When did British people feel like Princess Diana’s death was a long time ago?

[Femusia]

How long after Princess Diana’s death, did it take for people to view her death as historical rather than recent?

Like how now, Diana is constantly brought up as a figure from the past and it seems like the notion of her being dead is so normal since it’s been so long.

But, when did that happen instead of her death being seen as fresh in people’s memory and the notion of “I can’t believe she’s not here anymore” still prevailing?

Odd question. I think it subsided into the past at the same rate as any other public event.

It is completely bizarre how a new generation has prodded the event into some sort of zombie afterlife, just as a way of acting out their media-fuelled OBSESSION with the still-living members of that soap opera family.

There seem to be quite a lot of threads asking 'how british people' feel about the royal family - which I always imagine come from US posters. It makes me think that americans give several more fucks about that dysfunctional family than the average Brit.

I lost my Grandad 3 weeks after Diana died, that feels a lifetime ago but Princess Diana's death feels like maybe 4 or 5 years ago, it's like all the other major events like Hillsborough, Dunblane, Hungerford, Lockerbie, they will never go away & while they still keep on popping up on the news & in dramas will never be forgotten.

Odd question. It was 29 years ago. That's a long time and is historical fact.

However, there do seem to be some people who will never let it go.

It's nearly 30 years ago.

I studied WW2 at school in the 80s, similar number of years before. Most of my colleagues are either too young to remember it or weren't even born when she died, ergo it IS history.

It feels like yesterday to me,my husband died 6weeks after Diana.

By about 2005 or so.

I move on from things quite quickly.

I think Covid was ages ago. 🤷‍♀️

My mother died 11 years ago. I recall at her 10 year commenting that 10 years is a long time.

I think the same about Dianas death around 10 years people stat thinking it is a long time ago

I was pregnant with my first child. Said child is now an adult and married. A entire generation has grown up since Diana died. That is a long time.

The equivalent distance of time in 1997 as between now and 1997 was 1968, when The Beatles released The White Album. To me in 1997 that was so remote as to feel like another planet; I’d never even lived in a world where John Lennon was alive! So I think that we safely say that her death is genuinely historical now.

As an evil boomer, I am old enough to remember that day. My first reaction on hearing the news was 'Why have you woken me up to tell me that! Go back to bed', in my defence, it was very early on a Sunday morning and I couldn't have cared less at silly'o'clock. I found the hysteria in the days following so amusing, all the newspapers who had been critical of her were suddenly worshipping her and whipping up anger among the crowds performing outside BP. Many had been critical of HM The Queen because she allegedly put her role as monarch ahead of her family, yet when she put her family, her heartbroken grandsons, first she was wrong, she should have been in London to comfort the whining hoards. One had to be very brave to not be a Diana worshipper!

Since this question is in "active" ....

It was no more impactful than the death of Elvis, or murder of John Lennon.

I found the hysteria in the days following so amusing,

I found it absolutely incomprehensible and slightly sinister. It was like I'd woken up and found myself on an alien planet. It really was not a good idea to call it 'hysteria' out loud but that was what it was. It was practically state mandated "you have to weep and wail for Diana even if you don't feel grief at all"; and the reverse ferret by all the papers who'd been criticising her for her holidays and not seeing her sons for weeks was nauseating.

edited for meaning

Have you moved on from wondering what Brits thought Australians thought about Cool Britannia?

Exactly this. I’d just moved to the UK from my home country about a week after her death, and I thought the place had lost its mind.

I was in my twenties….now I’m 52! ….I feel thats a significant passage of time.

I feel it's still pretty recent even though it wa 20 years ago

You do have unusual questions.

For those who were not born, or young it will seem historical.
For those who were much older it will seem more recent.
But it is 30years ago, so around half a lifetime ago for me.

It isn't really a 'when' thing is it? It is a continuous decline.

In 1974 the end of the war seemed very historical to me when I was taken to Remembrance Day parades.
It is about the same time now to Diana's death.

Maybe it depends on how old you were. I was a child when Diana died and I'm middle aged now so that feels like a significant amount of time to me. I don't know if it would be the same if I'd been an adult.

My baby is nearly 30 now, so that makes me realise is was a long time ago. Tbh, it still doesn't feel like it was though - Diana is still constantly talked about, so it still feels recent in many ways.

I think the reaction in the country was shock more than anything else. No one saw that coming and it felt scary that a woman in her position could have such an awful thing happen to her. The details of how she died added to a sense of fury and sadness and injustice, I think. Those are things that the population cared about, even those who weren't massive royalists or Diana fans. It was a very odd time - I remember thinking it felt like a Victorian mourning period - all dirge music on the radio and constant coverage on tv.

Obviously, since it's actually 29 years ago. It'll be 30 next year hence all the hoo-hah.
Like TeenToTwenties it was nearly half my lifetime ago. A lot more important things, imo, have happened during that time, including things personal to me and my family.
I remember hearing the news on the radio but the one thing I remember most was one of the consultants coming in to work after the funeral and saying he was going to buy the music.
It seemed odd because he was a very cultured man and Elton's hastily rewritten "Candle in the Wind" didn't seem his cup of tea at all.
Turned out he meant the John Taverner.

30 years omg!

For me it's the image of those boys following the coffin that stays with me. Whenever I look at Harry, I can't help but feel affection for him, even though I dont know him

We are as far from 9/11 today as we were from Pearl Harbour when I was born(ish) The end of "the war" was even closer to my birth.

What about William?

There were 2 boys following the coffin.

William too, handsome guy that he is

Apparently they do.

It is completely bizarre how a new generation has prodded the event into some sort of zombie afterlife,

Imagine if that had happened with other events. Like the murder of JFK, for example ?