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.

Staying with friends at their house. Came downstairs on the Sunday morning to hear the National Anthem being played on the radio, and querying why. Then when we actually listened properly, hearing the news of the deaths.

I was at home in bed after we’d had a late night/early morning when we had a knock at the door from a delivery guy about 8am. He told dh about Diana but I don’t think we knew she’d died at this time. Got up immediately after that and was glued to the news on and off all day.

I stayed up late on the Saturday night and saw the initial reports on Ceefax about her being seriously injured. When I got upstairs I told my mum, who had just got up to use the loo. Next morning I woke up about 10ish and my mum told me she was dead.

Driving back late from a friends house
so heard one of the middle of the night reports.

Might have been one of the first news flashes .

I was on holiday in my home country, walked into town in the morning and bumped into a friend who told me what had happened. So I made my way to the nearest newsagent to buy a paper and there were still gossip magazines on display with photos of Diana and Dodi having fun on his yacht and the headline "your highness, how low have you sunk". The magazines stayed there until the next week's edition came out and all of a sudden, they changed their tune and she had turned into Saint Diana 🤷

I was in bed, my DC came into my bedroom and angrily said "Some woman's dead and there's nothing on telly".

I was staying at a guys house and his radio alarm clock went off on the morning

DH and I were having breakfast at our dining table and heard it on the news - I was pregnant with DC1 and eating a croissant with butter and apricot jam. No idea why I remember what I was eating so clearly.

Heard she had had an accident on the radio in a taxi coming back from a club at about 4am (how strange, what a different life I had) but they didn't say she had died until the morning.

We moved house that day so alarm went off early - some dirge music on radio and I thought the QM had died. Totally shocked to hear it was Diana.

I was in the shower in a house in the Auvergne. Someone shouted up the stairs that Diana had died. When I came down, we all watched the satellite channel English news report, said, 'Oh that's sad' and carried on with our holiday. (I'm a Republican.)

When I got back to England a week later I woke up on the Saturday thinking 'Right, off to the supermarket, dry cleaners, maybe get a haircut, etc...'. I walked to town and thought the Martians had invaded. Everything was closed, with cryptic messages on the doors saying 'Due to the circumstances, we're closed today'. I went home, turned on the TV, and realised that this was a BIG deal. Nothing to watch but the funeral, IIRC,

I wasn't a Diana fan; quite the opposite.

Sunday papers came and one headline said "Dodi dead, Di injured in car crash". I remember saying to my partner, "She'll milk this for all it's worth". Then put on the TV and saw the black ties and thought "oops"...

That's OK, I was surprised that my comment was interesting enough to respond to!

At home. DH was in bed and I was downstairs with DD1. I heard it on the radio and I remember calling up to DH.
Later that day I took DD over to a friends house. I remember she (my friend) was very underwhelmed by the news whereas I thought it was enormous.

I was 16 and when I got up, my mum told me she had bad news and I feared it must be about my elderly grandparents. So when she said, “Princess Diana has been killed” I was initially relieved, but very shocked. I imagined she’d been shot or something.

It turned out that my much younger sister had gone into my parents’ room early that morning after watching cartoons downstairs. When she told them that “Princess Idana” had died in a car crash, they didn’t believe her. It was all very shocking and surreal.

Indeed.
I'd been reading something the day before; in my memory it was a spoof "Cherie Blair's Diary", but I've tried looking it up since and can't find it. Sounds like something from Private Eye.
Anyway, one of the jokes about Diana was "If she was any thicker, you'd have to water her".
How things had changed by the next day!
One post-death article that stuck in my mind was Jeremy Clarkson saying he'd been "a little bit in love with her" 🙄

I was in the living room playing the piano. My mum came back from church and told me the news. I was only 16 so just kind of went okay. I knew who she was but hadn't really followed any of the divorce or what she was doing.

The weeks afterwards were crazy. We even studied the language of the news stories and Elton John's new Candle in the Wind in my English Language A Level classes.

i was in Paris. Everyone was talking about it at breakfast in the hotel (in French). All we could understand was the word Diana!

My mom moaned a lot as QVC just showed a black screen for a week.

Driving DD to work and radio was playing Chris De Burgh's Lady in Red, then Diana's death was announced when record finished.

I'd been out the night before .
My dad came and woke me up to tell me she had died. My mam was at work and sibling was spending the weekend away.
Me and my dad sat all day watching the tv.

Working as a reporter. Was called by my boss and told to get into the office asap at the point it was still just 'injured in an accident'.

i was 4or 5. And just got home from summer holiday and wanted to watch morning kids tv and the tv was black. Went to ask mum to sort the tv out and it was black in mourning of a lady I had never heard of before.

I remember her funeral more because i fell down the stairs in the house and i brought all my tea to have a tea party in the garden. Mum and dad were watching something miserable on the tv and sad.

Sitting on the floor of a 'Tesco' stacking toothpaste on a very long night shift. Heard she'd been injured, but didn't find out she had died until after the shift. My first thought?....those poor boys. How would they be told? Very sad.

My then husband was working on an IT contract up in Aberdeen, and I had gone up to see him for the weekend. We switched the tv on over breakfast and heard the news. I felt very sorry for her kids, I was the same age when I lost my dad.