To ask if any of you went to London for Princess Diana's funeral?

[ewenice]

Just watching a documentary about the week following Princess Diana's death and the overwhelming outpouring of grief that crossed the country. We were living overseas at the time so had no idea of the effect it had.

Did anyone on here go down to London during that week for the funeral or to sign the condolence books?

I found the whole thing embarrassingly over-emotional. I thought the Queen Mother's funeral far more dignified and moving, even though I didn't like her.

My dad dropped dead suddenly a few months before Diana. I remember vividly feeling like everyone was grieving for Diana, and no-one gave a shit about me or my family. I didn’t watch the funeral.

Mumsnet is so weird about Diana. Where were all these dissenters when the country was grieving? Absolutely nowhere. Virtually everyone was caught up in it. It’s very fashionable now to say you were stone cold unmoved by it all. In reality hardly anyone was at the time.

My boys are a similar age to the Princes, so I just thought of their loss. We were moving house at the time had builders in for the next year when I finally unpacked all the stuff I had carefully wrapped in newspaper was of her death and funeral.

After this tragedy I have had a distaste of the media and their chasing of famous people.

People on here always say how pathetic and weird the whole thing was but it's hard to describe the utter shock that so many felt. I was on holiday in Cornwall with then DP and we went to the site shop to stock up and it was all over the first editions that she'd been in a car crash. As we stood there reading the woman working in the shop said she had just heard on the radio that Dianna had died. It felt incomprehensible that someone who was so central in the public eye had died like that and it was very hard to take in. I wasn't gutted or anything but it was surreal. I think nowadays we have the internet and everything is reported so fast and there is always something shocking coming out plus there are so many more celebrities to share attention amongst.

It’s fashionable to be cynical about it now and easy to forget how iconic she was. I went to the BBC newsroom the day after her interview with Martin Bashir and the clippings following that weighed 9lb - yes, they did weigh them.

The week between the accident and the funeral was weird, the whole country was subdued and quiet. The funeral cortège was literally the only traffic on the M1.

What’s the documentary called, OP?

Agree @TinklyLittleLaugh.

I thought the way everyone was braying for the royal family to prostrate themselves in public was obsene. Harry and William should have been allowed to stay at Balmoral with their father to come to terms with their loss before making a private entrance to the funeral. Blair calling her the ‘people’s princess’ and saying it was an example of people power; it was mob rule by an hysterical mob.

I was 8 months pregnant, I wasnt going anywhere, but wouldnt have gone anyway as I dont particularly like crowds like that.
We watched it on tv, ds was nearly 2 and when the first showed the coffin at the gates of Kensington Palace, he looked up from playing on the floor and said "Bye, Bye" and then went back to playing. very weird at the time.

We went into central London the night before, I think, to walk around.

My parents thought it was worth visiting as it was a historic moment in its own way. I'm glad they did. It was very strange and sort of quiet, I remember that strangers were talking to each other and being nice and friendly, which just didn't happen usually.

I do think it's funny that no one ever admits to being part of it in retrospect. Statistically some people on Mumsnet must have felt sad at the time!

It was pretty hard to avoid, it was all over the papers and on the TV constantly for ages so it was hard to avoid being 'caught up in it' even if you had zero interest.

I agree with many others about it being an extraordinary time. I remember how quiet it was on the day after she died. My daughter was only a few weeks old and I had gone to stay with my mother. We spent most of the day inside watching the news on television. I also watched the funeral (on television).

I couldn't understand the public reaction. Of course it was sad, but I found the public displays of 'grief' from people who didn't know her at all very odd.

Nope, I was only 7 but the Royals weren't really a thing in my family. I remember a girl at school crying about it though and being a bit baffled.

Quite strangely, I live in America now and the first time I met DH's family and friends I had at least 3 people mention how sad they were when Diana died to me.... in 2014!!

Mind you, half of the gossip mags at the grocery store checkouts here have fake British Royal family stories on them- I've lost count of the number of affairs Charles and William are having. They're obsessed.

I remember going to visit my boyfriend the day of the funeral - buses were all empty. Didn’t watch the funeral and couldn’t be arsed with it - I was 16 at the time.
I admit though I do feel for William and Harry when it comes to their milestones - regardless of their privilege when it came to their weddings, birth of their children etc they’re still two men who miss their mum.

@TinklyLittleLaugh : The dissenters existed at the time too, but there was no point in saying so at the time. We just kept quiet. No point in upsetting and offending others.

I watched the film Evita a few months before, which has scenes about Eva Peron's funeral.

I remember thinking we'd never do that in the UK and then we did. It was like the country was in a state of suspended animation for a week. We actually went on holiday on the day of the funeral, and even the airport was quiet. Just bizarre.

No

But I remember the morning she died my dad came and woke me up at 6am to tell me and I was really hungover(I was 16 don’t judge!). I remember siting up in bed saying ‘who’s Diana?’ And he goes ‘get up come and see’. And he made me get up to go and watch the news.

I was sad, and I remember crying watching the funeral on tv, but I cried when they showed William and Harry. That’s what upset me. I couldn’t imagine losing one of my parents and the whole world watching me going to their funeral. That’s what got to me and made me upset.

As for the whole nation mourning- most of us didn’t personally know her. Yes it’s sad she died, as it is when anyone passes. But I personally couldn’t understand the whole ‘nation’ grieving like they did.

I’m not a royalist at all, but I found it very shocking and upsetting when she died. Poor woman was just getting a bit of happiness. She was in the news so much and had been since I was fairly young, that you really felt you almost knew her. I didn’t lay any flowers or go to London or Althorp or anything, but I did shed a few tears and watched the funeral on telly. I was also heavily pregnant with my DS1.

No. But then again I was about 7 weeks pregnant with awful morning" sickness

Nothing would have induced me to go. I did't know the woman why would I? Nor did I watch the funeral.

I found the whole mass hysteria, the weeping and wailing, that her death engendered completely bizarre tbh.

Everything else apart, surely it would have been kinder to allow her children to bury their mother in private instead of making them march along in front of all those gawping grief tourists on a day out.

I don't remember what I was doing the day of the funeral as I was only 5, but I do remember, my mums friends were down visiting us and I remember me and my mum coming into the living room and the friends were sitting in the living room staring at the tv with the news on and saying something to my mum and my mum just becoming quite upset. I was only 5 but I remember it was a weird day and a weird atmosphere in the house.

No. I had tickets to a gig in Nottingham that day and was really cross that all the shops were closed for half of the day. The gig went ahead thankfully but it just seemed ridiculous. We didn't have that carry on for other royal deaths.

I worked nearby so went to Kensington Palsce to see the flowers. I remember it being crowded with people but it was so silent

Mumsnet is so weird about Diana. Where were all these dissenters when the country was grieving? Absolutely nowhere. Virtually everyone was caught up in it. It’s very fashionable now to say you were stone cold unmoved by it all. In reality hardly anyone was at the time. How true.
MN is odd about death altogether. One must never show emotion or display tributes of any kind. The same coldness is displayed on any thread about roadside shrines. Ditto the reaction to Alfie Evans and Charlie Gard. Cold as ice.
I didn't go to Diana's funeral but I was shocked and saddened by her death. I remember hardened newsreaders delivering the news and barely stifling their emotion.

I remember when william and harry walked past behind the coffin looking so sad and looking like they really didn't want to be paraded around like that, not that I blame them

I didn't blame them either; for me, them being expected to do that walk was horrible

Wasn't it Alastair Campbell who claimed the idea was cooked up at least in part to protect Charles?