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.

Twenty five years later you sound mildly hysterical, OP. Including your conspiracy theories. And yet you judge those who showed emotion at the time, when there was an understandable element of shock.

Can you not move on?

It was the first time I realised just how powerful the media was.

In the first day or two all of the rage was aimed at the press and the photographers. People calling them murderers and all sorts.

Then the newspapers started the whole "Where is the flag?" "Why is the Queen not coming to us?" and managed to turn people against a family who, for once, had put family ahead of duty (something they got, and still get, slated for not doing on numerous occasions). Resulting in two grieving children being paraded in front of the public.

They stirred up the hysteria around her death, and very firmly switched the blame away from themselves in a way that was something else.

My uncle had a small corner shop just round the corner from an orange lodge and he was told by the local police that he really should consider closing for the funeral because tensions were high and it could be seen as disrespectful. He ended up doing so because so many people assumed he would.

I haven’t read all the answers you’ve had but probably most have been given by people who were very young at the time.
I remember it well my son came into our bedroom as was his routine and put on the TV. It was such a shock, I rang my mum to tell her and she asked if it was on the TV, there was nothing else on the TV.
I remember with clarity watching the engagement interview and they were asked ‘And in love?’ Diana said (shyly) ‘Of course’ Charles said ‘Whatever love means’ I was concerned from that moment.
Diana touched people both physically and emotionally, she was a barely adult brood mare sacrificed on the alter of providing an heir to the throne.
She remains close to the hearts of many.

I found the story of that week fascinating in a detached way; the way it played out. I didn't cry at all but it was so weird with the ott emotions.

I happened to have my baby daughter stillborn a few weeks later. That was my terrible event of 1997z

It wasn't tho, was it? People genuinely left flowers, masses and masses of flowers - you must have seen the images. They were not made up.

And people were upset. Maybe not (m)any of us on here, but after all this is a sample of a couple of hundred people. Probably a lot of MN-ers were very young - it's more than 25 years ago. I think the people crying on the street were probably older - 30-40-50.

I did feel very out of step with the nation - no, not everybody, but all the people I saw on the news. I felt the same last year when I saw images of people queuing for 12 hours to walk past a coffin. Lots of people did it tho and no one forced them to.

On the day of Diana's funeral, I was at the funeral of a schoolfriend who had died suddenly in their mid 20s the same weekend she did.

Once the funeral tea at the hotel had finished, everyone had started heading over to the bar at the end of the function room and having some drinks. Two people passing the door actually stuck their heads in and said to our table who were sat nearest "Can I ask what's happening here?".

We all just stopped, sitting there in black and looking pretty sombre and looked at them incredulously and I said "it's a funeral. Yes, there is more than one going on this weekend." You could just tell that they thought it was something related to Diana and they scuttled off. I'm just glad none of the family heard.

I was livid at the stupidity and insensitivity. I was shocked by the news of Diana like lots of people but had already started to get irritated by the overreaction of people 'getting involved' (as we used to say) even before I heard the news about my friend a day later and was then mourning someone I actually had known.

By the way - interesting fact (maybe) - for reasons I cannot now recall, I mentioned Princess Diana in a lesson with a group of yr 11s who would have been born about 2-3 years after her death - none of them had even heard of her (pre-The Crown obvs) which shows how ephemeral fame is, even if she was at her death one of the most famous people on the planet.

Yes me too same age.

I felt very sorry for William & Harry but otherwise could not fathom the public reaction

I was 17, thought the reaction was ridiculous and still do.

I agree the public lost their minds and those screaming during the funeral and demanding to see the boys were very selfish.

However, I think she hit a nerve because she was living out in a more glamorous way the challenges a lot of women experienced in their lives and relationships:

• husband that didn’t love or cherish them
• double standard expectation that she would self sacrifice and suck that up while he conducted his long running affair (but she wasn’t allowed the same)
• found courage to leave. But then many aspects of her life were controlled including financially and removal of security
• again the only acceptable path would have been for her to live a chaste life, even as Charles revved up to marry his mistress
• she was charming and popular but somehow Charles and the royal family saw that as a threat and a bad thing even though that’s literally their role
• yes she made mistakes but she got judged and punished for them far more than any man including Charles ever has

i think a lot of women saw aspects of their own lives reflected back in all this.

and really the outpouring of emotion was about that - recognition - and maybe eventually anger - at the excessive control and impossible, contradictory demands placed on women.

i bet a lot of women felt the demands of the men in their lives might kill them. And then it did kill the most privileged and glamorous of us all.

i think her death empowered a lot of conformist good girls to stand up for themselves more and fuck what social expectations tell us to do

I delivered my DD that day so knew about it from 3am when the midwife came round. She was born at 9pm and all anyone talked about was Diana. I had to stay in hospital for 4 nights and had a single room with a TV. I gave up with the TV because every channel was blanket coverage of Diana. The hysteria was nuts.

We did have internet. I learned about it on a message board.

People are allowed to be upset about these things, I found it sad. I was upset when George Michael died as I was a big wham fan in the 80s. I was sad when Matthew Perry died, he never got his happy ever after and I was sad when the Queen died, she was the only monarch in my life time but its an appropriate small bit of sadness, no mass hysteria. It's a part of history.

I remember when the Queen Mum died, and seeing comments in a newspaper. Someone had said they had never met her but she was like a Mum to him and he was devastated. Total over reaction.

My sadness at celebrity deaths is no different to feeling sad for a friend who has lost someone. It doesn't really affect you but you feel a level of sadness about it and empathy for their loved ones.

@allitdoesisrain yes internet existed but most people didn't have it at home and it wasn't like it is today, with options to stream whatever you want and completely opt out of what is being broadcast on the tv.

Internet was a lifesaver during the 12 days after the Queen died, with the constant repetitive dirge being broadcast by the BBC/ITV - having the ability to put Netflix on was something we didn't have in the days after Diana. We were still largely all watching/consuming the same content as each other, which helped to build a more shared mood within the nation.
Newspapers and mainstream media were still very important in setting that mood.

I agree @MagentaRocks to some extent - celebrities by their very nature form part of our lives and some people create emotional associations with them, so to me it’s logical that you’d feel sad at their death because that part of your life doesn’t exist any more, also when they’ve had a nasty and/or tragic death (Amy Winehouse, Heath Ledger) there’s an extra helping of empathetic pain. But I would say maybe a little cry on the day of their death and/or funeral is about as far as I would stretch it. Screaming and reaching for a coffin, particularly in front of two devastated young boys who funnily enough managed to hold it together, or saying the Queen Mother was “like your mum” are both very OTT.

@BIossomtoes Waiting lists were a fraction of the levels of the last decade

Were you on a waiting list during the Bliar years? I was, for well over two years.

As for the Iraq War: who knows what would have happened under a different government? You can only judge what did actually happen.

My memory is not faulty. You and I, however, clearly had different experiences, rather than memory fails.

I’ve provided you with the statistics. Data trumps anecdote. We know what would have happened in the Iraq war under a different government because its leader told us - I gave you a link for that too.

@SwooningCamille waiting lists were much shorter during the Blair years, even if it was just for emergency/semi-emergency stuff. For example, my sister had an autoimmune disease and had a lot of ear infections etc when she was little (thankfully it has resolved). She was seen within hours - and I mean 2-4 hours - each time she went to hospital with an ear infection.

These days I’ve waited over 20 hours in A&E, vomiting blood and curled up on the floor sometimes, before even getting a trolley. My grandad’s been held in an ambulance with a suspected heart attack for nearly as long. I’m on a months-long waiting list for treatment I REALLY need - as in for chronic problems which might disable or kill me. This is in the area with one of the best if not the best resources and staffing in the country, huge teaching hospital etc. Just anecdata though. Even if you want to just blame Covid, which, go ahead if you want, waiting lists have got longer.

I didn't mean it was manufactured as in the images were edited or anything like that. I just meant it felt as though it was completely out of step with previous high profile deaths and the UK response to them. It felt 'manufactured' in the sense it was whipped up by the media and had no conceivable precedent.
I was in my early 20s. I couldn't understand it at all. And even my DM who was always sympathetic to Diana didn't shed a tear or buy a flower or stand in the street. I don't know anyone who did. But we're in Scotland and it was one of the first points where I realised London and possibly England are just completely different. I do wonder if there was a further community/area divide in England too regarding how people responded.
I thought it was awful that terrible, dramatic, mawkish people were calling for the Queen and the boys to return to London. It was so intrusive. And again that campaign felt as though it was whipped up by the media and certain politicians. imo the RF should have stayed in Scotland with the boys rather than pandering to the grief vultures in the streets and in the media.

I didn't watch the funeral as then and now I feel I only ever want to be at one in person if at all. I spent the morning on a local beach, met a few dog walkers, and sat quietly in the village church for a few minutes.

My main feeling was for two children whose mother had died.

than what?

All we ever knew (and still know) is what we are fed by all the publicity machines , from both her, the palace, and anyone else in the media

No one knows (except people around her) what she was really like, maybe she was a twat, maybe she wasnt

She did do a lot of good works, land mines, aids etc

so sorry

I found the whole thing ridiculous at the time and still do.

I also felt the same about the death of the queen. I didn’t know either of them personally and this hysterical grief over the death of a person with a carefully curated public image just leaves me shaking my head. We have no idea what they are really like. Just what the media and their advisors want us to know

The hysteria was weird. I was 20, still living at home with my parents, my sister came and woke me up with the news.

Only time I got tearful was the funeral, and the card saying 'mummy', because it was sad that the two boys lost their mother and that meant more than all the Princess crap.

It was actually my friends 21st birthday. He was told by many people that he should cancel his party a few days later out of respect.

Um…nope!

Absolutely crazy.

I was also told that I should (should, ffs), be upset as I lost my mum at 12 so I should have empathy. I didn’t know them. I didn’t care about their feelings. Cold and heartless apparently. Righto, then.