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(CNN) – In 1995, two years before Diana, the Princess of Wales, died in a car accident in Paris, she said in a television interview that she would like to be queen. But she was not referring to the British monarchy that she had married. I wanted to be the queen of people’s hearts.
In the 23 years since his death on August 31, 1997, it has become clear how well he fulfilled that hope. Each August, tributes arrive to celebrate his life and legacy, one that valued authenticity over protocol and humanity over prestige.
She used her fame to raise awareness for a number of causes, from leprosy to domestic violence to mental health. She made headlines in 1987 when she intentionally shook the hand of an AIDS patient, in a job that sought to dispel the myth that HIV / AIDS can be spread through touch. And in the months leading up to her death, she used the media spotlight and set her sights on the dangers of landmines in Angola.
She was, in the words of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, “the people’s princess.”
“People felt a kinship with her”
When Blair used that phrase in a speech after Diana’s death, he was searching for words to help a nation mourn a surprisingly sudden loss.
The Princess of Wales had finalized her divorce from Prince Charles in 1996, but intense media scrutiny still followed her when she went on vacation the following summer with her boyfriend Dodi Fayed. Just after midnight on August 31, a Mercedes carrying Diana and Fayed crashed into a tunnel not far from the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The accident killed Diana, Fayed, and their driver, Henri Paul.
The news reached the royal family while they were in Scotland at Balmoral Castle. Within hours, Prince Charles flew to Paris to retrieve Diana’s body before returning to Balmoral to be with the married couple’s children: Prince William and Prince Henry.
“The immediate reaction of the royal family was to say: ‘We must regroup and protect the children; there will be formalities to follow, but that’s what we do, “said author Jonathan Dimbleby on CNN’s original series on the royal family” The Windsors. “
“Carlos’s priority was those boys. I was desperately worried about them, “adds biographer Penny Junor.
At 15 and 12 years old, Guillermo and Enrique “were at a very tender and difficult age… this was the most shocking, terrible and frightening thing that happened to them.”
When television broadcasts began reporting on the fatal accident, the royal family issued a brief statement that they were “deeply shocked and distraught” by the news.
But “for this grieving population, it seemed like nothing,” remembers historian Kate Williams in “The Windsor.”
As the hours passed, with notoriously reserved Britons in open mourning, all eyes were on Buckingham Palace making a larger gesture or statement, to establish a connection, the way Diana had always been able to. do.
“People got very excited about Diana because she had an extraordinary connection to everyone,” says Anji Hunter, Blair’s former adviser, on the CNN series. ‘People felt a kinship with her; it was as if your beloved friend, mother, sister, had died.
And from the public’s perspective, the queen and her house were being too quiet.
“I think the audience was expecting the queen to lead the morning,” Junor says. And she didn’t.
Capturing the pain of a country
This growing criticism entered Prime Minister Blair, himself with only four months in office. In his autobiography, he remembers being very aware of the pain and anger that began to radiate among the public.
The Palace’s response “was very faithful to protocol, but did not take into account the fact that people don’t give a damn about protocol,” he wrote, according to the BBC. Blair said her role was “to protect the monarchy, channel anger before it turned into rage, and generally make the whole thing emerge in a positive and unifying way rather than being a source of tension, division and bitterness”.
Blair took notes for his now famous speech on the back of an envelope, with the guidance of his communications leader Alastair Campbell.
Once Blair took the mic, he shared the emotion that the audience was looking for. “I feel like everyone else in this country today, completely devastated,” he said of Diana’s death. She was a wonderful and warm human being. Although her own life was often sadly affected by tragedy, she touched the lives of many others, in Britain and around the world, with joy and consolation … She was the princess of the people, and that is how she will remain forever. our hearts and in our memories, forever «.
Reflecting on the phrase “the people’s princess” in her book, Blair said it “seems like something from another era, corny and over the top.”
Yet it’s hard to argue with how well he captured Diana’s legacy, particularly at the time, says journalist Richard Kay in “The Windsor.”
“He coined this wonderful phrase about the village princess and it struck a chord,” says Kay. “It seemed to sum up the feelings of a country in a paralysis of pain and shock in a way that the Queen did not.”
The queen responds
Before Diana’s funeral, Queen Elizabeth II responded to an audience demanding that the royal family somehow show they cared.
On live television, he addressed his subjects as a “queen and as a grandmother,” and singled out Diana as an “exceptional and talented human being.” And at the funeral, the queen took another step to pay tribute.
“The queen bows down to no one, ever,” said historian Jane Ridley on the CNN series. And yet, as the funeral procession passed Buckingham Palace, the queen was seen at the front, “bowing to her daughter-in-law.”
