Public reaction when Princess Diana died

[StressedOutSemolina]

Who remembers it? I was just turned 13 and I cried upstairs whilst looking up at the sky, I was really upset by it. It was thundering where I lived making the whole sad day even more eerie. BUT that was it. I cried at home, privately and quietly. Then got on with it.

Then I watched the funeral... and saw people literally SCREAMING in the streets. It was just obscene the way some people were behaving in public. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it since. Don't get me wrong it was a devastating time and such a tragic event.

I also remember watching it back years later and feeling very sorry for the poor hearse driver who could barely see in front of him for the amount of full bouquets being lobbed directly at the window.

I was 11 and didn’t actually know who she was. I remember school friends saying their parents had cried and thinking it was odd - we weren’t the sort of family who would cry over someone we didn’t know. I didn’t really grasp how big/hysterical the public reaction had been until years later.

I don't think there were its was just like the world went a bit mad ,I mean i felt for her family and particularly William and Harry and she did die tragically young ,but I didn't know her personally I didn't understand the mass grief for a stranger
Diana was a contentious personality and it was only after her seat she became St Diana.

I was 23 so not a child
Diana was Divisive and the media could be very critical of her I remember watching the interview with Martin Bashir and she absolutely played's to the Camera
It was after her Death she became "Queen of hearts"

It was awful, seeing people in the crowds hysterically screaming over someone they’d almost certainly never even met, but it did fairly soon die down - presumably thanks to Looks etc. from others who were behaving appropriately .

Agree with fernfernsferns, Diana was relatable to a lot of people, she appeared warm and funny something that the Royal family never really did. My husband met the queen at a hospital opening and said she just looked very grumpy, contrast this with the very glamorous Diana who actually hugged people smiled a lot and interacted. This is why people warmed to her.
She became too popular for Charles and stole his limelight, everyone goes on about Diana’s mental health but he seems a pretty damaged person too, it’s a strange upbringing being brought up by nannies and occasionally seeing his mother.
Also she was THE celebrity of the times, she was so fashionable ( again in those days the Queen or Princess Anne were dowdy ) and everyone commented on her outfits after she was on TV.
A friend phoned me my children were young and I sat and watched the news I shed a tear.
The sad thing was he didn’t love her (and of course should have been allowed to marry Camilla ) and it must have been so hurtful her to see him run to Camilla all the time , this is something lots of woman go through so I can see why others felt they knew her .

I was 10 and I remember going to the town hall to sign a book of condolence. I had no idea what to write and was a bit wtf reading these long paragraphs others had written. I think I copied a few sentences from others in the end. I didn't watch the funeral but my mum went other to my Nan's to watch it whilst I stayed at home with my dad (we didn't have a TV so listened on Radio 4).

You didn’t grasp it because it wasn’t as hysterical as people now purport it was. I watched the funeral and there might have been a bit of audible sobbing but there wasn’t wailing or screaming. In fact the whole country felt very subdued that day. There were very few people out and about and very little traffic. The hysteria has been confected in hindsight.

it definitely was hysterical
you even say 'there were very few people out and about and very little traffic'
when does that ever happen? Christmas day, or if England are in a world cup final. Oh, and a global pandemic.
So deffo a big reaction to the death of someone none of us knew.

A “big reaction” doesn’t equal hysteria.

DH used to get up and get the morning papers and didn't realise Diana had died because he reads the papers back to front ( ie sport first ) so had no idea until he tried to put the radio on.

For various reasons we were around Kensington that day and I have to say there were lots of people with flowers to leave at KP , but it felt more like a tourist attraction than solemn.

I was a student working in US. We watched a live news feed until the early hours after the accident and heard the breaking news of her death before the UK woke up. Some of my pals rang home to tell their parents. We are all Irish and despite our historical relationship with the 'crown' she was quite loved here (as was the Queen). I didn't experience the hysteria only saw news footage of it, I do kind of understand it. She represented more than who she was. I thought the public wailing was OTT but we've all seen that at concerts or when people meet their idols, I guess it was the same. I felt bad for the people of UK, but I remember feeling furious that two grieving children were made parade about.

I was also really annoyed with Elton John for butchering one of my favourite songs!!

One of my work colleagues was very upset at the news.

He was asleep in bed on the Sunday morning I think it was, and his flatmate burst in and said 'Get up, Princess Diana's died!' He thought it was a windup and told him to get lost. Even going so far to lay a bet with him as he knew it wasn't true, about a tenner.

When he got up, he had to pay the bet.

I wss a newly qualified nurse and on a late shift and had temporarily moved back into my parents and was having a lie in and my mum burst in telling me I phoned my firend.who also had nt heard and she told me to "Fuck off" I wss like mate turn on your tv ,it one of those situations where you remember where you were when you heard he news

The thing is, she died on 31 August. I wonder if part of the reason for the mass hysteria was that it was right at the end of the school holidays. There’d been pretty much nothing in the news for weeks then this happened.

There’s something about the school holidays that makes the nutters come out. Even on here - the end of August brings on the mad threads.

If she had died in the middle of November (while it was raining) some people would have been sad but there wouldn’t have been nearly as many people wailing in the streets. Because they would have been cold and wet and they would have had other things to do.