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 heard my dad telling my mum and I thought no I must have misheard. So I turned on my radio and of course found out it was true.

Also in France on holiday - woke up wondering whether I could speak perfect French overnight before realising the news on the TV was in English. French people were saying 'we are sorry for your loss' all day to us. In hindsight very pleased not to have been in UK caught up in the grief.

It was definitely the Sunday morning.

Could it be the day of the funeral you had the two weddings @IveChanged? That was the following Saturday

Woke up with a hangover, put the radio on and so groggy I couldn't work out who they were talking about as they just kept mentioning she and her, but no name. Thought it might be Maggie Thatcher who'd died.

Away with friends in Leicestershire. Someone put the tv on before we went to bed to check football scores on Ceefax as news of the crash started breaking. Very sad.
In the morning we went for a swim then breakfast in the resort restaurant, and it was surreal because it was obvious that most people hadn’t yet heard the news.
On the way home we passed near Althorp House and left flowers at the police cordon. Really not sure why, looking back. I think it was my first experience of a mass hysteria gripping the country and wanting to feel part of it. I went up to KP later in the week too. The entire period was surreal.

Id been out on the piss and got horrendously drunk and collapsed at a friends house. She woke me up the next morning to say Diana had died. I had a shocking hangover and thought she was joking. We spent the rest of the morning watching tv.

I was in St Lucia and got married th next day. A lot of the locals stayed up to watch the funeral

Definitely Sunday August 31st 1997. It was my now husband's 30th birthday. At the time we lived right near Northolt and could watch the TV coverage and RAF Northolt simultaneously.

I was in a nightclub. It was all very surreal.

Lying in bed, downstairs from me was a bit deaf and her tv was blaring (unusually) at 1am and i caught a few words then turned my tv on

Nurse here - I had just finished a night shift and was on the couch with tea and toast when it came on the telly .

Also in Aussie, we had been painting a house and went home to tidy up. I was pregnant with my first born.

Heard about the accident on the car radio, put the telly on as soon as we got in.

i remember there was huge debate whether she had just broken something and was in surgery or if it was more serious. It seemed to seesaw back and forth.

then it was quickly announced she had died…

I was woken up by my clock radio playing Albatross by Fleetwood Mac.

My initial thought was the Queen had died.

Feeding my first dc on a Sunday morning. DH had gone to his hobby, I walked dc in his pram to DH in floods of tears. I don’t think the hormones helped.

I worked at Asda at the time, had an early 8am start. I always got up around 6am, got the kids things ready for XH to take them to their grandparents, so I heard the news fairly early.

Got to work and it was all anyone was speaking about.

I was visiting a friend in London and my dh phoned to tell us that Diana had died. We went to Kensington Palace but felt it was pretty disturbing with people laying flowers and sobbing so we went for lunch.

I was 7. I woke up and went to my parents room and my mum was really crying. My dad told me Diana had died and I was nonplussed. I remember it being all over the papers at the shop as well.

Fwiw my mum isn't particularly a royalist nor was she especially fond of Diana, so I don't know why she was so emotional!

In bed asleep. Woke up to my younger sibling yelling like a town crier "Di and Dodi dead!, Di and Dodi dead!"

I got up and saw that there was only news on all the channels

Living in London and got a call from my Boss early that morning ( i was a Nanny). She said Dodi had been killed but that Diana was injured . My Bosses worked for a major American news channel and had to leave for work immediately so i hotfooted it to their house to babysit!
A bit later i heard that Diana had died. It was a busy few weeks as obviously major non stop news!

In Australia also. That’s how I remember it… they were saying she had broken her arm for ages then suddenly the ticker tape changed and it said she had died.

In bed. My mum came in my bedroom early morning and said Diana had died!!

We were staying in a holiday cottage in the Dordogne. We’d been out for day, and got back to the cottage around 5 pm. The owner came running out, saying

”Leddy D is dead!”

It took me a few moments to work out, who Leddy D was! There was wall to wall coverage on French TV, with talk of a conspiracy theory that the Royal Family had her killed!

The next day, we were due to drive to Paris. We got lost in Central Paris, and drove down the tunnel by mistake. I would never have driven down there at that speed, given the way it curves on the way down!

We got home the day after the funeral. We drove up the M1 and saw bouquets of flowers everywhere on the embankments!

I was a teenager, we’d been drinking the Saturday night and had several friends stay over at mine. My bedroom was the dormer room of a terraced house. We put the radio on when we woke Sunday morning and heard the news. We were all so shocked, we hung out of the window shouting out to passers by, Princesses Diana is dead. Looking back was very random and strange thing to do but we were kids really. A friend and I spoke about it not longer ago saying how random we were.

In a taxi, changing drinking venues - would have been very late ( as in middle of night / early morning) and was breaking news on the radio.