Just for the memories- where were you / what were you doing when you heard Diana had died?

[MarchionessVonSausage]

The thread about Earl Spencer's book made me think of this.

I'm Australian, the news came through early on a weekend morning, a Sunday I think. I was 22 and driving to pick up a girlfriend who'd had a disastrous night and ended at some random guy's house in the city. When she got in the car she was exhausted and still half pissed. I told her the news and she passed out. I took her home to bed.

She called me later saying "I dreamt Princess Diana died" and I told her to turn on the tv. Ah, memories of youth.

Have you seen that video of a group of American men who had a camcorder filming as the news was breaking. I think her death is announced about halfway through

I'd been busy all day with my two small DC, and was also 38 weeks pregnant with DS3. I hadn't put on the TV all day and of course there was no internet, so I didn't know a thing until my DM called around 7pm and asked if I'd seen the news. I hadn't, and was totally shocked. Diana was only three years older than me.

A week later I wanted to go to London to be in the crowd for her funeral procession. DH, most unlike him, absolutely put his foot down and wouldn't let me go. I'm very stubborn but I accepted he was right; I was 39 weeks at that stage. DS3 was born a couple of days later. I'll never forget it. DS3 has just turned 29 and I always think about Diana at this time.

I was at home in labour with a planned home birth. The midwife came around 3am and told me about the accident. I then heard on the radio that she'd died. I ended up delivering in hospital after 9pm that day and had to stay in for 4 nights. The only thing on tv was relentless Diana coverage.

On my way home with friends from an all-night rave, stopped at the garage for petrol and supplies and saw the devastating news on the front page of every newspaper. It was a very quiet somber journey home after that.

I was between flats so living back home on my parents couch. I’d been working in a pub the night before so still sleep deprived when my dad woke me up early morning with the TV on telling me that Diana had died. ‘Did she step on a land mine’ was my first response. She had been on the news in the months before campaigning against land mines.

on the day of her funeral my boyfriend and I had a close friends massive wedding to attend. In the hairdressers in the morning they had a wee portable TV set up in the salon so everyone could watch.

I was at a party at a club back home, overseas/ global South. Everyone was shocked, but life went on.

I was 16, had been out at the pub the night before. My dad came in about 6:30am and said Diana has died, and I said 'who's Diana?' Then I got up, very hungover, (but soon came around) as I sat watching the news with my dad.

Beautiful sunny morning, lying in my sunny bedroom in my favourite pjs, Mum moving around downstairs. I was just thinking about getting up when my dad got in from fetching the paper and I heard him say that our neighbour had told him that Dodi and Diana had died. This seemed quite unbelievable, so I got up and I don't remember the rest. Must have just turned on the TV. I do remember phoning my sister a short while later and she hadn't heard. I told her and she was really, really shocked. I think she didn't believe it was real either, and I remember telling her to turn on the TV.

It's funny to remember how she was just everywhere back then. On so many magazine covers, newspaper front pages, news items on the TV and radio. You'd go into WHSmith and her face would be on so many of the publications. And since our visual media was limited to print and TV, her presence seemed so large because she was effectively taking up a large percentage of the available media space. And she had been SUCH a big presence, always generating headlines, whether it was walking near landmines, destigmatising AIDS, taking her boys to homeless shelters like Centrepoint, doing engagements, appearing in glittering dresses and jewels at evening events, doing her book, her interviews, not to mention the years of drama around her marriage and the famous love triangle.

I think her big presence in British life and the British psyche was the reason people simply could not believe what they were hearing.

Was odd when she was gone. No more of her magic sparkling all over the media. British public life became a lot duller. If only, if only she'd worn her seatbelt that evening. ☹️

I was in bed and still awake in the early hours on the Sunday morning and had the radio on and heard that Diana had been injured in a car crash in Paris. I then fell asleep. When I woke up the next morning I immediately put the radio for further news of the accident and was in total shock that she was dead. I then phoned my Mum, as you do.

I couldn't understand how the accident could have happened because I assumed that her chauffeur would be as professional and highly trained as royal protection drivers. It never occurred to me that Al Fayed would be too tight to employ professional highly trained chauffeurs.

I've seen that once before. I think it really captures the utter shock that people felt - and these folk weren't even British! But it's a great example of how the world reacted. That shriek and the way the entire atmosphere changed, and the way they totally forgot their game and went to the TV. The shock you see here is basically how everyone felt. She was simply larger than life, and it seemed utterly unbelievable that she could suddenly be gone,

Middlesex is a historic county 🤷‍♀️

I was heavily pregnant and struggling to sleep.
My husband was on call and had to go into work very early. He brought me a cup of tea and said he had some terrible news. I then spent all day watching the TV and feeling utterly miserable.
My friend gave birth on the day of her funeral.

Went to visit MIL in hospital. Had driven up a few hours from London without the radio on and had no idea. Walked into her room and she was in tears, then she told us.

What an odd reaction from your friend's mum.

Sleeping.
There had been a shift in the public's view because of all the jet setting around and I remember a radio 5 broadcaster saying just before the accident that he wished she'd just bugger off (or something to that effect). Felt a little bit of pity for him afterwards because he must have felt terrible.

My sister and I were watching Rugrats on Nickelodeon and a message came up saying “please turn over for an important announcement from Buckingham Palace”. We were miffed. My mother thought the Queen Mother must have died.

I remember this shift in public and media attitude towards her too.
I remember wondering if all the people who had recently started turning against her regretted it when her death was announced.
Those born after 1997 won't realise that she was being widely criticised in the months before her death.

We had been out to dinner at friends, parents of our DDs, a rare event for us to be up so late. When we got home I put the bedroom tv on for the news while I got ready for bed, fell asleep with the tv still on and woke some hours later to full coverage.

DD had a paper round and the headlines were full of it. I remember being in shock and feeling really emotional. I don’t know to this day why it affected me so much as I wasn’t particularly a Diana fan, I think I caught the mood of the nation which was encouraged by the very sombre tone of the news coverage.

I remember being convinced that the papers were in some way responsible, I completely bought the chased by paparazzi narrative. I was a lot more naive then.

My parents were awake and told me there had been an accident and Dodi had died. At this point Diana was seriously injured. Spent the day and evening glued to the tv. I just remember thinking how awful it must be for her two young sons. We had always followed William's life as he is only a week older than my brother.

I was on the loo in my friend’s Edinburgh flat after a big night out. She knocked on the door and said, ‘Diana’s dead. Do you want a cup of tea?’ We sat and watched the news for a while before going into town for lunch and then we went to the cinema to see The Full Monty.

I found the hysteria and endless coverage surrounding her death to be utterly bizarre. She has been elevated to something approaching sainthood by the press yet during her life they were very often scathing about her. It was a shocking and dramatic death, and devastating, of course, for her two boys, but the whole hoopla around the funeral and procession, with people throwing flowers at the hearse, etc. was utterly bizarre.

What? It’s a county. It’s like saying ‘I was at home in Cornwall.’ What an odd thing to (try to…) pull someone up on.

Also, even if they’re correct, saying ‘you do realise…’ at the beginning of a sentence usually makes someone sound like a bit of a dick. Saying it when they’re actually wrong, well…

Listening to the radio in bed after having friends in for supper

It was a weekend morning I was at home with my boyfriend hanging out in my bedroom and my mum came in and told us. I got upset and my boyfriend mocked me. I was 16 at the time.

In Paris at the start of a backpacking around Europe holiday.