It’s been almost 21 years since Diana, Princess of Wales died in a car crash in Paris. William and Harry’s mother, and Charles’ former wife, remains firmly in the hearts of the Brits who so admired her.
She was loved for her compassion and her efforts to connect with people incredibly different to her, particularly those in need of help. So Lady Diana Spencer will no doubt be remembered all over the world on the anniversary of the day she died.
But how old was she, and how will the Royal Family be marking the anniversary? Diana would have been 57 on July 1, 2018 and this date is a chance to celebrate her life.
The fatal car crash in the early hours of August 31, 1997 came just less than two months after Diana’s 36th birthday. She was with her lover Dodi Fayed in the hired car, which was being pursued by paparazzi photographers on motorbikes. Neither of them was wearing a seatbelt and they died in the crash inside the Pont de l’Alma underpass.
They’d been holidaying on Fayed’s family yacht in the French Riviera and were making their way back to London via Paris. Driver Henri Paul was found to have been under the influence of alcohol and drugs but blame was also placed on the paparazzi.
At the time, William was 15 and Harry was 12. A monument called the Flame of Liberty was constructed in her memory in Paris, and people still leave messages to her there. In London’s Green Park and also in Hyde Park, there are Princess Diana memorials. Both her sons are married and Prince William has three children to look.
Brits are, as always, invited to remember the anniversary privately or to leave tributes at Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace.