Did people really love Princess Diana that much?

[canjest]

I just wondered as I knew she was well liked but videos like this show brown men crying!

www.instagram.com/reel/CnOCMtSKK_b/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Sorry should've added. I was born in 1998 (I'm 25), so have no Diana memories

Brown men?

Are you allowed to say brown men crying op?
Haven't clicked the link but seeing her with her dc was heart warming.

Grown men I’m sure

Obviously OP means grown men

Christ! I meant GROWN MEN

It was a typo

Gosh how embarrassing yes definitely grown, not brown!

Nah a few people were melodramatic about it, there were lots of flowers, it was a shock and obviously it was sad for anyone to die so young but nobody I know reacted anything like this in the slightest.

And it’s been blown up more and more ever since, but honestly most people thought, oh that’s sad then carried on as normal- I question whether all that footage is even anything to do with Diana (I’ve not listened with sound up).

I think lots of people loved her when alive, and lots couldn’t care less, and some did not like her at all.

But when she died it was like mass hysteria, like she’d become a martyred saint. It was very odd.

I'm 61 around her age if she was alive. It was mass hysteria as I recall. I have never seen anything quite like it. I just looked on stunned by the crying and wailing.
It was as if people had bought into some Disney fairy tale. I'm wondering if any research studies were done on it.

From my memory no she wasn’t - she was actually pretty much vilified and strongly disliked by most - and then she died and was turned into a saint.

I was about 18 when she died so not really the “Diana fan” demographic - I was indifferent to her- but she definitely wasn’t universally loved - that’s revisionist history.

The link is wrong
Lots of people behaved in a completely bonkers way
Lots of people cried
Men and women.... brown or otherwise
😁
It was mass hysteria

Obviously it was going to be a bloody typo. Honestly why waste time doing a snarky query.

Everyday this place becomes more Muppetsnet than Mumsnet.

Thank you, very interesting point of view

I have often heard the joke 'Oh, if only Diana were here!' And never really got it

I suppose it's because of the mass hysteria

I remember interviews with people around her death. I found it bizarre that some were saying they never thought much about her in life but since they heard about her death they were very emotional. Personally I think it was a group hysteria.

There’s an interesting documentary by Christopher Hitchens. You could say he’s anti-royalty but it’s still an interesting watch.

In answer to your question OP, I was 14 and still remember when she died and being upset, and I remember my mum having a cry in the kitchen. The outpouring of grief was immense, have you seen the photos of the flowers everywhere?

No, they didn't.

Sudden and tragic deaths mean that people are canonized into Saints overnight.

Diana was no exception.

Well in my memory at the start yes, and through the marriage / at the beginning of the divorce she was well liked, even loved in the sense that will and Kate often are "future of the monarchy! A fresh face! Kind and responsible, down to earth!" but post divorce the media had turned and she was beginning to lose the public's adoration as she began to be portrayed as something of a harlot/ yuppie. THEN she died. And people lost their goddamn minds. The papers forgot the "party girl slutting across Europe on a set of yachts" image that they'd begun to peddle and leapt straight in with almost deification of her . What I think can be accurately described as a mass hysteria took hold of the country for a good week.

It was really shocking, but all footage of significant national events will focus on the most visual reactions.
Personally it didn't rock my world, but I was about 18 and didn't really have much life experience and hadn't seen her amazing romance and wedding (as it was seen) lived out large.
I know that people who were aware of how hounded she was (which factored in her death) felt for the tragedy of that; those who had children were acutely aware of her young sons losing their mum, and it was pre internet, so our consciousness wasn't so saturated with constant celebs so her start shone very bright. Newspapers and TV were the main channels of info and she filled those all the time, so she was really very present in the public life, everyone's attention wasn't so diluted across multiple channels like it is now so she had a lot more presence. Her image was that she really cared about us, she was willing to hold hands with AIDS victims (big deal then), before her the royals had really kept their distance much more so lots of people were fond of her for that reason.

It wasn't do much that she was universally loved, it was more the shocking way she died, it was such a tragedy. And leaving behind her two boys. I don't know anyone who didn't cry.

My MIL still can’t talk about her without tearing up if she’s had a glass of wine!!

She was a part of our ‘daily life’ for so long. Think Kate and Meghan coverage and you are getting close - everything she did / wore etc
The shock was more about her age - it’s sad when someone old dies but this was the equivalent of the death of Marilyn or Elvis - a very famous person who dies young ( and in such circumstances)
However there was also a bit of mass hysteria- you know how the media can hype it all up eg demanding the Queen should leave Balmoral ( where she was protecting W and H from the media gaze) and come to London for the benefit of the people. Somehow, some people lost the plot and didn’t think about her family / her boys but about what the people wanted
This added to the mass hysteria

Having said all that I remember being very shocked at her passing at such a young age
My daughter was 6 weeks old when this happened and she is equally bemused by the film footage of the time

Snap. Private Eye did good work printing the stories from the early editions of the Sunday papers alongside the hastily revised later editions. The change in tone was astounding.

Im.sure some people did love her ,but she certainly had some issues and the press didn't always report kindly about her
It was only after her death she became "Saint Diana ",
Her untimely death whilst undoubtedly,s tragedy for her loved ones ,had some members of the public acting ridiculously , lots of outpouring of greif,from complete strangers

My mum took this view, she was 1971 so about 25 herself at the time