disaster. Though mother theresa accomplished so much, Diana worked through so much adversity, and at times, not very successfully. Her strengths only served to highlight her weaknesses, and made her an object of love and worship for Britain.
Don’t worry about Mother Theresa being remembered. As a canonized Saint adored by millions in India in particular, people literally kneel at her altars every day.
The fascination with Diana? First of all, she was a pretty girl to begin with. Then she became consort to the heir to the throne of the United Kingdom. Throughout a lot of the world with some cultural tie to the former British Empire (including the ex-Thirteen Colonies, whose WASP nobility’s class structure knows no higher echelon than the Royal House of England), that’s interesting.
Plus, she was, after Grace Kelly, a princess who actually looked the part, after the princess look was defined in popular culture by Cinderella.
I actually lost interest when things became tawdry. But it was a great shock when she died so tragically, and apparently so symbolically — a martyr to our religion of celebrity.
Wow! Nix, great post. Furry Tom: You are always funny and enjoyable, no need to apologize. That is part of your charm.
I loved Princess Diana. Her birthday is Canada’s birthday(I am Canadian) therefore she seemed like Canada’s Princess. I cried when she died.
I hear what Furrytom is saying about Mother Teresa but she supported the Catholic church and all the doctrines that go with that and for me that puts a stain on her work.
I was 22 when she died. I remember her growing up because of all the pagentry and hoopla over her wedding to Charles. I used to think how crappy it was to have every aspect of your life on the cover of some paper. Sean Penn was punching paparazzi and all Diana could do was smile through it all and raise her kids. Her last image I have of her is just being a friend, comforting Elton John at the funeral of oh what designer was that, help me out fellow readers. She wasn’t a drop dead model but she carried herself so well and supported so many causes when going to Africa and other places of extreme poverty wasn’t the chic thing to do.
I remember her as a manipulative, slightly slutty, attention hungry person, who was to dumb to buckle her safetybelt, even while being rushed through a city with about hundred miles per hour by an obviously intoxicated driver.