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.

I was watching a film on tv when the news came in at night that’s she’d been in an accident. My memory of it was it said a leg injury. With hindsight, I must have misheard head injury. I went to sleep. I never checked for footage of the nighttime announcement, did they really say head/leg injury? But that’s how I remember it. I can’t remember what film it was either.

We woke up to the news after a night at Ministry of Sound - lay in bed watching the news coverage and then made our way up to Kensington later in the evening to lay flowers. I will never forget it, it was so incredibly eerie / atmospheric. A huge wave of sadness outside the palace

I lived quite close to my mum and had a front door key .
I woke up and heard the news and felt the need to converse with someone about it so rather than phone her walked to her house , let myself in found she was still in bed so woke her to tell the news .

I didn't find out until the evening because I hadn't had the TV or radio on, or spoken to anyone all day. My then-partner told me when he got back from work. I had a lot of catching up to do.

It was about 7.30am on Sunday 31 August and my then husband was up to go cycling. He had the tv on and that is when we saw the breaking news. We first thought it was the Queen Mother who had died.

I was sitting on the living room floor eating my cereal with my brother and my mum put the news on. I remember how solemn everyone was over the week following her death, the first time I had seen a whole country mourn.

I think you may be right.
I woke up that Sunday morning to Radio4 (another with a clock radio) talking about a royal death. I assumed it was the Queen Mother at first, then realised it was Diana.
I rang my mother later who was one of those people who says they never sleep. Ever!
She was obviously pleased* to have proof of the fact that she had been awake in the early hours and she said the initial report had been that Dodi was dead but that Diana had just broken her leg.

*Pleased to have proof of being awake, not pleased that someone had died, obviously.

Getting petrol in a garage in Bermuda. The petrol attendant said “do you know what Diana’s done now?” - I didn’t believe him. Then I heard him say to someone else “I’ve just told that woman and she’s in shock”.

In bed, now exdh was at work, he rang me and said you’d better put the tv on, Diana’s dead.

I was getting ready to walk my dog with a friend. I didn't have the tv or radio on and the friend called to say she was on her way and told me the news. Obviously we had house phones then, not mobiles, and I remember standing there with the handset in my hand in sheer disbelief.

How the world has changed in 29 years. It doesn't seem that long ago it happened, but Diana died in a time when a mobile phone was a luxury item, not an everyday object. She was a hounded woman. Think how much worse her life would have been with today's technology.

I was doing my paper round! - goodness that takes me back, I must have been young. One of the older couples I delivered to lived in the upstairs part of a house that had been converted in to two flats, so their front door was always open and I would go in and upstairs to take the papers into their kitchen - they had the news on the TV so I remember walking in with their papers and seeing it on the news / having a chat with them.

In bed, watching the news briefly then turning it off thinking "be prepared for total media overload and mass hysteria for the coming couple of months".

Thank you for confirming that. All these years! I remember being shocked in the morning that she’d died when it had been only a leg injury. I should try and find out what film we were watching too :)

I recall the initial mention of a broken leg as well.

My ex was up very early for work and heard it on the radio so he came and woke me up. I was in shock. However, we had been ttc for two years and I was ovulating so we dtd before he left for work. I remember feeling horribly guilty about that.

On a positive note I did conceive and our DS was born the following May.

We put the tv on and it said a princess had died and we (DP then and I) said oh it must be princess Margaret-obvs huge shock. I remember in the week after being on the train and some blokes were complaining about all the coverage, and I was quite angry with them. It was such a huge thing.

Dd was about 3 months old and I'd had a bad-ish night with her (she just wouldn't settle)

I was just dozing off when my ex's sister burst in (no knocking in their house) screaming 'Diana's dead!'

'I don't know a Diana'

'You do-princess Diana!'

'Who?'

Took me a few minutes to work out who she meant in my sleepy state and I do remember being shocked

My mate popped round a few hours later,moaning that 'they'd cancelled live and kicking'

The mourning seemed to go on forever-there seemed to be queues everywhere to sign a book of memory to her/newspapers with headlines about her/the news on the TV seemed to be all about her for ages

I remember getting the pram stuck (not long after) behind a queue of people waiting to write in a book of remembrance and having to walk the long way round and being late for the dentist

My father moaned about 'her always being the first piece on the news' for ages after (he hates the royals)

With my ex-husband who was yet to turn into an abusive bastard 10 days later when I had our dd. He shook me awake in the early hours to tell me and we watched tv in disbelief.

The children came to tell me the TV was broken as every channel (of 4) was showing the news and they couldn’t find Teletubbies

I had just got up and was walking down the stairs and my mum told me princess Diana had died.

My father moaned about 'her always being the first piece on the news' for ages after (he hates the royals)

I can remember my then 5 year old DS complaining about the same thing. There was nothing on the TV for the entire week leading up to the funeral apart from Diana tributes. Immediately after the funeral they showed “Free Willy” and DS said “I’m fed up of all this stuff about Diana now” and I asked what Free Willy had to do with Diana and he said “Well she was the Princess of Whales!” 😂

I’d been at a rave all night and was trying to sneak back into the house without being seen at around 8am. As I got to the top of the stairs my mum came out of her room in her dressing gown and told me Princess Diana had died.

@PermanentTemporary must be Russell Grant.

Visiting parents in Surrey. A friend phoned and was put out that it was on his birthday 😮

i had got up and into the bathroom when my now-DH knocked on the bathroom door to tell me the news, as he had turned on the TV. We watched the rolling coverage on TV most of the day. I lived off Kensington High Street and it was very strange when we went for a walk in the afternoon. Barkers of Kensington and other shops were closed out of respect. I felt too uncomfortable to go up to Kensington Palace - as if I was gawking - but did go along to see the flowers and tributes after work several days later. For the funeral I spent the weekend and watched with my parents outside of London, again because I felt uncomfortable being nearby.