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.

My mum (who would have been in her 50s) thought she was a twat as well

Your mum should have known better.

I agree re the tabloids. At the time there was no social media so people couldn't really express any immediate thought en masse as it were. Nothing could go viral on twitter, you couldn't discuss on MN.
Then the tabloids say "shouldn't the royal family say something, put out a statement etc, come back from Balmoral" that influences people, and then the papers say that's what the public wanted.

Yes I remember poor William having to shake hands and smile at people fawning and sobbing all over him. He shouldn't have even been expected to leave his room and I agree the Queen was doing the right thing up in Scotland by her Grandsons - the two people who actually needed her!

Terrible

I was living in London at the time and was baffled by the whole spectacle. Bonkers - wish the Great British public could actually get exercised about things that really matter.

The death of Diana was the beginning of the end of the UK imo. The country seemed quite sensible and stoic up to Aug 1997. After that it has steadily lost its marbles and it has been painful to watch.

It was obscene. The media frenzy was mind-blowing. The very same media that despised her and had vilified her as an unstable scarlet-woman for years, overnight began to portray her as some kind of saint/angel. I remember there were no regular programmes on TV from her death until the funeral. Straight after the funeral they showed ‘Free Willy’ and my eldest DC who was about 6 got exasperated and said “Diana Diana Diana! Why is everything about Diana??” I asked how Free Willy was anything to do with Diana and she said very seriously “Duh! She was the Princess of Whales!”

I live in Scotland and don’t remember anyone I know being that bothered - sad that a young woman died and that was it. The malarkey down south did not reflect what was going on around me.

Yes. We had been on holiday and were driving back so many hours listening to the same things. At the service stations when we started there were some normal and some fixed flags, some union jacks. it was all normal then on the radio someone complained that this was disrespectful and by the end of the journey someone had been tasked at each one to get them down. Utterly ridiculous.

it was shocking and I think some people started to grieve for people they actually knew that had died and that was acceptable. However a lot of tabloid and tv coverage whipped things up.

I remember it vividly. I couldn't sleep and got up to watch TV. I switched on the news to see DIANA DEAD emblazoned across the screen. I wasn't in the slightest bit interested in her as a public figure, but I was very, very shocked and very sad for her children. It seemed like a dream because I had been lying awake for ages and thought I might have drifted off. But the public outpouring of grief was a bloody national embarrassment. It was almost a competition to see who could be the most devastated and heartbroken. I started feeling quite irritated as I had recently lost my sister, who was only 27, and was struggling to process what made this woman, this stranger, so bloody important.

It was fucking weird at the time and it’s even weirder looking back.

Yes! From Scarlet Woman to England's Rose in 24 hours flat.

I shudder thinking of those two poor boys having to publicly mourn as they did. The whole funeral should have been private with a later public memorial service.

It really was the bizarrest reaction - I'd just had my 3rd baby and remember spending a lot of time breastfeeding on the sofa and watching the news open mouthed at the public wailing.

It was a bit sad but there was no need for everyone to go OTT about it. I worked the day of the funeral and read a book.

My thoughts exactly.

Always sad when anyone does far too young - but yes, completely OTT. I was actually quite relieved that I happened to be flying out to a very remote holiday island the day after as it was already descending into a mawkish spectacle.

I still look at the photos of all those bunches of flowers rotting in the sun outside KP - and assuming each one cost around £5 - how much all that money would have been better donated to a charity.

Several years later I read Shadows of a Princess by her private secretary, Patrick Jephson. Quite a different persona than the caring angel image carefully cultivated for the public and the media.

Agree with this. It’s one of the things I remember, the princes walking around looking at the flowers and grown women wailing and reaching out to grab them. Totally disgusting. I was 24 I think, and I did find it a bit upsetting, more so for her boys. They did amazingly well to get through it all. I am 50 now and can’t imagine losing my parents now, let alone as a teen or pre teen.

It was wacky. I do remember working in the US shortly after, and lots of people (very sweetly) telling me they were sorry about our princess.

She was one of a kind, that’s for sure. But there was a wave of hysteria - however you do have to remember it was a minority, amplified by the press who were having a special issue field day

Is it the crown that’s brought this back to you?!

I was 20. Didn't know her. So not really sad or tragic that a complete stranger had died. Thought the same about the Queen. It's all media hype.

What really made me cross was the clamour for the Queen to come back to London, ‘to be with her people’ when she was actually doing the most important thing by staying at Balmoral to help her son look after the two boys who had just lost their mother. It was mind boggling that so many people thought their grief and their needs outweighed those of William and Harry.

Agree wholeheartedly. Balmoral is peaceful and private - where better to help the two boys through their first shock and grief?

The Queen used to be, and still is, criticised for putting duty before family, and the one time she wanted to put family first, this is what happened.

Blair didn't help, with his 'People's Princess' emoting.

I stopped watching tv that week after the first day or two, and only watched the edited highlights of the funeral.

👏👏👏

The hysteria was largely driven by the media. Yes there was a number of hysterical people who were throwing flowers at the funeral and suchlike but in my northern town I went into to work the Monday after the news of her death and noone even mentioned it.

It is indeed. Fabulous programme and Elizabeth Debicky is amazing!

I was 16 and in Scotland and thought it was all utterly crackers
Sad for the boys on a level I more appreciate now I have 2 boys and am older than she was when she died.
People lost their minds for a very imperfect person spun as a deity by the media. Hated how it was used as a stick to beat the queen with too.

I believe the RF wanted a private funeral but decided against it due to fear of the public reaction. I do sometimes wonder if she is actually buried at Althorpe... I'm not convinced.

She is! She has Diana’s mannerisms and voice down to a tee. The Dodi actor (Khalid Abdalla) is actually very convincing too.