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=

I was a teenager when she died, but I remember watching all the news footage. My parents were really sad as they were reminded of Princess Grace (who also died in a car accident). I think she was liked by many as she seemed more human. I did cry when I saw the Princes having to do those walkabouts in the days after she died and then again when they walked behind her coffin. I can't imagine how bloody difficult that must have been, trying to figure grief and a loss like that, but doing it under the eyes of the world press.

Some people did go absolutely nuts though. I never really understood that!! And it was really full on in the press. Mother Teresa died a few days after Diana and the coverage was definitely not as much!!

It was mass hysteria - I remember at the time being baffled by a book of condolence in the foyer of my local Tesco.

it was undoubtedly sad, a real tragedy, but the hysteria from some of the general public was off the scale.

I don’t remember anyone idolising her until she died? Looking back she was quite groundbreaking in some ways, she did wonderful work with land mines and AIDS victims but I am not sure that was recognised at the time. I think the nation lost the plot when she died. It was cringeworthy. It was of course sad for her kids and family but the general public just went bananas 🙄

I think it was a complicated relationship. There were periods when the public absolutely adored her and periods where the love affair waned - particularly when all the news of affairs etc came out.

She was doubtless very messed up and flawed as a human being. But she also very good at showing empathy for ordinary people in a way that Royals we're not really programmed to do at that time. So people genuinely responded to her. She was seldom out of the newspapers - because she was a beautiful woman who made a good clothes horse and increased sales in any publication that featured her, so the paparazzi attention was relentless.

Exactly! Even here in America there was mass hysteria, newscasters sobbing on air and a general sense of mourning that seemed totally out of proportion.

I would love to know if any research has been done on this phenomenon as well. Very interesting question, for sure!

I think she was well liked yes and everyone I knew at the time was a little sad. She did a lot for charity and also left two young children. Many people remember what they were doing that day as it was both sad and unexpected and had a fair bit of controversy over what actually happened. I didn’t see any hysterics in real life though.

Troubled, but she walked through fields of land mines and hugged aids victims.

I thought the mass hysteria after she died was ridiculous, I wasn't the slightest bit upset.

I was 25 when she died. My memory was that she was generally popular when alive but when she died everyone went bonkers. It's hard to describe how much of a shock it was, there was such a strong sense of 'surely the story doesn't end like this?'. The world seemed to divide into people who threw themselves into public grieving with gusto and those who were just on the sidelines.

I am 66 so remember it well. People lost their minds - it was like a mass hysteria. I could only talk about how weird it was with just one of my friends. I certainly didn't cry

I was 17 when she died and my Mum woke me up early to tell me the news, she was crying 😳 and my Mum hated the royal family! Then there was wall to wall news footage and everyone at school went up to put flowers down (we lived in London). Teachers would talk about her and cry 😳 It was huge! Really huge! The only thing that has ever come close to that for me was the whole feeling and coverage of 9/11.

I was a child. I asked my brown dad why my cartoons weren't on and he said a rich white lady had died.

personally I adored her, it was like a celebrity crush. She was about 10 years older than me, I think, and as a child I used to fantasise that she was my big sister. She was so pretty, and natural, and I thought she was a role model, at one point. Not so much in later years when I was older

Her death was a shock.

She was just all over the press good or bad. But the Aids and the minefield charity work were game changing. Her love for her boys was so obvious. No stand off stiff upper lip.

Her contact with people with hiv was amazing at the time. She was a party animal but one photo of Diana in a hospice or a minefield was excellent publicity for causes.

Those of us who are old enough now remember the waif she once was as a young bride. She was shy and fragile. She really came into her own after her divorce. There was a real evolutionary change in Diana which was so glamorous and uplifting at the time… to me at least. Mario Testino’s photos were a real testament to that evolution of a stronger Diana. And then she died, so swiftly and so tragically. I wasn’t wrapped up in the mass hysteria element of it in the least. And this sort of Canonisation of Diana was probably born of her dedication to issues most others wouldn’t touch (AIDS). Perhaps it was the people’s way of showing mass support to her two bereft sons. Who knows? In any case, her death was terribly sad and shocking because she was a young mother whose life was snuffed out just as she ascended her phoenix flight from those sour royal ashes. She was finally going to prevail. And then she was gone. That was sad.
For me, the way she faced the AIDS crisis was heroic and groundbreaking. You had to really live inside that crisis- which I did- to understand her true bravery and love. She was messiah-like in her approach towards AIDS patients, and her intentions were deeply good and real.

Lots of people didn’t like her or really care. When she died the press really focused on the crazy people who got hysterical about it. Many more were not fussed.

I think she was loved by many, yes. She was CONSTANTLY in the news. You felt you knew her I think and that was why people were so upset.

We watched the funeral all day long and had a spread ( ie buffet) I went and laid flowers at Kensington Palace and was just amazed by the sheer amount of people and glowers- it really was extraordinary.

I think the gloss had started to come off her a bit toards the end- all the gossip about affairs with unsuitable men, the interview she did. The truth about the marriage to Charles had all come out and I actually think there was a feeling of guilt when she died because the fairytale princess narrative had already ended. People sort of switched back to that if that makes sense- it was a kind of fairytale tragedy.

I really loved her at the time, aged about 25, and her abrupt death was completely shocking. I didn’t do public hysteria though.

At the time I lived in Aberdeen and quite oddly was driving to go hill walking when we were stopped by police so the royal family could cross the road on their way to church straight after her death. I remember the Queen and boys go past in the car.

Six months later I went trekking in the Andes and the woman running the hostel where we were staying, on learning we were British started beating her chest and shouting “what pain oh what pain of lady Dee” in Spanish. That was quite surreal.

She was the most famous woman in the world, people had grown up with her, she was in our newspapers and on TV every day and many people (most of the UK) had met her or gone to see her. She was part of our lives. I was 22, a republican, a student but I cried and felt so sad for her children.

It's hard to get a grip on just how important she was because there is so much "celebrity" nowadays and media is so fragmented nowadays so one generations megastar is another's 'who's that' but she was iconic in life and death.

It was mass-hysteria but also because she was so loved AND divisive AND young so it generated a lot of emotion. People were sad and also angry that their grief was being trivialised. Only the death of the actual queen comes close to understanding Diana's death.

I also think there was catharsis and displaced grief - a lot of people said they didn't cry for their relatives but were able to cry for her. It was a communal experience. Also I think there was a lot of collective guilt about people's own role in her death as consumers of papparazzi stories so that might have been a factor.

I think Princess Diana death at the time seemed quite shocking cause she was so young and it was unexpected,
She had looks charisma presence wealth and yet all that but when she escaped the golden cage or fish bowl existence,

Tragically misfortune behall her,

I don't think she was universal loved,

I think she was a mixture a range of things flaws included,

It was quite strange the Mass Weaping for someone most people hadn't met in their lives,
I think her flaws made her more relatable and bit. More interesting, she had more than her daughter in law

Princess of Wales Kate Beige

Yes, this. She had so many things hung on her as well. So many media stories and narratives - Beautiful shy blushing bride. Loving mother. Dedicated and caring charity worker. And then - jilted wife. Treated harshly by royal family. Bravely stood up to cold hearted royal family and was all lovely and human. And then - dared to get a boyfriend! Was seen on holiday by paparazzi! Setting a terrible example, frivolous dreadful young woman. Dated a non Brit! Strong powerful compassionate woman / tabloid fodder / massive life change / new beginnings / huge criticism. And then she died. And I think all the papers that had been merrily criticising her new life and salaciously reporting on it had to do a mega swirl and canonise her. Potentially murdered martyr mother of princelings.

Personally I think she was a lot like Meghan. She was infamous in many ways rather than famous.

This

Absolute mass hysteria. Utterly unbelievable.

I like fergie at least her and Princes Diana and Princess magret they had more characters to them,,
More interesting than Princess Kate of Beige 🤭🤭🤭🤭Yawn